bjoernvold.com

Microsoft’s Windows 8 will be lifted by $617 Million defense deal where the Pentagon computers and Air Force One ++ will get Windows 8. Microsoft is happy with the deal and they are happy to become the "industry standard" for these kind of solutions.

The deal gives the Army, Air Force and Defense Information Systems Agency access to the latest versions of Windows 8 and programs such as Microsoft Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013, a file-sharing platform.

The US Government has earlier decided to use open source to inform the public and make government Efficient and Transparent:
http://www.data.gov/
So the the "Industry standard" is kind of set there too...

The deal is very important to maintain momentum, because the Microsoft retail sales of devices running Windows is dropping like a stone (down 21 %).

The military expects to save “tens of millions” of dollars through lower software license costs under the agreement, according to a news release from the Defense Department.

The interesting question here would be; compared to what? Microsoft's normal price? Who was competing with Microsoft here?

That is not a deal.
That is a reward for giving money for the Presidential Campaign.

I feel bad for the Dept Of Defense. They get stuck with shit software because they are told to do so.

Yes I feel a bit sorry for them too.
I guess it is common for a gov. to look after national interests and Microsoft was an American company going down.... fast. That would have been bad for the tax income so giving MS this extra momentum will keep them up there.
Many business leaders will say that "if it is good enough for the Pentagon then it is good enough for me"....
So this might just save Windows 8.

I would think that IBM was one of the contenders that could have brought open source to the table.