Many governments will only, or preferentially, purchase and use products that are standardized, primarily to prevent vendor lock-in for themselves but also to balance the larger market and ensure competition. Their massive purchasing power is a driver for standardization for things like PDF, ODF, OOXML etc.
> Many governments will only, or preferentially, purchase and use products that are standardized
Thanks for pointing out that govts act as customers.
Yes, govts prefer standards in some cases, but I'd be surprised if it mostly was standards driven. Consider all the vehicles purchased - not a single one is "standard" and they all contain exclusively patented components.
