Vietnam Mandates Open Source

Filed in archive OS on January 10, 2009

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 4179502

The Vietnamese government has announced that it will require the use of open source applications by the end of the year.

"Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications has mandated that applications such as the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client and UniKey Vietnamese keyboard client be installed at government agencies by the end of June," writes PC World's Jeremy Kirk.

"Open source adoption is increasingly rapidly in Asia," writes Ars Technica's Ryan Paul. "Several other countries in the region have formulated migration strategies or established formal procurement preferences that favor open source and open standards. Vietnam's enthusiasm for open source is a promising sign that governments are beginning to recognize the value of open technology, but the plan sets a very tight schedule that could raise some serious technical challenges for implementors."

More here from DesktopLinux ... more here from VietNamNet ... more here from Slashdot ... more here from p2pnet ... and more here from The Inquirer.