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French Parliament To Go Open Source
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Nov 28, 2006 09:10 PM
from the desktops-and-all dept.
from the desktops-and-all dept.
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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French Parliament Chooses Ubuntu 174 comments
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
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mandriva (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://allyourbasearebelongto.us/ | Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @03:32PM)
Re:mandriva (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:mandriva (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://foobsr.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday March 26 2005, @05:24PM)
The whole EU will follow, as I hope. With regard to Germany, I am quite sure.
CC.
Re:mandriva (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.myspace.com/over_engineered | Last Journal: Tuesday November 28 2006, @11:20AM)
I think Mandriva will be the best choice for Linux transitioning to desktops. It's easy to install (probably the quickest and most straightforward installation next to Ubuntu), pretty simple to maintain, and is in my opinion the most user-friendly operating system for home and small-business users. I think of it as the Red Hat of Home Linux; it has fully dedicated support channels, premium content that is pretty nifty to have, and a very solid online community for those that cannot afford support. Last time I checked, the only other two mainstream Linux distributions that have all of those advantages are SuSE Linux (Novell) and Red Hat Linux.
Every time I have used Linux, I land up turning to Mandriva or Fedora. Fedora is good for ultra bleeding edge stuff, while Mandriva is the Linux distribution that "Just Works" (save the casual Linux stuff, of course). I think that if they do not use the other two said distributions, Mandriva will be a very probably candidate. I would most certainly switch to this distribution if I had a project of this magnitude.
Hope it goes through (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hope it goes through (Score:5, Interesting)
I can confirm that, worked for them at the time. Had a CIO poached from Sun around then, too. Bill Gates flew in to talk to Ziggy Switkowski (then CEO) and after that it was all roses between them. My opinion at the time was that it was all just a ploy to beat down Microsoft's prices, sort of the corporate version of talking to a vendor with their competitor's coffee mug on your desk.
Everything's negotiable, especially if you have 40,000 high-profile desktop licenses at stake.
Re:Hope it goes through (Score:4, Interesting)
Not that that would have stopped them. Every new project that Telstra attempts is a disaster, including the ones I've been involved in. You are quite right about the Sun-anti-Microsoft sentiment, of course. But Ziggy was not above using his execs as pawns to push his own agenda.
Insider joke -- Telstra projects have finally run out of acronyms -- you can't open a new project unless you prefix the acronym with the number "9".
Re:Hope it goes through (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.etrangementmoelleux.info/)
Think Linux juice. (Score:3, Funny)
Nonsense! Linux is so easy to use you can take it out of the box and plug it in. And be working that same day.
Re:Think Linux juice. (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.fredshome.org/)
So don't tell me Unix is hard. 12 year old girls can use it.
I think slashdot... (Score:2, Redundant)
(http://slashdot.org/)
Re:I think slashdot... (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.etrangementmoelleux.info/)
Retraining. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://127.0.0.1/ | Last Journal: Thursday September 20, @12:52PM)
Re:Retraining-Relearing how to breath. (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.etrangementmoelleux.info/)
you have to remember that its the French Parliement. Parliement, not any kind of technical branch of the government. The people affected by this move will only surf the web, write reports and emails.
I dont think that a massive training will be needed to switch from IE to Firefox, etc. Nor will it be from scratch. From a strictly user view, for the computer illiterate, the only changes they will notice will be maybe fonts, or colors.
Re:Retraining-Relearing how to breath. (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://www.imagicity.com/)
I really doubt that. I don't have any experience with the French Parliament, but I did a lot of contracting with the Canadian Parliament for a few years, and I can tell you that they have a huge data management task. They were responsible for the timely publication of every single formal statement, document, report etc. from our politicians. And we all know that politicians do love to talk.
One of the services we offered the was daily Hansard (a record of everything spoken in Parliament during a session), which was fielded by and indexed, cross-linked in both official languages and searchable by language, Party affiliation, region, riding and protocol (e.g. Question Period, Votes, etc.). Every morning by 07:00, we had everything spoken the day before prepped and readied for our customers. This data was merged into the existing infobase, creating a tremendously powerful research tool. And that was only one aspect of the kind of data management services they offered.
I'm inclined to say that the French Parliament probably did a needs analysis and decided on FOSS for precisely the opposite reason you're suggesting. If my experience in Canada is any indication, their typical workstation needs would be quite advanced, and the ability to create special purpose data management tools in open, interchangeable formats for a reasonable cost would likely be the most compelling reasons to move to Linux.
I say that from experience. It was the work I did with these guys (and other clients at the time) that convinced me to move away from Windows entirely. I haven't ever regretted that decision.
Re:Retraining. (Score:5, Insightful)
Cost of Training (Score:5, Interesting)
(http://bcgreen.com/~samuel | Last Journal: Friday April 30 2004, @02:42PM)
Can anybody get some estimates of the cost of training and support for a recent majour MS Office update? I figure that that should be somewhere near the cost of a switch...
FOI request anybody?
Spend money on education not 1's and 0's. (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://kavlon.org/ | Last Journal: Friday March 21 2003, @02:10PM)
My experience though is that if the tasks you need to do can be done using opensource you will save quite a bit of money. If there are rough spots you need fixed you can spend a little bit of money to hire, or sponsor, an existing developer of that project to make things work the way you need. For what you could spend to buy a few licenses of your average commercial app you could have the opensource equivilant customized to your needs. That is power over your own fate. How much is that worth over years or decades?
Liberté would be a stronger ground to stand o (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday August 09 2006, @03:53PM)
As Stallman explained at WSIS [fsfe.org], if we argue based on cost, they can offer that too, but if we argue based on freedom, they're not even in the running.
translation (Score:4, Insightful)
(http://www.halley.cc/ed/)
The French have not settled on a Linux distribution yet.
Translation: We want to see what Microsoft's counteroffer will be; if it's too low, we'll state we're picking Ubuntu, and if Microsoft still hasn't given a huge keep-me deal, we'll say we probably want Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
long term savings! (Score:2, Interesting)
(http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~sinclair)
Oh my god am I tired of this argument... some people seem to have very little grasp over "long term" and "short term" savings.
"It's different! It's hard to learn! Therefore it can't be good for us in the long run..."
Some people have no vision.
Does anyone ever do this correctly? (Score:5, Informative)
On the desktops, deploy FOSS apps one at a time as dependencies allow. Even Office is tough if a lot of bespoke apps laying around use it as a development environment. Sneak up on that as long as you can too. Once the users are broken in on FOSS app replacements, begin switching the OS for those users you've managed to get using purely FOSS apps. Move up through the users from there. The last and most difficult cases can be handled with virtual machines and terminal servers.
If things are done this way rather than in one fell swoop then you avoid a user rebellions with great missing chunks of missing functionality amidst the kludges. You can also try things out first with the users who have a bit of clue and build up experience within the organization. Most of the negative Linux organization switch stories I've heard involved either the Fell Swoop approach or not having sufficient Linux/BSD/UNIX admin talent on hand.
Cluebat time (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/)
Oh hell yes it does, especially in an organization. If all of an organization's data is in Office format that organization will probably stay on Windows. Crossover Office ain't going to cut it (Office license + CX Office license and forget getting a sweet deal on the Office licensing) and neither will OO.o's import filters. First time a document doesn't work 100% in the initial testing a MS fanboy (MCSE type afraid of learning) will raise holy hell.
Get everyone off of Office and IE first and swapping out the underlying OS is a lot easier. Remember, people don't run an OS they run applications.
Retraining: A Red Herring (Score:1)
(http://ewhac.best.vwh.net/ | Last Journal: Saturday August 18 2001, @10:28PM)
You will spend as much, if not more, on retraining if you roll out Windows Vista and Office 2007.
As for support, raise your hand if you honestly think that, somehow this time, this release of a brand-new version of Windows will be any less of a disaster than all of the previous brand-new versions of Windows...
Schwab
Dang, this ain't Fark.com (Score:1)
(http://chris.brimson-read.com.au/)
It's just for getting cheap windows (Score:2, Insightful)
Obvious tactic to save money... (Score:1, Insightful)
(http://www.paysonlinux.org/)
No one ever really switches. Microsoft gives them tons of free software everytime. French Parliament doesn't want to pay the money to upgrade everyone to Vista, so instead they are playing a tactical rouillette game, in which they will win because regardless of who it is and how weak they are, Microsoft doesn't want a single hi-profile entity to actually switch to Linux and will willingly 'give' them the free software, not that it actually costs Microsoft anything, but they can then write it off as well as a charitable donation... blah blah blah.
What is this training people speak of? (Score:1)
Seriously: what is this training?
Learning how to move files by drag 'n drop?
Learning how to start a program by navigating the start menu?
Because I can't believe that every user needs to know how to mount a device in the file system, or configure IPchains, or connect to servers manually, or whatever.
Expect more French institutions to do so (Score:1)
(http://www.estiasis.com/)
democratic (Score:1)
because it's just more democratic, it's software by the people
for the people
closed source software is software by a company for their clients!
Wonder if the IT department was told yet (Score:1)
I'll admit, I'm skeptical about anything done in a county that has riots when the government tries to pass a law that would allow employers to fire unproductive employees, but maybe that's just me.
Yes, we're going to get away from the evil American MS and save money somehow. Ok guys, now get to work right away. We need it finished
"You have to pay linux licenses"? (Score:2)
Try to listen and make things work (Score:1)
(http://pg302.sourceforge.net/)
Now if only a country... (Score:2)
Will it work ? (Score:2)
(http://www.paxconsultoria.com/)
From my experience (and yes, it will reduce costs), if you don't have any other reason for it, you won't have enough force to breach the number of barriers on the way of such migration.
Unfortunately, "fixed mindset" is something very difficult to counter. And, like it or not, Microsoft is very good on the mindset terrain. People will complain, make a mess, and create overall havoc, up to a point where however is making the migration will just decide it is really not worth it.
I have witnessed very successful moves toward FOSS in the past. The catch is that in all of them, there were other reasons (major or minor) for the move. Sometimes, even things like "openness" is enough to offset the scales and allow the move to be successful.
Uh Oh! (Score:2)
(http://www.flying-rhenquest.net/)
Really, have any of these government or large business entities ever actually followed through once they've announced that they're switching to Linux? The usual drill is that $government emits a "Switching to Linux" message which in turn leads to Microsoft descending upon them with tidings of huge discounts. Then $government quietly announces that they changed their mind and are sticking with Microsoft. Announcing that you're switching to Linux just happens to be the fastest way to make that happen these days.
Same Advice As Always (Score:2)
(http://inglorion.net/ | Last Journal: Thursday October 06 2005, @07:17AM)
Well, same advice as always. Try them all for a few upgrade cycles, then decide.
and in the same breath outlaw Open Source .. (Score:2)
"What does the new French copyright [eucd.info] bill do ?"
Taxes need to go lower, open source sure bet! (Score:1)
(http://www.aisnota.com/slashdot/)
software costs.
Threaten to go open source!
1.) M$FT pays attention and lowers license fees dramatically to keep it from happening.
2.) Make good on threat and do not pay M$ST.
This is why investors are realizing M$FT has little long term potential to maintain that
gravy train.
Win for sure in your local, state or federal level, announce loudly (unless of course
you have already switched or got the sweet deal) away from M$FT is coming publicly.
Louder the better and remember to include your trend setting ways so that M$FT
has to listen and be very afraid!
Post your story on how much your government entitity is paying for M$FT each
year here, it is a matter of public record in most governments, unlike private
business where it can be kept secret.
It will be interesting to see a ratio of per capita government license cost
versus local per capita wealth in the locality or country. These schemes
usually reveal discontinuities based or related to competence. Also,
fees are a way to get kick back monies into some officials or politicians hands.
Hmmm... please post those per capita numbers, and actual license fee costs
per seat here.
Duh!
Re:Site contains Micr$oft ads (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Slashdot, Linux and eldavojohn (Score:1)
(http://www.etrangementmoelleux.info/)
Re:I find myself torn here. (Score:1)
(http://www.etrangementmoelleux.info/)
Re:Slashdot, Linux and eldavojohn (Score:1)
Re:Always wrong? (Score:2)
(http://www.ev4.org/)
Re:Site contains Micr$oft ads (Score:2)
There's actually more chance of me buying a product if I haven't seen it advertised, so don't complain.
Re:So they are retreating from high prices? (Score:2)
Still... it had to be said.
If it weren't for the French... (Score:2, Redundant)
The French provided critical assistance in the American Revolution against England. If it weren't for the French, you'd be speaking English.