The Register: Microsoft Welcomes UK Govt Open Source Policy

"Microsoft Corp has given a warm welcome to the UK government's recent open source software policy statement, indicating a further softening of the company's approach to its open source rivals.

"Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft appears to have a growing respect for the competitive threat posed by open source software, and has given a broad thumbs-up to the UK Office of Government Commerce's report, which promotes the use of open source software in local and national government institutions and public-sector organizations.

"'We welcome the policy statement in that it clearly states what the policy is,' said Mary-Anne Novitzkas, shared source manager for Microsoft UK. 'Nothing's really changed. It's quite a neutral policy but it means that we can now compete on merit and value.' While Microsoft's response to the policy may be the now-expected 'we value competition' response, it has also been helped by the OGC's softly-softly approach to open source..."

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The Register: UK Unveils Open Source Policy, May Make It 'Default' Option(Jul 23, 2002)