Germany has signed up IBM for a major public sector computer contract, dealing a blow to software giant Microsoft in the process.
IBM announced it will offer German Government offices deep discounts on computer systems based on Linux, rather than Microsoft's near-ubiquitous Windows operating system.
Germany's Interior Minister, Otto Schilly, said the move would help cut costs and improve security in the nation's computer networks.
"We are raising computer security by avoiding a monoculture, and we are lowering dependence on a single supplier," he said in a statement.
"And so we are a leader in creating more diversity in the computer field."
A spokesman for SuSE, the German company supplying the version of Linux involved in the deal, said the deal was directed at the interior ministry, which oversees law enforcement in Germany.
Most of the computers in Germany's public sector run Windows.
Story taken from BBC News Online.
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