Dutch government threatens to sideline Microsoft

Yeti7226 writes: "Macworld reports that the Dutch government is taking measures to free themselves from vendor-lockin-by-file-format. This week a new actionplan by the economics ministry will be discussed in parlaiment. The plan aims for interoperability through open standards, making ODF manadory for all government and publicsector organisations by 2010 (schools, hospitals, etc, etc). Certain vendors are not amused and claim they are being disadvantaged by the policy.

The plan also aims to promote the use of opensource software in the Dutch public sector by obliging tax-funded organisations to use opensource solutions where they are functionally equivalent (or better ;-) than proprietary options. This will hopefully level the playingfield for opensource and contribute to the Dutch economy by supporting local IT-industry.

Just a little proud to be Dutch today,
Arjen"