At the Open Standards and Libre Software in Government conference, several EU governments announced national open source and free software efforts, urging governments to adopt open source strategies for increased efficiency, interoperability and reduced costs. During the Dutch sponsored conference, the European Commission formally announced its definition of Open Standards. Held in coordination with the Dutch Presidency of the European Union in The Hague, the conference profiled key milestones and initiatives moving EU public sector desktops to Linux and free software.
Program highlights included a French ministry presentation of the migration of more than 100,000 desktops to OpenOffice.org's free office replacement for Microsoft Office. Christian Hardy detailed the French ministry's plans and rollout strategy. A case study that profiled the German Foreign Ministry's open source desktop and server system was also presented to the audience.
The European Commission's definition of open standards is part of the final version 1.0 of the European Interoperability Framework. This policy promotes open standards pan-European eGovernment services, encouraging the use of open source software. The full text of the directive is here.
Quelle: Desktop Linux, 22.11.2004
