I don't disagree with anything in your comments. Indeed I will support and promote open source wherever it is the right choice to make but to mandate it?

Is it not about using the right software for the job in hand? Putting cost aside (yes I know I brought it up) there are still applications and situations where the best solution available is NOT open source.

So in these situations, by mandating open source one is simply shutting the door on a potential solution that could offer better flexibility and better value for the taxpayer.

Yes open source should be promoted but mandating like this is actually the wrong way to do it.

I could happily recite a list of reasons why Open Source is fundamentally better for government: freedom to alter / enhance, flexibility, availability of expertise (or scope to gain it), potential to return benefits to taxpayers, lack of vendor lock-in, reduced bureaucracy around procurement / licensing, potential to encourage the SME sector in what is undoubtedly a growing sector of business, etc etc.

We've already seen numerous examples of this in UK government, particularly around the use and development of WordPress. If you click around this blog a bit, you'll soon find them.

I'll stand by the notion that it's probably a little bit cheaper to go with an open source OS. But the case is strong enough without it.

I suppose the first question here is WHY?

Maybe these non IT literate ministers are under the deluded impression that Open Source = Free (indeed I would put money on it)

Maybe they are oblivious to the fact that a fully supported Red Hat web server costs pretty much the same as a fully supported Windows web server these days.

It's this sort of thinking that has allowed some very large companies to get very rich on the back of these well intended government IT contracts.

Isn't it about time the government left the IT strategy making to the people that actually understand these things. There are plenty of them employed by government today so let them decide on strategy. After all, isn't that what we are paying them for?