Government use of OSS

[Victor Odhner]

One important "Anti-American" factor is just a question of where
a country wants its money to go.  Do they want to send it all to
Redmond, or pay their own native talent to customize a product
that really meets their needs?  The second option keeps the money
in their country, and feeds back into their own economy.
That's a no-brainer as far as I can see.

I'm sure some people see Microsoft as an embodiment of
"arrogant American capitalism," and they may tie this in with
other problems that they like to blame on our country.  This
would make Microsoft appear even uglier abroad than it
appears to many of us M$-bashers here at home.

But then you add in the "privilege" of reading government
documents without paying through the nose for software,
and the idea that FOSS gives them more local control of their
product, and the argument becomes pretty powerful.

Vic