One year after the German Federal Ministry of the Interior agreed to a partnership with IBM Corp. to supply open-source software on new computers to federal, state and local governments as well as other government agencies, more than 500 groups have signed up for the service.

On Wednesday, Minister Otto Schily referred to the agreement during a news conference in Berlin as a "milestone" in the government's efforts to create a diverse, open software landscape in the public sector. "The numbers speak for themselves," he said in a statement released at the conference. "Demand is so great that we will offer an online registration service to speed up the process for all interested parties."

In June last year, Schily and Erwin Staudt, chairman of IBM Deutschland GmbH, signed a deal whereby public sector groups could receive discounts on IBM computers preinstalled with a version of the open-source Linux operating system supplied by SuSE Linux AG in Nuremberg, Germany.

Among the government bodies to sign up for the service are the Cartel Office, Monopoly Commission, Federal Data Protection Commissioner and the Animal Breeding Agency, according to Schily.

The list also includes Schw

IDG News Service

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