A source close to the NDP (and a long time member of PLUG) reports that as of this past weekend, Manitoba's New Democratic Party became the first major political party in North America to officially support Free and Open Source Software.

WHEREAS the Free software and Open Source movements offer the possibility of a new form of production based on sharing and community cooperation;

WHEREAS Free and Open Source software is more secure than many commercial alternatives.

WHEREAS Free and Open Source software is almost never affected by computer viruses and invasive software such as popups and spyware.

WHEREAS Free and Open Source software projects such as Linux, Open Office, Mozilla Firefox, and others offer high quality products at little or no cost, thereby empowering users, particularly students, community organizations, and small businesses;

WHEREAS Open Office, and other software are compatible with file formats from other dominate commercial software such as Microsoft Office;

WHEREAS certain government departments in Manitoba have already started to use Free and Open Source software without the direction of the government;

WHEREAS the NDP and the Manitoba Government should be an example in using Open Source and Free software because this type of software is available to anyone with a computer independent of their income.

THEREFORE, be it resolved that the Manitoba New Democratic Party look at giving equal consideration to using Free and Open Source Software for its internalInformation.

THEREFORE, be it further resolved that the Manitoba government assure that equal consideration be given to using Free and Open Source Software in all of it's departments.