The US should make a greater investment in the development of the Linux kernel and establish a national Linux distribution to serve as the backbone for its computer systems.
The government's current reliance on proprietary consumer software like Microsoft Windows is costly, impeding, and a threat to national security. Windows comes bundled with a generic suite of applications, leading to increased licensing costs, hardware requirements, and potential security holes. Its monopolistic dominance as a desktop operating system makes it an easy target for viruses and exploits.
By adopting a national Linux distro, the government's technological infrastructure will be streamlined and secured, and businesses and consumers will benefit from improvements released back to the opensource community.