[ Thanks to Bruce
Edelsten for this link. ]
“In a radical move, France is close to passing a law that will
make open-source code obligatory for applications used by all of
its government computer systems. Since the French government spans
numerous industries from telecoms to utilities, railways,
publishing and health, it means that there is not very much going
on in the country that is not related at some level to
government-regulated software purchasing. If the new law is
passed and government agencies are required to use only free,
open-source software, that means game, set and match for Linux,
while Microsoft can pretty much pack up and go home.“
“A new body will be set up in the baguette country to oversee
compliance with the open-source law. This body will mean business:
when the French set up a compliance committee they really mean it.
They will typically put serious big cheeses on such a committee,
and give them teeth, along with enough money to make a difference.
It’s a way of working that comes naturally to the French –
bureaucracy is after all a French word, and they have always
claimed mastery of the domain.”
“All in all, the move promises quite an upheaval, and will lend
a surprise helping hand to the US Attorney-General, Janet Reno, in
her fight against Microsoft. I suspect that in her deepest dreams
she had not hoped for help from such an unlikely source, as the
French do not in general see the US government as anything even
remotely worth supporting. In this context, the sudden turnaround
by the French has raised a number of questions on both sides of the
Atlantic.”