French Parliament Chooses Ubuntu 174
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."
I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:1, Interesting)
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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.
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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]
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Well, it's not. The changes from Warty to Hoary to Breezy to Dapper have become more progressively more conservative. Breezy to Dapper was for many people quite disappointing because not much exciting happened, just polish.
I don't know what horror stories you have heard, but every OS has bugs. All 6.06 installations I have done (some for people without a clue whatsoever) worked like a
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Sucks when it happens, but it is still just a bug in what is intended to be what the OP wanted.
Re:I don't get why they would use Ubuntu... (Score:4, Insightful)
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No passwords or incriminating data will be stored on stolen from hard drive or secondary storage ever again!
, and never suffer computer data theft or security issues from a computer hard disk again
Live CD- isathe ticket to stopping data theft from computers from secondary storage like hard disks forever!
Because No hard disk or secondary storage need be in the machine, a stolen computer reveals no data to t
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Why? What are the fundamental differences? Support? You can buy support from Canonical, AFAIK.
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I must admit, though, that it's been about a year since I tried Ubuntu. Maybe it has changed. But I read the site around the time the last release (Fiesty Fawn, I think it was) came out and it didn't look
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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 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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In Ubuntu or Kubuntu you need to replace both GNOME and KDE to get something stable. They apply a bunch of experimental patches to "improve" the experience, but the patches often creates more bugs.
For serious? I haven't heard about any of this, nor experienced any of its effects (to my knowledge).
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 t
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What? I am using Ubuntu right here with GNOME, it works fine. Sure there are a few bugs, but all software has bugs (I've seen more bugs on other 'major' distros, actually). So I really don't know what you are complaining about. Perhaps you should be more specific about what bugs you have encountered.
As for K
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In Ubuntu or Kubuntu you need to replace both GNOME and KDE to get something stable. They apply a bunch of experimental patches to "improve" the experience, but the patches often creates more bugs.
I have no idea what this is supposed to mean. What would you replace these with? Was that a plug for XFCE/Fluxbox/etc disguised as a flaw in Ubuntu? What "experimental patches" are you talking about?
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 /usr/local to PATH!)
That's an outright fabrication.
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin: /sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
nick@nick:~$ echo $PATH
I install tarballs for various applications (including things like Loki installers) all the time. I've been doing so since Dapper and it has always worked flawlessl
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In Ubuntu or Kubuntu you need to replace both GNOME and KDE to get something stable. They apply a bunch of experimental patches to "improve" the experience, but the patches often creates more bugs.
Hmm. Have you actually used Ubuntu? With both Dapper and Edgy the Gnome desktop works perfectly out of the box. Better than any other distro I've tried, and I've been using Linux as my primary OS since '96. KDE in Dapper worked well, though I dropped it in favor of Gnome due to how nice Gnome was in Dapper. KDE was my desktop of choice since '99, BTW. I haven't tried KDE with Edgy, but I do use several KDE apps (Quanta, Krita, Kate (gEdit sucks, IMHO), etc) and they work very well.
I know with Fedora,
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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?
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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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"Enterprise" systems
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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.
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It's admirable they are moving to open software, but their priority should be requiring the use of standards compiling software in all government areas.
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Ubuntu uses GCC, which is a pretty standard compiler to me...
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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.
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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)
Quick French Lesson For Posters (Score:4, Funny)
throw == jet
monkey == singe
boy == garçon
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La chaise est dans l'arbre
Mr. Balmer conduit l'autobus
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INVADE IRAQ? [Y/N] _
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It isn't as if the French have ever made a major correct decision...
INVADE IRAQ? [Y/N] _
While it's an interesting example, Iraq is ultimately a decision that doesn't have a "correct" answer...
The first George Bush attacked Iraq but left Saddam Hussein in power. He was widely criticized for not finishing the job.
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.
George W. Bush attacked I
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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
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You're right. He ignored Islamofascism. (But the Republicans would have also.)
They said he was trying to "wag the dog" and that there wasn't a real threat from Saddam, it was all just hype
You are referring to Clinton shooting some cruise missiles at Sudan and Afghanistan 3 days after his finger-wagging "I have not had sexual relations with that woman" speech and the day of his Grand Jury (which he lied to and was thus disbarred) testimony, and was a throw-back to
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.
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The entire World reacted when he gassed the Kurds, including France. It's just that most Americans do not know that. The gassing of the Kurds made the *front page* of Le Monde [wikipedia.org], and probably the front page of every major newspaper in the World (except the US).
At the time, the US even defended Iraq casting doubts on Iraq's culpability, promising a veto in the Security Council against any sanction against Iraq, and even after the scandal broke out worldwid
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They may heve been criticized by a bunch if hicks in the US.
The rest of the world just agreed with them.
Cheers,
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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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You think it was because the King of France was a democrat? Or course not. French assistance of the American Revolution was "cold war politics" solely aimed at hurting England.
And that stupid statue they gave them, how inappropriate!
And ever since, bleeding hearts have have forgotten that "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses" is not inscribed in the
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Actually, it was a pretty shitty decision for the regime in France to support the colonies. Our revolution inspired the French Revolution, and the French Revolution got the head cut off of the same King who supported our revolution.
Oops.
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And that was quite an arrogant reply, ignoring, or perhaps blissfully unaware of the fact that the original comment was not meant to be informational, but amusing. It seems that some people's radar for "arrogant American comments" is turned up a little too high. I guess I'm just glad I have people like you to reply, anonymously, with summaries of the French Revolution and its causes so that you can dis
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.
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None (Score:2)
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
Glad I don't do my IT work in France (Score:1, Interesting)
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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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I guarantee that the oldest/most senior users in the french government are going to call IT every time they want to do something they weren't shown how to do, or simply forgot or became too tech-timid, when they were set up with Ubuntu. Despite the fact that "OMG Windoze wantz to rulez world so it suckz" seems to be the normal opinion here, Windows XP is a solid OS with a familiar feel and, most importantly, real support from a massive dev team. As oppossed to a group of nerds who just don't want to pay fo
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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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Real world users don't care which OS you use. Reminds me of the time when I worked for a major chain of Hotels. T
Good stuff (Score:3, Informative)
Obviously that the only good decision that the french gouvernement took for a long while
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It's an implementation the the principle of separation of powers
(Voltaire or Montesquieu ?).
Montesquieu.
:)
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_Of_Powers [wikipedia.org] or as we're talking about France: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9paration_des_p ouvoirs [wikipedia.org].
I see you've got a French url in your profile so you should know that or don't they teach that stuff in High School over there any more
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I am computer geek remember?. French or not I am not supposed to know anything before Jan 1, 1970.
:)
Defenestration in action.... (Score:2)
The neoconservatives in Texas (Score:2)
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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 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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Microsoft says different with their aero.
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Let them eat Beryl
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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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I'm sure there are advancements over the NT5/XP codebase, but what does Vista (not MSO, or SQL Server or Exchange) do better than Linux?
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but what does Vista (not MSO, or SQL Server or Exchange) do better than Linux?
Well, I never actually claimed that Windows was better at anything than Linux, only that the Versions of Windows available today are better than the version available two years ago. Vista adds indexed searching, more granular control of sound, the UI utilizes the GPU to offload some work, etc. As for areas where Windows is ahead of Linux and OS X, I maintain a running list of the advantages of each platform over the others, which I've posted on Slashdot several times and added to and modified as a result.
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Apps available in Linux are capable of all the work that needs to be done. That they don't trap you into supporting an old unobtanium DOS 5.0 machine until it wheezes its last and brings down your enterprise for lack of replacement is not a drawback. Try the sourceforge link at the top of the page.
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Apps available in Linux are capable of all the work that needs to be done.
Sorry, this is a poor argument. First, it doesn't matter if there is an application that can do every task, that still is not good enough. More applications means more functions and more workflows for doing those functions. That means I have a better chance of finding an application that does just what I want just how I want to do it. In any case, there certainly are not good replacements on Linux for many proprietary software packages written for Windows. I run Linux side by side with Windows and OS X ev
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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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it effectively exists on the whim of one rich guy who could lose interest and kill it whenever he wanted.
apparently the creaks are already showing in dapper (one person above mentioned downloading an update and his gui suddenly breaking with no availible soloution) and its less than a third of the way through its supposed support cycle. Support for the less major software in universe is even worse (much of the stuff in there has simply been imported straight from debian with no t
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...it effectively exists on the whim of one rich guy who could lose interest and kill it whenever he wanted.
Remember we're comparing to Windows. So long as the French parliament is willing to pay for support, I doubt they'll have trouble finding a company to provide it (they have 2 now unrelated to Canonical). Also, since Ubuntu is Linux, migrating to another Linux distro can be invisible to users and result in very little change other than the build process. This is less of a risk than Windows moving in a direction incompatible with the needs of the parliament.
apparently the creaks are already showing in dapper (one person above mentioned downloading an update and his gui suddenly breaking with no availible soloution) and its less than a third of the way through its supposed support cycle.
Umm, Dapper isn't even the stable version, is
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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