Netherlands adopting Open Source software

Netherlands Economic Affairs Ministry has said that they have set themselves a soft deadline of April 2008 for its agencies to start using open-source software.

They would allow government bodies to continue using proprietary software and formats as long as they can justify the purpose.

The dutch government estimates that they can save $8.8 million a year on city housing registers alone after switching to open source.

This could turn out to be bad news for companies like Microsoft who might lose software deals with the Dutch government.

Microsoft Netherlands spokesman Hans Bos however said that they expect to receive approval soon for its Open Office XML to qualify as open source.