> Still better than having your government locked-in with a single vendor, where the vendor is a mega-corporation from another company that may or may not be your ally at all times.

I think you meant to say country.

> There will be some transition pains, that's for sure, and in part those pains are as big as they are because the governments have adopted single-vendor proprietary products from companies for many years to begin with. It seems to me the long term upside is way bigger with open standards and open source software.

I would be curious to see how the finances work over the long haul; this year they might not save a whole bunch but what about over a five year term?