Estonian Informatics Centre has announced a public procurement for additional ID-card development to officially provide support for alternative platforms.

The development brings ID-card software to Mac OS and to the majority of the Linux distributions. For Linux EIC aims to get it into the installation packages.

"With this step the state clearly shows that ID-card and Mobile-ID should be a part of our everyday lives as is locking the doors if we step out," said EIC's representative Riho Oks. "ID-card should be accessible for all despite the skills of the person or the preferences on operating systems"

The development is just a part of the campaign towards improving the awareness of ID-card and Mobile-ID systems as well as providing the necessary equipment (e.g. card readers) for the entire public sector.

Estonian ID-card acts as a legitimate identification document and is widely used by Estonians as a travel document across EU. It can also be used and is highly recommended for online banking, public transport and signing the documents to name a few. Half of the population has the card.

The support for alternative platforms is currently provided by a third party (Ideelabor OÜ) as Open Source Software.