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Microsoft Alternative in Extremadura, Spain

Posted by timothy on from the penguins-come-in-all-sizes dept.

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.

13 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. FP! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Send in the death squads!

  2. page shortening post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    page shortening post

  3. i claim spain in the name of america by kraksmoka · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    i've always wanted to say that.

    good to see more government using free software always!

    --
    "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." - Rahm Emanuel
    1. Re:i claim spain in the name of america by fordgj · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Actually, most of the conquistadors came from this area.

    2. Re:i claim spain in the name of america by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I hope you mean "America" in the correct sense -- as a continent -- rather than the common incorrect usage to refer to a country. Saying that "America" is the U.S. would be as silly as saying that "Europe" is any one European country... :-)
      And while we're at it, I say Spain should give Mexico a few gazillion $ to compensate for the tons of precious metals and stones their invaders took over 300 years of invasion!

    3. Re:i claim spain in the name of america by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      Nope, only Pizarro came from Extremadura. Legend has it that he was raised by a pig (I am not kidding), seem the guy was not ver popular even in his home country.....

  4. viva la penguinos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Linux rules!

  5. Extramadura by nirvanis · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The translation for "Extramadura" is something like "overmature" which may confuse somebody. It sounds like my daily spam.

    --
    nirvanis
  6. Poll on linex.org by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Can someone translate the poll? I'd like to vote...

    (I have a poll fetish)

  7. moderation envy by MacAndrew · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Why are so many posts starting with disclaimers like "This likely will get moderated down because of the slashdot bias, but it must be pointed out...."?

    Is the point to cultivate points through moderator guilt (and they're a stone-hearted bunch) or to get one last defiant dig in before the ship sinks (due to bias, naturally)?

    The illogic of "this likely will get moderated down" is that if it is, then no one will read the disclaimer. Perhaps someday an internet archeologist will discover its prophetic remains.

    Now, I realize that this will get modded into oblivion by nincompoops who fear the contagion of righteous criticism and sedition; yet the Mod Squad might see the error of its ways, showering "insightful" points on this post and its parent, then resigning as penance.

    All in fun. Some of my best friends are moderators. Really.

  8. Re:Anyone know what this is based on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    by the way, hae trolls noted the heerotia section

    sex with hemos? Thats fucking dicucsting! Not even the sickest of faggots would have sex with him.

  9. Dear Lord protect me... by atticusfinch1970 · · Score: 0, Offtopic
    I know I'm gonna be carpet bombed for this but here goes:

    I just installed Redhat 8.0 this weekend thinking 'finally'. I've tried just about every distro since since 6 and I'll be damned if I can't find an easy way to install A SIMPLE PIECE OF SOFTWARE without having to install a bunch of different libraries to get it to run.

    Really, all I wanted to do was install a program that would let me watch a movie in my DIVX collection and I needed either: ffmpeg, mplayer, or any other software that would let me watch my movies. Ok, I can do this. After downloading said programs, I couldn't run them because they needed library X that wasn't installed. Alright. I find the missing lib and THAT won't install because IT needs another lib. Argh! Whatever, I'm done.

    If you want to use linux because it's free, God bless ya'. But you better know a little something about linux before you begin and keep in mind; the time you spend educating your users must be a factor.

    I realize that I am exposing my ignorance here but really, how hard does it have to be to install a program that comes with everything you need to run it, and creates a shortcut after it's installed?

    I've said it before and I'll say it again, until someone unites Linux and makes it as simple as Windows to install programs, what chance does it have to defeat M$?

    Disclaimer: I truly loathe MS and their licensing practices, and would LOVE to switch to ANYTHING else.

    Ok, let the flaming begin...

  10. extremadura? by fjania · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    sounds like some kind of awful skin condition.