I think all governments - in fact, all entities - should no longer deal with companies that refuse to place their source code in a trust that ensures that, should something happen to the authoring company (or even should the company opt not to support that product anymore), that the purchasers have the ability to hire other to develop/extend/whatnot the software that was purchased. To me, that's wise business. But no, I don't agree with seeing the French (or any government) requiring open-source software. That won't gain us much - in fact, knowning the government, it'll cost us a lot of taxes. How? Well, the government will decide it NEEDS a given piece of software, and, of course, the vendor, knowing that once the software is sold, it becomes free to all, will charge an incredible sum for it. And boom - there goes our taxes! The answer is in getting the correct terms for what you pay for - not trying to force rules on everyone.
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I think all governments - in fact, all entities - should no longer deal with companies that refuse to place their source code in a trust that ensures that, should something happen to the authoring company (or even should the company opt not to support that product anymore), that the purchasers have the ability to hire other to develop/extend/whatnot the software that was purchased. To me, that's wise business. But no, I don't agree with seeing the French (or any government) requiring open-source software. That won't gain us much - in fact, knowning the government, it'll cost us a lot of taxes. How? Well, the government will decide it NEEDS a given piece of software, and, of course, the vendor, knowing that once the software is sold, it becomes free to all, will charge an incredible sum for it. And boom - there goes our taxes! The answer is in getting the correct terms for what you pay for - not trying to force rules on everyone.