The government’s Office of Government Commerce has released its report on open source software, saying that “open-source software is ‘a viable desktop alternative for the majority of government users’ and ‘can generate significant savings‘.” Steve Ballmer from MS riposted with the rapier-like observation that “the findings do not align fully with feedback we regularly receive from our customers in the market place“. Really? You asked a load of MS customers what they liked and they all said MS software? I am shocked. Shocked, I say. I asked loads of car-owners whether they thought that owning a car was a good idea and, wouldjabelieveit, they all said “hell yes!” and followed up with “you won’t catch me on a damned peasant wagon bus“. When I asked Tom about his opinion, he said tghat cars were the terror of the modern age and we should all use pushbikes. Something like that, anyway. Again, the government leap another notch or two. Whether such a report actually changes anything remains to be seen, but we could be on the cusp of a free software surge here. Fantastic.
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