Heard from my friends back at NEDA (where I used to work): their IT department is encouraging everyone to make the switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.Org. This is to lighten the financial requirements of having to renew the the Agency’s Microsoft Office 2003 site license. Pretty soon, NEDA ITCS hopes to run the entire office on FOSS, at least in the office/productivity suite realm.
I do hope this activity is sustainable. If successful, then NEDA may serve as a model for government agencies going FOSS. If not with the entire system (including Operating system), then at least we can start with the other–usually more expensive–software packages.
There will undoubdtedly be resistance to this move, especially for those who are unwilling to undertake some adjustments. But as they say, resistance is futile … you will be assimilated!