I agree about this. We've proposed an email server running on CentOS and Qmail but they prefer MS Exchange. With their crappy hardware, OWA(http) can barely handle 10 concurrent connections (OWA running on same machine) while RoundCube (https) is more than happy serving connections twice as many as OWA can handle. They said they don't need calendar, tasks and other features available in OWA only. So OpenSource has no appeal to those corrupt government officials.
i've had the misfortune (in my past job) of visiting these government offices to find out their specs, etc. and propose solutions for them.
in the government, without exception, everything runs on corruption and grease money. only the "throwaway" projects get subjected to public bidding via the e-procurement system (at least that is honest, because they can't make it dishonest).
if you walk into a government office with an IT proposal, you'd better be sure the first item on your agenda after the brochureware presentation, is how the people you're presenting to will benefit. it's a given.
so walking into a government office with a copy of Ubuntu under your arm makes me laugh.
There are young officials though that supports OpenSource.
I've met some of those, too. they haven't been co-opted by the system yet. That, or they'll move to the private sector which is cleaner and pays better.
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