The US government, whose technology budget is $56 billion, is trying to standardize its technology, shift some of the technology to the Web, and use fewer software vendors, Reuters reports.
That's bad news for some software companies, and good news for others. Companies that specialize in security software, for instance, expect to benefit from the government's Homeland Security initiatives. Other potential winners include back office software vendors.
The article doesn't specify, however, whether all of these applications will run on Windows or some avatar of Unix.
According to a 2000 CNN article, Linux was "not quite right for [the] government". By mid-2002, however, the tide had shifted, at least a little bit: IBM sold 75 Linux-based computers to U.S. agencies (read about it here). The Cyberspace Policy Institute also plans to persuade government agencies to use Linux (Cnet report is here).
Given this trend, it will be interesting to see if any part of the government's current rescaling efforts will include a more open attitude toward open source.