What’s behind Europe’s love affair with open source?

Government IT departments in Europe, over the past several years, have been eager to trumpet their interest in open-source software – and have been backing their interest up with action. Open-source has become a matter of national policy in the U.K., a critical part of the infrastructure at the European Commission, and the standard for the city of Munich.
Despite the fact that government agencies on this side of the Atlantic are also quietly using more and more open-source software, howev