[Am-info] Governments like open-source software, but Microsoft does not

[Fred A. Miller]

"Why all the fuss? Modern governments generate a vast number of digital 
files. From birth certificates and tax returns to criminal DNA records, 
the documents must be retrievable in perpetuity. So governments are 
reluctant to store official records in the proprietary formats of 
commercial-software vendors. This concern will only increase as 
e-government services, such as filing a tax return or applying for a 
driving licence online, gain momentum. In Microsoft's case, security 
flaws in its software, such as those exploited by the recent Blaster 
and SoBig viruses, are also a cause of increasing concern."

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2054746

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"...Linux, MS-DOS, and Windows XP (also known as the Good, the Bad, and
the Ugly)."