The Bosnian cable mentioned only licensed software, not specifically software under Microsoft's licenses. I'd be willing to wager people within the gov't are allowed to use GPL software right along propietary. A key clue as to why this was the case may be in the line "ction to ban pirated and unlicensed software from ministry offices". More than likely, the Bosnia gov't was pirated copies of Windows on the belief that they had no legal obligation to buy the software.
The second article about the Tunisia gov't seems infested with ideological speculation and not actual facts.
The third article is with regards to the fact that Brazilian gov't adopted a pro free software stance, and that Microsoft felt that was unfair to their business efforts. The US gov't did not intervene or arm twist, but an ambassador did offer suggestions on how to create a more fair standard that would allow for both OpenXML and ODF. By the way, as a friend of mine pointed out, both of those are standards controlled by various standards body (ISO and ECMA).
The Bosnian cable mentioned only licensed software, not specifically software under Microsoft's licenses. I'd be willing to wager people within the gov't are allowed to use GPL software right along propietary. A key clue as to why this was the case may be in the line "ction to ban pirated and unlicensed software from ministry offices". More than likely, the Bosnia gov't was pirated copies of Windows on the belief that they had no legal obligation to buy the software.
The second article about the Tunisia gov't seems infested with ideological speculation and not actual facts.
The third article is with regards to the fact that Brazilian gov't adopted a pro free software stance, and that Microsoft felt that was unfair to their business efforts. The US gov't did not intervene or arm twist, but an ambassador did offer suggestions on how to create a more fair standard that would allow for both OpenXML and ODF. By the way, as a friend of mine pointed out, both of those are standards controlled by various standards body (ISO and ECMA).