The Massachusetts open source software saga has come to an end. Government officials dropped the anti-proprietary rhetoric but still require the consideration of OSS and open standards.

The new policy further spelled out the distinctions, saying: "For all prospective IT investments, agencies must consider as part of the best value evaluation all possible solutions, including open standards compliant open source and proprietary software as well as open standards compliant public sector code sharing at the local, state and federal levels."