Japan Times: Gates Courts LDP Leadership over 'e-Japan' Deal

"The government plans to set up the project to replace most administrative paperwork with electronic filing and communication systems. Japan has stated that it aims to become an 'information technology nation' by 2005.

"Gates said he is willing to reveal the source code '100 percent. Everything that we do is available.' He was invited to the meeting with influential lawmakers at the LDP's headquarters.

"The government is also reportedly considering the Linux operating system, which is virtually free and open-sourced, meaning its code is open to anyone and continually improved by a worldwide army of programmers.

"It was after talk of Linux surfaced that Microsoft offered to reveal its source code..."

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• Japan Today: Gov't Considers Abandoning Microsoft Windows(Nov 18, 2002)