In the Heise ticker, the true motivation behind the BMWi's open source activity is revealed: Linux is a "good bargaining chip" to also oblige Microsoft to adopt open interfaces and standards. "We're now getting everything delivered for free that we didn't even dare to wish for before," explained the government representative, alluding to Redmond's expanded Shared Source program and the recently granted discounts in licensing negotiations. They wanted nothing more. A bargaining chip for cost reduction. The BMWi never really understood the true purpose of open source — for example, the much more transparent software landscape with genuine verifiability of systems. That's exactly the problem that keeps coming up: companies decide on open source purely for cost reasons, then a dumping offer comes from Microsoft or another major vendor and — boom — open source is no longer a topic. And the real advantages are simply given up again.
The BMWi simply hasn't really learned anything from working with open source.
At Industrial Technology & Witchcraft, you can find the original article.