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Renewed Support for Microsoft

Mexico

An ambitious government project to build out the country's IT infrastructure and move its 100 million citizens online passed over open-source software after Microsoft agreed to pump an estimated $100 million into the effort if the country adopted its software products. Through a series of deals, the software maker is donating training for tens of thousands of teachers, technicians and professionals. The project, dubbed e-Mexico, was first introduced by the government of Vicente Fox shortly after Fox took over the presidency in December 2000.

Austria

One of Microsoft's flagship government customers, the Federal Ministry of the Interior in Austria, is the first government body in Europe to become a member of Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative. As part of the program, the Austrian government is allowed access to the Windows XP source code. Program benefits, according to Microsoft, include better understanding of the technical underpinnings of the operating system, better protection against security vulnerabilities and a resource for writing custom applications.

Denmark

Despite some efforts to investigate open-source software for use in the Danish public sector, the country has maintained close ties to Microsoft, according to Niels Svennakjaer, president of Commercial Linux Association of Demark. Apparently, the country's job retraining agency, called the AMU, experimented with Linux at its offices in Copenhagen, and they like what they saw, Svennakjaer said. A switch, however, was shot down by government IT decision makers, he noted.

Playing Both Sides of the Fence

Norway

New software subscription fees that Microsoft has imposed on its customers has fed interest among Norway's government agencies and schools in open-source software. Few tests of the Linux operating system or other open-source products have taken place. However, there is talk among public agencies and school officials to investigate ways it could use such software, said Fred Arne Odegaard, assistant IT consultant with Norway's Department for Trade and Industry. The country is also waiting for more direction from the European Union, which is set to present what it calls the eEurope plan later this month, which will include discussions on open source, Odegaard said. Some issues that could stand in the way of open-source adoption in Norway include security and vendor-level support, he said.

United Kingdom

An increase in licensing fees for Microsoft software pushed the U.K.'s Office of Government Commerce into negotiations with the software maker to lower the cost of desktop software used by nearly 500,000 government employees. Microsoft agreed to new terms with the U.K, which is expected to save taxpayers there a reported $150 million over three years. Still, the government is allowing individual departments to acquire open-source software in place of Microsoft products, according to an OGC spokesman. Separately, the U.K. police force embarked on a study in January to test Linux for use on its 60,000 desktops used by police officers in England and Wales.

Contributions to this report come from John Blau in Germany, Scarlet Pruitt in Boston, Peter Sayer in Paris, David Legard in Singapore, Sumner Lemon in Taipei, and IDG affiliates in Hong Kong, Thailand and the Philippines.

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