The coordination and advisory board (KBSt) [http://www.kbst.bund.de/] of
the Federal Government for information technology in the federal
administration has published a proposal [http://linux.kbst.bund.de/] to
use Open Source Software in the federal administration. The board sees
as possible fields of implementation of Free Software like the operating
systems Linux and FreeBSD servers and desktops. They're also pointing to
the possible savings : not only less license fees but also less hardware
costs as older hardware can be used because of the lesser need for
resources.
They have more argument for the use of Free Software. That are the
problems involved with the use of proprietary formats in commercial
applications. But also the higher security level which can be reached
with Open Software because of the possibility of audits and corrections.
From the past they know also of some "accidents" which have questioned
the trust in commercial hard- and software. Many problems which
prevented the use of Free Software in past have been solved already :
the installation of Free Software is nowadays as simple as the
commercial versions and education and support are sufficiently
available. Last but not least there is no dependency on suppliers.
"Very good that after France also Germany as European countries have seen
the light at the end of the (encrypted ?) tunnel :-).
