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French Parliament Chooses Ubuntu
Posted by
kdawson
on Mon Mar 12, 2007 06:58 AM
from the all-those-letters-are-silent dept.
from the all-those-letters-are-silent dept.
atamyrat reminds us that last November it was announced that the French Parliament had decided to switch to Linux. At that time the distro had not been determined. It will be Ubuntu: "[T]wo companies, Linagora and Unilog, have been selected to provide the members of the Parliament as well as their assistants new computers containing free software. This will amount to 1,154 new computers running Ubuntu prior to the start of the next session which occurs in June 2007."
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French Parliament To Go Open Source 231 comments
dhoyte writes, "Newsfactor.com reports that next June the French parliament will be switching from Microsoft to open source products such as Linux for desktops and servers and OpenOffice for day-to-day documents. They see it as a cost-cutting measure." The French have not settled on a Linux distribution yet. The article quotes an analyst voicing a note of caution: "'The evidence on the cost savings attributable to a switch to Linux has been mixed,' according to Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis at research group NPD. 'There has been some evidence that companies have to spend a good deal on training and support after you deploy...'"
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Quick French Lesson For Posters (Score:4, Funny)
throw == jet
monkey == singe
boy == garçon
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INVADE IRAQ? [Y/N] _
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Bill Clinton pretty much much ignored Iraq, even though he believed them to be pursuing nuclear and other WMD programs. He was widely criticized for doing nothing.
I see this historical revisionism a lot and just plain don't get it. Were you paying any attention to reality during the Clinton administration? Clinton did not "pretty much ignore Iraq", he extended the no fly zone, got congress to pass the "Iraq Liberation Act", bombed the fuck out of them, etc.
In 1998 when he tried to hold Saddam to account for non-cooperation with the UNSCOM regime by bombing a wide variety of targets (mostly related to WMD production) he was widely criticized for it BY REPUBLICANS. Th
Re:Quick French Lesson For Posters (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Correction: they were widely criticized in the US.
Americans were convinced that it was part of the war against terrorism while the Frenchmen were not. Do you remember these so called Al Qaeda bases in Iraq? Or these Iraqi chemical stocks, the mobile lab? The fake British report? I do. de Villepin speech was acclaimed by most foreign countries. I stil remember it.
2. The US supported Saddam when he invaded Iran (just like France, Germany and countless of other western countries).
3. Nobody reacted when he gazed Kurds in the 80's.
4. Nobody tried to support the Shia uprising after the first Gulf war.
Of course the real US agenda was different (securing oil production, stabilization of the region, etc.) and the American agenda was in opposition with some French interests (French oil companies had secured extremely lucrative deal in Iraq prior to the invasion).
The US had a "grand vision" of the middle east (getting rid of dictators, bringing democracy and western values, securing this major oil source). the French government didn't share it and they wanted to protect their own interests. Both failed miserably.
Parent
Re:Quick French Lesson For Posters (Score:5, Insightful)
In more recent times, their decsion to stay out of a disasterous war based on dubious evidence is looking better and better as time goes by.
Parent
Re:Quick French Lesson For Posters (Score:4, Interesting)
So far, Kubuntu (I like KDE, what can I say?) has been excellent as both a laptop and workstation platform, and I do have Ubuntu on a handful of servers. My personal choice would be Ubuntu/Kubuntu over just about anything else, and I applaud the decision and hope (uber-optimistically) that it's the beginning of this so-called tipping point for Linux on the desktop.
Parent
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Cool (Score:3, Interesting)
Frubuntu anyone? :-)
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It is hard not to contribute while using Linux in a large organization. They've got several companies doing support and services for them and that is going to include solving bugs. If nothing else, I imagine they'll be contributing bug fixes to the french language support, which is good it being such a common language in many third world countries where Linux can be a boon.
OT: Have anyone tried Wubi? (Score:5, Interesting)
From FAQ:
Wubi adds an entry to the Windows boot menu which allows you to run Linux. Ubuntu is installed within a file in the windows file system (c:\wubi\harddisks\ubuntu.hd), this file is seen by Linux as a real hard disk.
How do I install Ubuntu?
Run wubi, answer the few questions, reboot and select "Ubuntu" from the boot menu, go grab a coffee and when you are back Ubuntu will be ready for you.
How do I uninstall it?
You uninstall it as any other applications. In windows go to the control panel and select "Add or Remove Programs", then select Wubi and uninstall it. You can also use the uninstaller that you find in C:\wubi\uninstaller.exe.
Re:OT: Have anyone tried Wubi? (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Actually it's a Microsoft conspiracy (Score:3, Interesting)
Now as I understand it, that's not illegal as such. It is, however, to use a monopoly to manipulate other markets.
So, ever so quietly, Microsoft is supporting Linux in general up to the point where Microsoft can no longer be seen as a monopoly.
Then it can go back to its previous predatory practices, maniulate other markets merrily, and nobody can say a word.
Have I got that right?
(I mean, it wouldn't do to see this as good news, surely?)
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And by time OSS does that, it may have a strong enough foothold to undo MSFT anyways.
Tom
Good stuff (Score:3, Informative)
Obviously that the only good decision that the french gouvernement took for a long while
Defenestration in action.... (Score:2)
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Hmmm... As long as their servers are secure, Ubuntu is as good a choice as any other.
You said it yourself: it's a good distro for individuals new to Linux.
Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:5, Insightful)
You have no clue how the Ubuntu releases work, do you? What you proposing exists since 06/2006, it is called Ubuntu 6.06 LTS [ubuntu.com]
Parent
Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
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Why? What are the fundamental differences? Support? You can buy support from Canonical, AFAIK.
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I'm not sure either should be used as an enterprise's first Linux desktop rollout; Windows admins aren't accustomed to their relatively furious rate of major releases.
Debian might have been a better choice, with its slow release cycle and decent security patch rollout rate.
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There's no law saying you have to be bleeding-edge; they can perfectly well stick with Dapper, which is the current 'long term support' release. The rest of us can install pre-release versions of Feisty if we want, but it's certainly not compulsory.
Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:5, Funny)
Would you care to define enterprise-ish for us non-bullshit speaking types?
Parent
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enterpriseish: expensive, in such a way as to allow the head of IT to justify his large budget and hence status within the organisation; carries connotations of several very nice lunches with vendors and junkets to important conferences on an expense account.
Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:4, Interesting)
Which of those characteristics you describe are Fedora, (Open)SUSE or Debian better than Ubuntu at?
Just to be clear, I'm not saying I think think Ubuntu is better than the others. In fact Fedora is probably my favourite disto. I just don't see how it is more "enterprise-ish" than Ubuntu is.
Parent
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The biggest and most critical challenge they're likely to have is directory services. I know that LDAP is up to the job, the question is, are their IT staff up to LDAP? With SUSE, they could cushion the blow by going with Novell's directory solutions.
Aside from that, I don't think it makes much difference at all which of the mainline distros they take.
Or go for the national ? (Score:3, Insightful)
As opposed to the south-african origins of ubuntu, german origins of SuSE and american origins of RedHat
(Although I personally prefere SuSE's YaST to Mandriva's DrakConf. But public backing could boost sales of the distro and help finance more work on the config tools)
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Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:5, Interesting)
IMHO, the main area Ubuntu lacks is in configuration. It's a step backwards in that regard as it does require editing config files if the default doesn't cut it. Ie, if you need to change something with X you have to modify
Parent
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There also seems to lack mature features for installing 3rd party content. This might not be much of a problem for really basic desktop user, but for a standard Linux users not being able to install and run tar-balls is a real problem (ubuntu doesn't even include
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Ubuntu uses GCC, which is a pretty standard compiler to me...
Re:Perfect matchup (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
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Socialist Theory? (Score:3, Informative)
P.S. You are more likely to find sodomy in the halls of the U.S. Congress - where pages really know what pain in the ass means!
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Not Part of The UK (Score:3, Informative)
Set them back a couple of years... (Score:2)
A new desktop theme is not an operating systems revolution.
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Since there haven't been any real advancements in Microsoft software in several years, this is no change at all.
I'm not sure you could say that MS has been advancing faster than Linux, but there are real advancements in Vista, whether you care about them or not.
Unless you consider the savings. Why would a government consider that?
I'm sure the french have considered a great many aspects of Linux vs. Windows for their needs. Basically, it comes down to the needs they have, the cost of meeting those needs, the risk of changing or not changing, and the long term flexibility and probable costs/risks associated with it. For large companies and organizations, Linux is looking pretty goo
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Let them eat Beryl
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So are the French.
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Not true. If applications do fit the purpose - it would be fine. And since they have backing of two consulting agencies, I hope they know what they do. I mean, somebody lobbied for the deal, someone sweetened the deal to the point of acceptance.
[ I know people who moved bureaucracy to Linux - it was bit involuntary move when power failure fried bunch of hard drives 5(6?) years ago. IT gave three of their old Linux servers to department so that they would at least be able to work in Web interface. And p
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Because the first year of real bureaucratic workers using only Linux will be hell.
Why? Is it because you don't understand Linux, or is it because you think that they'll be doing something requiring a vastly different set of knowledge?
If it's the latter, you're probably being foolish. What complex tasks are bureaucrats going to be left to that require Linux-specific knowledge on their behalf? Sending and receiving email? Viewing web pages? Reading and writing office documents? These are not Linux-cent
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Once you've had a chance to actually deal with real-world users in the government enterprise environment, you know exactly what I mean. Linux is a great solution if every user has a basic grip on how to use a computer and are willing to explore and figure out how to do things. But in the real world, most aren't.
Actually, I think Linux is a lot better for this than Windows is. I've seen incompetent management types who can only access files from the "most recent" list in Word and have no idea where their files are stored or even what the whole file/folder metaphor is about. The difference is, with Linux it is fairly easy to customize the interface such that the tasks a user needs to accomplish are mapped directly to big buttons that are omnipresent and it is possible to make the one hundred random controls that t
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Not in this case I think. Do not forget that we are talking about French here. And bureaucracy.
It is more along populist lines: "We are using computers provided by local vendors! We are not using evil software from convicted *US* monopolist!! We are saving bunch of your tax payers' money!!!"
I mean, they have elections looming. And I think it is part of campaign to get support from local business.
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edgy is not a long term support release, support for it will be discontinued in a relatively short timeframe and its reported to be ubuntus buggiest release to date.
You speak as though all the support options rested on the shoulders of Canonical, but that is simply not true
do any of those companies have the rescources and inclination to do thier own tracking on what security issues pertain to what ubuntu versions and backport those security fixes themselves i