India and Germany swing to OSS

Thu, 29 May 2003 23:08:00 -0400
/technology

Looks like Microsoft’s “Stop Linux at all costs” slush fund was too little to win either India:

President A P J Abdul Kalam on Wednesday urged Indian IT professionals to develop and specialise in open source code software rather than use proprietary solutions based on systems such as Microsoft Windows.

He said that during a discussion with Microsoft CEO Bill Gates at the Rashtrapati Bhavan a few months ago, he had discussed the issue of software security and the need to look for open source codes. “Our discussions became difficult since our views were different,” Kalam said.

or Germany:

The city of Munich said on Wednesday that it would switch 14,000 computers from Microsoft’s Windows operating system to rival Linux.

The Munich decision comes as the German government is installing Linux throughout certain ministries and public institutions.

In the northern state of Lower Saxony, 11,000 police computers will be switched from Microsoft Windows to Linux from next year, according to the interior ministry.

This is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe Gates will bankroll a internationally palatable presidential candidate in 2004.

With thanks to my gracious hosts