“Linux should be used more in governments, right? With no
Microsoft tax being required and many fewer viruses, the taxpayers
would be saved some money and the government would run more
efficiently. Do I dare mention the possibility that Linux people
might be hired in greater numbers?“Well, this is what a bunch of us in Maryland thought. Our
goal–no one has accused us of thinking small–was to make Congress
use Linux. Our reasoning was Congress, our second branch of
government, can’t very well take steps to encourage open source and
free software in the Executive branch until Congress itself uses
such software.“Certainly, no law exists to stop any representative from
installing Linux on any computer at her/his disposal. But in order
to be effective, Linux has to be able to get to and receive
material from the outside world. As is natural, Congress has a
connecting layer of software that is run and maintained by the
House Information Resources (HIR). HIR enables congressional
offices to communicate safely with their constituents, with each
other and with the rest of government. The client software used by
the offices themselves runs mainly on Microsoft but also on
Macintosh machines. It doesn’t run on Linux…”