In the plan to save the US economy, there was a place for free software.

Everyone knows about the plan to stimulate the national economy of the United States, which provides funding in the amount of $ 787 billion. This giant financial doping, which affects almost all sectors of the economy ( official document, PDF ), was recently approved by the Senate and the President.

But few people know that free software is mentioned in this package. In particular, on page 488, the aforementioned document deals with medical technology technological systems and states that such systems on free software can be more economical than proprietary developments. The plan contains instructions to conduct a study on this issue and provide a final report no later than October 1, 2010.

It should be noted that the market of medical hardware and software systems amounts to tens and hundreds of billions of dollars, and the exclusion from this of proprietary systems is a very important matter.
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via Slashdot