"Ditch Microsoft," urge top politicos

US Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader has urged the US government to stop buying Microsoft products, as the German government announces a major move to open source software.

Nader, a long-standing consumer activist who ran against Bush and Gore in 2000 on a Green Party ticket, has urged the US government to stop buying Microsoft products to help quash the Seattle giant's software monopoly.

In a letter to the Office of Management and Budget, the US government department responsible for budget proposals, Nader said the government could diminish Microsoft's power with a simple change in purchasing strategy - something the administration has so far failed to do through long running court battles.

Nader asked the Bush administration to reveal how much it spends on Microsoft products and suggested a variety of options aimed at reducing the amount of money the government ploughs into Microsoft's coffers.

In a nod to open source, Nader has recommended that the US government buy the rights to Microsoft software and make it publicly available.

He has also suggested that the government demand that Microsoft make its proprietary software compatible with products from rivals such as IBM and Apple.

In another backlash at Microsoft, the German government has announced that it will ditch Windows software on all federal and local government systems in favour of Linux.

IBM will take over from Microsoft as the German government's main supplier, providing its eServer hardware pre-installed with SuSE Linux.

In a statement, the German Minister of the Interior Otto Schily said the government had become more concerned about Microsoft's poor security record, particularly following the terrorist attacks on 11 September.

He also said the government wanted to reduce its dependence on Microsoft and lower IT costs.

Despite recommendations from the Institute of Public Policy Research that the UK move to open source government, the office of government commerce - the central procurement agency for UK government departments - recently signed a discount licensing deal with Microsoft.

A spokesman for the IPPR said: "Open source e-government really would be open government. It means that issues such as where our data is going, how it is being stored and used, and whether the state was using database monitoring software to keep track of our activities could all be made much more visible."

Former e-minister Douglas Alexander, publicly welcomed the open source proposals outlined in an IPPR report earlier this year, but the government has not yet made any firm commitment to Linux.