Don't dump MS for free software, ambassador begs Peru

The prospect of Peru's legislators mandating free software for government departments continues to move mountains. First we had Bill Gates' shock donation to the Peruvian president, and now the US ambassador to Peru has written a letter to the president of the Peruvian congress opposing the move, according to Wired.

The text of the letter has fallen into Wired's clutches, apparently, but the ambassador should not be particularly surprised at it being leaked, considering the approximate direction he sent it in. There is no direct evidence in the excerpts published that Microsoft nobbled John Hamilton to do its bidding, but he protests that by excluding proprietary software companies such as Microsoft, Peru would be hurting an industry with the potential to create "15,000 jobs" there.

Presumably he got that number from the local chamber of commerce.

Hamilton, for your information, is a Clinton appointee from 1999, but Peru it would appear does not count as one of the prestige postings reserved for large-scale dispensers of pork. Hamilton is, as you can see here, a career Foreign Service man, and therefore knows what he's doing. Apparently. ®