Linux, the new civil servant

Federal Computer Week has a story about the ever-increasing role of Linux in the U.S. federal government. Two years ago, you might have found this Open Source operating system churning out results for complex scientific tasks. These days, you’ll find it serving up just about anything computer and/or Internet-related from the Census Bureau to the White House. While there are plenty of reasons for these agencies to choose Linux, the departmental bottom line seems to be one of the biggest factors. The Bureau of the Public Debt, for example, saved over $330,000 in startup costs when it went with the penguin for a key Web publishing project.