Today in Technology & Media

The commission will soon release a "strategy paper" on using more open-source software, said Valerie Rampi, a spokeswoman for Siim Kallas, the European commissioner who is responsible for administrative affairs. The paper will say that open-source software should be pursued provided it does not cost more and is in the best interest of European citizens, she said.

The commission, with about 32,000 employees, mainly in Brussels, has made several steps to use open-source software for its administration.

But Piana, of the Free Software Foundation Europe, said the adoption of the software by governments had been slow. "There is a gap between proposals and the adoption. It takes time to implement the policy," he said.

The move comes as the commission pursues two new antitrust cases against Microsoft. EU regulators opened investigations in January into whether Microsoft was using its dominance in word processing and spreadsheets to thwart rivals, and into whether the company illegally tied an Internet browser to Windows.