Parliament blasted over open source

A typical PHB administrator will go with the Microsoft ads because they're glossy and the salesman reassuring, not on the basis of any technical merit. They will pass this directive to a lackey or set of lackeys who only know about Microsoft products anyway, and who will also be reassuring him/her that this is the way to go. The lackeys will then specify "any system you like as long as it runs [long list of MS-specific buzzwords here]".

Ian's standing up and screaming about this will be pretty much exactly the kind of attention which the people in this system will most fear. Unfortunately, this will be very polarising. Also unfortunately, it is the only generally applicable method short of many years of careful infiltration which is capable of rooting out the incumbents and making the buggers actually think and work for a living.

Open Source in general doesn't have the money and political clout routinely wielded by Microsoft - although this is changing as collossi like IBM and Intel take up the slack - so the only tools readily available are the existing rules and regulations. Where Microsoft bend them to suit their wants, Open Source advocates need to insist on them being straightened. Government is one of the key places in which Open Source is most useful to "the customer base" - Joe and Jane Public.