Microsoft Alternative in Extremadura, Spain

grylnsmn writes "The Washington Post today has a front page article talking about how the Extremadura region in Spain is converting all government offices, businesses, and home from Windows to Linux. The article talks of their problems last spring and how the community banded together to solve them. "But the glitches are more an annoyance, [Ana Acevedo, who heads one of the government's document-processing units] said, than a hassle. 'It's mostly very tiny things,' she said." Overall, this is an important testbed for localities all over the world who are looking at making the switch. Overall, a very good and balanced article." Update: 11/03 20:37 GMT by T : Headline misspelled "Extremadura" as "Extramadura" -- fixed now.

Comments

Microsoft says it isn't war

[CatWrangler]

From the article....

Like many Linux advocates, he speaks about the software in emotional terms. "Connectivity and literacy" equals "equality and liberty," he said.

Microsoft regards such talk as too dramatic and distracting. It is software, after all, not war, company officials said. It is far more productive in their view to talk about the technical aspects of Windows vs. Linux.

I wonder if Steve Ballmer ever got that memo. Microsoft is a fun loving peaceful company. They only assimilate on accident, because they are trying to build a world of equality, fluffy clouds, and little bunnies.

editors note... Fluffy clouds-tm and little bunnies-tm is copywrited by Microsoft-TM. Do not use, or we will hunt you down and kill you.

Re:Microsoft says it isn't war

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if Steve Ballmer ever got that memo. Microsoft is a fun loving peaceful company. They only assimilate on accident

Seriously, your honor! I was just walking, the pavement was slippery... the next thing I knew, I'd inserted anticompetitive code into all my software!

Could happen to anyone!

Re:Microsoft says it isn't war

[crucini]

Uh, really weak! If someone sells me a puppy, I'm still going to have to buy dog food in the morning.

Ah, but if you buy the Microsoft Puppy you will have to buy the dog food from Microsoft. This is to ensure maxiumum customer satisfaction. And if you have questions about raising your Microsoft Puppy, there's an 800 number you can call.

Prophecy - Intel is next - then disaster

[Trusty Penfold]

Nostradumus foretold this

C4Q94
Two great brothers will be chased out of Spain,
The elder conquered under the Pyrenees mountains:
The sea to redden, Rhône, bloody Lake Geneva from Germany,
Narbonne, Béziers contaminated by Agde

The great brothers are obviously Microsoft and Intel.

After, the future doesn't look too bright. Perhaps we ought to consider?

Heh Heh

[Anonymous Coward]

But a major bug was discovered within days: If users tried to print or view a video or do anything that involved peripherals or multimedia, strange error messages popped up.

It took a team of developers three months to fix the problem, during which anyone who converted to Linux had to download their documents on a disk and run over to a Windows machine to print them.

The Power of Open Source: Security bugs are fixed with in 1 hour, but it takes 3 months before printing starts to work.

Re:pretty impressive- learned from AOL?

[rant-mode-on]

• With 10,000 machines converted already, and 100,000 scheduled for next year in a region with 1.1 million people

My god, the GPL is a virus!

Re:But Its Not Possible

[luisdom]

>Let's face it: The US-government is both incompetent and corrupt.

He he... Our Spanish-government is also both incompetent and corrupt, but you're right, it plays with an advantage: it is not the US-government.