Open Source and Europe

A report funded by the European Commission states that switching to open source software would be cheaper then buying software packages such as Windows or Mac OS. Since open source due to its flexibility allows anyone to add to the software available it allows for a high rate of growth. The main problem would be that since the only open source OS is Linux that personal would have to be trained on this new and different OS which could mean slightly higher costs in the short term. This is the first time that a government agency has positioned itself on the side of the open source software in such a manner. This also is the first time that a government made the suggestion of using open source to the private sector.
The flexibility underlying open source especially gains importance with Vista on the market and the only other alternative being Mac OS and Linux.

Open source gets European boost (BBC)