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Why is it a conflict of interest? It seems to me to be a win-win for Germany and German citizens. The only entity losing is the monopolist, Microsoft. Do you work for the evil empire?

Say the German government needs 50,000 workstation setups.

Option 1: Pay tax to foreign entity (Microsoft).

Option 2: Choose local linux distribution and foster its development to overcome any remaining imcompatibilities.

Compare costs to everyone affected. Notice that by choosing option 2, the German citizens also save money because they pay no Microsoft tax and are not locked into a propriety point of view. Government access is opened to all without further entry/access barriers.

BTW, sometimes projects can be justified by large corporations/governments/universities if the development cost to their organization is on a par with the purchase/maintenance cost.

It is not necessarily socialism, either. It is a cost/benefit analysis.

Here is the definitive, in-depth analysis. This was originally posted to Slashdot, so it has circled back around again.

Please read the proposed Peruvian bill, then the proposed California bill, and compare them. You will find that the CA one is a subset of the first. BTW, both of them owe most of their wording to the Argentinian D-904/02 project, signed by M.Dragan. You can see them all here.

Actually, this is the text of a bill proposed in Argentina, but it is almost identical (to the point of s/Argentina/Peru/g). The free software deffinition used in both is the same.

I'm part of a similar initiative in Argentina (I'm not Peruvian) which is closely related, so I can tell you the story from here.

The Argentinian Free Software Law proposal has been around for more than a year now. You can read about it at http://www.grulic.org.ar/proposicion. It was written by a congressman and improved by a bunch of geeks on a mailing list who offered him (idelogical) support.

At some time in the middle, the Peruvian LUG found about it, liked it, and tried to find a Congressman there to do something similar (in fact, both law proposals are identical). They found Congressman Villanueva Nuñez.

Our group has contact with the Peruvians, and some people from here have travelled there to offer ideas, and even helped with the writing of this letter (yes, it takes some mistycism about it away but is true: geeks participated in the writing of the letter).

Hope that feeds your curiosity. You have lots of info at the site i noted above, and at the Peruvian LUG (slashdotted right now).

The Peruvian Bill is almost identical (was taken from, without modifications) to the Argentinian law proposal. I did a translation of that, and posted it here in slashdot back in 2001. You can read a translation at:

http://www.grulic.org.ar/proposicion/proyecto/leye s/904-D-02/

http://www.grulic.org.ar/proposicion/proyecto/leye s/904-D-02/texto_orig

(Set your browser language to english or spanish to view it in your favorite language).

The Peruvian Bill is almost identical (was taken from, without modifications) to the Argentinian law proposal. I did a translation of that, and posted it here in slashdot back in 2001. You can read a translation at:

http://www.grulic.org.ar/proposicion/proyecto/leye s/904-D-02/

http://www.grulic.org.ar/proposicion/proyecto/leye s/904-D-02/texto_orig

(Set your browser language to english or spanish to view it in your favorite language).

You might find interesting this:

http://www.grulic.org.ar/proposicion

It's a site mostly about the similar law in Argentina. But in the references section you can find lots of law proposals like this one all over the world (one of them, in a Brazilian state, has been approved as a law).

Most of the site is dual language spanish/english (some parts not translated), so you should see it in English with a proper browser setup.

[...] do certain elements of the government get an exemption if they can show no 'free' software exists to fulfill a specific need?

The peruvian bill is based on the proposed draft (also used by congressman Dragan of Argentina for his own proposed bill), created in open-source fashion by an international group of interested people interacting thorugh the "proposición" mailing list. As such, it contains provisions for a transition period and clear rules for exceptions. In short, the State can use proprietary software for a limited timeframe if all the following criteria are met:

1. no free software exists that fulfills the need (which must be properly documented an published for public scrutiny)
2. the need is so urgent than it just can't wait for the development of a free solution
3. the software provides a means of rendering all its data in an open electronic format
4. a security assessment of the risk of using the software for that particular purpose and in that particular environment is published for public scrutiny

[...] do certain elements of the government get an exemption if they can show no 'free' software exists to fulfill a specific need?

The peruvian bill is based on the proposed draft (also used by congressman Dragan of Argentina for his own proposed bill), created in open-source fashion by an international group of interested people interacting thorugh the "proposición" mailing list. As such, it contains provisions for a transition period and clear rules for exceptions. In short, the State can use proprietary software for a limited timeframe if all the following criteria are met:

1. no free software exists that fulfills the need (which must be properly documented an published for public scrutiny)
2. the need is so urgent than it just can't wait for the development of a free solution
3. the software provides a means of rendering all its data in an open electronic format
4. a security assessment of the risk of using the software for that particular purpose and in that particular environment is published for public scrutiny