Amsterdam joins nine other cities in The Netherlands that are also evaluating open source software and which have, together with Amsterdam, signed a manifesto on the implementation of the pilot projects. The cities include The Hague, Eindhoven and Groningen. The Dutch government is funding the research through a three-year programme aimed at supporting supplier independence and interoperability.
The cities are not necessarily intending to stop using Microsoft software entirely but are hoping to cut down on IT expenses and increase their independence from proprietary software vendors. "It is the expectation that a new contract with Microsoft will be smaller," said Amsterdam spokeswoman, Marjolijn van Goethem. Amsterdam's current contract with Microsoft expires at the end of 2008.
Outside the Netherlands, several of Europe's largest cities are also moving to open source, or considering such a move. Austria's capital city, Vienna, has embarked on an ambitious Red Hat desktop roll-out, and the German city of plans to migrate 80% of its PCs to Linux by the middle of 2009.
