"The number of open source deployments by governments across the
world has accelerated over the last few years. To date at least 160
international local and national governments have deployed open
source software and over $2bn has been spent on the Linux open
source operating system, according to figures from Linux vendor Red
Hat.
"The use of open source software varies widely between different
countries, for example, while the UK government continues to
strikes long-term multi-million pound deals with proprietary giant
Microsoft, the French are enthusiastically adopting open source
software in both national and local government agencies..."