All of Vietnam's Government Computers To Use Linux, By Fiat

Posted by timothy on Wednesday January 7, 2009 @07:52AM from the power-to-the-people dept.

christian.einfeldt writes "The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an administrative ruling increasing the use of Free Open Source Software products at state agencies, increasing the software's use both in the back office and on the desktop. According to the new rule, 100% of government servers must run Linux by June 30, 2009, and 70% of agencies must use OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox, and Mozilla Thunderbird by the end of 2009. The regulation also sets benchmarks for training and proficiency in the software. Vietnam has a population of 86 million, 4 million larger than that of Germany, and is one of the world's fastest-growing economies."

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Re:hooray! by Tubal-Cain · 2009-01-07 08:03 · Score: 1, Redundant

The government is demanding open source software be installed on government agency computers. Nothing wrong with that.
Re:hooray! by ThePhilips · 2009-01-07 08:33 · Score: 0, Redundant

I do no think that has to do anything with Linux as much as with Micro-Soft putting more pressure on 3rd world governments to curb piracy. It is hard to put pressure on commercial entities there, but government (vulnerable to external political/economical influence) is always easy target.
IIRC, Vietnam tops the list of most pirating nations. What is not surprising with monthly wages in range of $50-100. Windows even at $20 is still too expensive.

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