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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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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.
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.
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.
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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 frenc
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)
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]
Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:4, Insightful)
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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, wit
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There's no law saying you have to be bleeding-edge; they can perfectly well stick with
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?
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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
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.
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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
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 coul
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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
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There also seems to lack mature features for installing 3rd
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Ubuntu uses GCC, which is a pretty standard compiler to me...
Re:Perfect matchup (Score:5, Insightful)
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Socialist Theory? (Score:3, Informative)
P.S. You are more likely to find sodomy in t
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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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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.
I'm sure the french have considered a great many aspects of Linux vs. Windows for their needs. Basic
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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 kno
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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 lat
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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 metaph
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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 sa
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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 option