The Open Learning Centre

The Government of Vietnam mandates 100% Open Source Software usage.

"06/01/2009 VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an instruction on using open source software products at state agencies.

Accordingly, by June 30, 2009, 100% of servers of IT divisions of government agencies must be installed with open source software; 100% of staffs at these IT divisions must be trained in the use of these software products and at least 50% use them proficiently."

The article goes on to mention that by December 31, 2010, all staff must be able to use open source software in their jobs and use applications such as OpenOffice.org, Thunderbird and Firefox for daily work and document exchange.

The rapid increase in the uptake of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) continues to gain momentum. In Vietnam, not only is the Government stipulating that all public IT should be using it, but they are also asking commercial vendors of PC hardware to start selling systems with FOSS pre-installed.

The full article can be read on the VietNamNet Bridge website here.