In recent years, governments have sped up the adoption of open source technologies. What are some of the reasons for their migration to Linux, OpenOffice.org and others?

Hello, There are multiple reasons for this migration. 1) linux support and installation costs less 2) linux is more secure than windows 3) Linux is open source allowing much more flexibilty 4) Linux is becoming more mainstream now, people know about it and are beginning to use it. These are some of the reasons I can think of.

to be honest, I dont see the state gov of MN making any transfermation to open source, other than through servers..nothing on desktop models..I believe this is because of the lack of linux techies..and the Desktops..while the have improve dramatically, infact Fedora 10, is as good of Desktop I have seen, and it works awesome...any Fedora contributors...you did an awesome job... this push could help get Open Source more coverage... the Question becomes, is this what is in Linux's best interests..to become that "main stream" OS? Linux is secure for the most part due to obscurity....and that why waste time writing code to break into 1 machine out of 10,000, when I can write a script and get 8,000 out of 10,000...if the Gov't started using Linux...this would change the vulnerability immediately...and we would start seeing issues I believe. sorry for the Long Post in advance..

Hello....... In India government has taken some proactive measures for adoption of opensource technologies, though these might not be enough on a large scale, Highest level of adoption is use of Linux servers by NIC(India), and in some government departments use of Fedora has been adopted to some extent. Though still use of Windows based system is very wide spread throughout government departments, there is always a first step that can be seen towards FOSS adoption

Thanks for the post John www.donjoaoresortgoa.com