Citing cost savings, open standards and enhanced security, the German government in June reached a Linux deal with International Business Machines Corp. and SuSE Linux AG of Germany for its local, state and federal computer infrastructure.

And as the City Council in Nottingham, England, plans a new software application for 10,000 employee workstations, it is seriously asking the question, "Are we going to run this on Windows or open-source, like Linux?"

Throughout Europe, companies and governments large and small have recently been asking the same thing. Information technology departments are looking at what they have and rethinking what they want.

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