While working on FSFE’s response to the UK government’s consultation on using Open Standards by default for government documents, I noticed something that I had apparently overlooked during the busy days ahead of FOSDEM. On Jan 24, the UK government published a few principles for future government IT contracts. They’re quite clear, quite brief, and Read more »
Britain is a laggard in terms of Free Software adoption. 80% of public IT spending go to just five companies. In order to open up the market to competition, the central government needs to start requiring Open Standards and change its procurement practices so that they don’t break the rules too blatantly. That would go a long way towards giving public bodies strategic independence and giving citizens the freedom to use Free Software when they communicate with their government. It would also save Britain pots of money – no bad thing when you’re in a budget crisis.
The Swiss Administrative Court has effectively stated that
Switzerland’s public administration depends on Microsoft to work
properly.