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Recently, the Foreign Office of Germany made the announcement (translated news report) that it is migrating away from Linux back to Windows as its desktop solution. We’ve covered the concept of …

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Ars Technica has a short article on the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum 2009 and its discussion of new rules for the computing world. Unsurprisingly, these proposed rules are quite FOSS-friendly since they are modeled on the early years of computing and the Internet, when RFCs were the norm if you wanted your tech to take off. Take a look:

1. Independence of applications
2. New applications can be added anytime that’s a core value
3. Permissionless innovation
4. Open standards
5. Accessible and globally inclusive—anyone can use it
6. User choice—I can choose what applications I use and where I go to with them
7. Ease of use—I can use it in my language, I can use it in a device I’m familiar with
8. Freedom of expression
9. The ability to change rapidly
10. Trustworthy and reliable is one we have to work on; it’s got to be a core value.

Your hardware should be unlocked and you should be able to add applications you want to use. Those applications shouldn’t lock you into an upgrade cycle and you should be able to change whenever you want.