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Israeli Gov't Begins Testing Mandrake Linux

Posted by timothy on from the right-to-left dept.

DJStealth writes "According to this article on Arutz 7/Israel National News, the Israeli Gov't is beginning to move away from Microsoft and is testing localized versions of Mandrake Linux in the Treasury dept. as the contract with MS expires this month. This all despite a recent defense ministry contact with MS."

18 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Office 97 functionality by MoonFog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From the article:
    Microsoft heaped scorn on the Commerce Department's decision to abandon Office for the software alternative. The procurement decision relegated users to second best, said local Microsoft officials, comparing Open Office 1.1 functionality to Word 97

    First of all, like has been mentioned numerous times on /., the functionality in Office 97 is sufficient for most users. Very few people use, let alone need, the extra functionality added in the later versions of office.

    Second, this just makes Microsoft sound childish. "Our latest product is better, they're just a rip off from our old products"

    1. Re:Office 97 functionality by mccalli · · Score: 5, Interesting
      First of all, like has been mentioned numerous times on /., the functionality in Office 97 is sufficient for most users.

      Indeed. Here I sit in an Office of one of the worlds largest banks and what is my client box? NT 4, Lotus Notes, Exceed and Office 97.

      Though I'm no fan of Notes, the above is perfectly sufficent for me to do all the work required. You could switch it all to Linux underneath me and I'd barely notice.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    2. Re:Office 97 functionality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My new job in a large corporation came with a brand new Dell desktop running Office 97. It's our corporate standard and nobody misses any of the features of the newer versions of Office.
      The only issues anyone has with Office 97 is that it has occasional incompatibilities with later version MS Word files and all of the later version MS Access files.
      Fortunately, Open Office can open all of these files and convert them to "standard" MS format. /Mark

    3. Re:Office 97 functionality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My productivity is WAY higher using word 6. I've got everything set up just fine; why move all my macros?

      Not to mention the fact that, in order to move your macros, they would effectively have to be rewritten! I used to solve quite a few problems for my customers with macros in Microsoft's Office products. One customer, after going through two rounds of this, balked at the third round and started doing the procedures by hand again. How's that for a productivity tool?

    4. Re:Office 97 functionality by Sire+Enaique · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I remember reading a novelist praising EMACS because it is the closest thing to a text-mode Wordperfect one can get today.

    5. Re:Office 97 functionality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting


      Word 2000/xp tries so hard to auto-complete stuff for you, it will outright mess up what you are doing.

      When making lists for instance (with romon numerals, capital letters, numbers, lower case letters, etc). Man, it's almost impossible to format a list the way you want. It really tries to force a specific way down your throat...

    6. Re:Office 97 functionality by Pfhreakaz0id · · Score: 2, Interesting

      PLEASE don't mention Notes... I have to use this POS everyday. I don't mean to go on a rant here, but, well yeah I do :)

      It has, without a doubt, the stupidest "feature" I've ever seen in a software program in my 20 years of using computers. Sometimes, I have to enter my notes password to EXIT THE PROGRAM. And it's insistent about it, it gets really, really angry if I don't. I understand what it is doing (I have stuff marked for deletion and my session has expired and it is trying to delete mail on exit, but I'm not connected) and I fixed it (change the server timeout to near infinity) -- but it's still dumb.

      --
      DO NOT DISTURB THE SE
    7. Re:Office 97 functionality by zymurgy_cat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not to mention the fact that, in order to move your macros, they would effectively have to be rewritten!

      That assumes your macros will even work in an updated version. I made the mistake of installing SP3 for Office 2000. It totally disabled the SolverSolve routine when called from a macro. Microsoft's response? "We're aware of the problem and have a fix, but we won't release it until we feel like it."

      This effectively killed my entire Excel workbook that performed some very complicated calculations and optimizations.

      --
      -- Fugacity: Confusing chemists since 1908
  2. OSS Good by fmlug.org · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Its interesting where I go to school lots of people are only intersted in useing Microsoft products. Because they believe thats all that used so its the only thing worth using. Some people even get very upset that they have to use a term on a unix box to learn how to program and think that the Linux lab is a complete waste of time and space. I happen to tell then that Microsoft probably only has the majority share of users in the US. There are other countries where users dont have money to spend on an OS. I for on think that all governments should use Open Source software because gov's are for the people Y should they not use an os written by the people they protect. I see this as a good thing and hopefully someday the US will wake up and see the light. Now this post makes me seem like I am saying windows sucks and Linux/BSD rocks, well maybe it is. I believe in using the app the does the best job. Ok if you read this and like it good if not sorry about the rant. :)

    1. Re:OSS Good by zenpiglet · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Its interesting where I go to school lots of people are only intersted in useing Microsoft products. Because they believe thats all that used so its the only thing worth using
      It is the best bet given that 95% of PCs run MS software. It would be a pretty poor school that taught its pupils to use software that was used by a tiny fraction of the world. Now software who's main use is to teach something else (say learning French) is ok, but if your aim is to teach IT skills, then surely using the most widely-used and widely-available software is best for the student as they will have some useful skills when they leave.

      I happen to tell then that Microsoft probably only has the majority share of users in the US
      Well, no. They are the global leader in software and as I mention above near every PC runs their software. Just because you see a lot /.'ers from around the world using something different, doesn't mean that they are in any way representative.

      I believe in using the app the does the best job
      Actually, everything else you say clearly indicates that you don't. What you believe in is using the app you like/approve of/use/wrote, etc to do the job. Microsoft apps often are the best for the job, but with your policy they'd be disregarded just because they aren't OSS.

      If you did believe what you say then you wouldn't insist the Government use OSS, Linux, etc and not closed-source (which is largely taken to mean Microsoft, but actually covers many software vendors) - having favourites is not a good way to run a governemnt.

      I know it's hard to believe but Microsoft developers (and other staff) are also 'the people the government protects'. MS is a very American company, so your statement is doubly wrong because recommending MS software would protect US interests more than recommending OSS, which could potentialy be written and distributed without any American input at all, or any gain for America(ns) because no money comes into the country.

  3. Re:Israeli Gov't Begins Testing Zyklon-B by mrsev · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know I shouldnt respond but I cant resist.

    I am not jewish and my grandmother was even a muslim....before you start ranting about me being a zionist..blah blah balh.

    Many I suggest that you go and post somewhere else where there are more of your "kind". Manybe you can dream of your world free from all the things out there that scare you. Frankly I dont care. This is discussion site for tech news and geek stuff. There are many places where people like you can meet and share your bigotry.

    In conclusion, you are a sick and twisted individual. May I remind you that the NAZIs killed not only jews but many other people too. British, american, french, greek, dutch, russion, polish, christian, jew, arab, gay, straight, german, ukraininan..... I have wasted enough of my time on you.

  4. I've got a better one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The medical school at which I am affiliate faculty (University of South Florida) stipulates(http://hsc.usf.edu/is/standards/student s_med.html ) that students must have a copy of MS Office ("must be purchased") as a condition of attending medical school. No mention is made of "or compatible". From what I can tell from asking the students, the main impetus seems to be that the lectures for the first two years are all given as PowerPoint presentations.

    I don't have any problem with companies deciding to use only Microsoft products if that is their choice, nor do I object to University support policies that focus on MS because they have to use their resources to support the most students in a cost-effective way, but I strongly object to making ownership of MS software a condition of attendance, particularly at a public institution in a state that sued MS for antitrust violations.

  5. Re:Power to tha Duck by sniggly · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I agree, I like mandrake and wish them all the best.

    Redhat spawned fedora, fedora is "unsupported" and what remains are high priced RHELs. Fedora has a very strong community around it but its stated purpose is to be a labrat for RHEL.
    Suse never had ISOs for download which is their right as a company but a linux distribution usually is more than the company doing the distributing. Now that suse is a Novell company we'll have to see how true to the OSS Suse remains.
    Sun is a new linux distributor and we'll just have to see how true to the community they will be. After all they could have called it the Sun Gnome Desktop (which it is) instead of the Sun Java desktop (which it isn't as much)...

    Mandrake is the one remaining big linux distribution (still the biggest in terms of desktop install base) that is tightly interwoven with its supporting community.

    --
    Of those to whom much is given, much is required.
  6. Re:Yes, but why? by Monkelectric · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wish I had the link, but there is a paper out there about how Microsofts income is primarily derived from pension plans and tax breaks, and has very little to do with software. The author claims that when MS goes belly up it will make enron look like nothing.

    --

    Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

  7. Re:Sounds a lot like the recent Powerpoint article by cerberusss · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It's not the tool, it's the file format that the tool uses. OpenOffice 1.1 still can't flawlessly im/export MS Office 2000 which is 3 year old software
    If your priority is opening MS-Office documents
    Well, it's not. Otherwise, I'd have asked for "opening MS-Office documents". No, I asked for "flawless im/export". I want to be able to receive a word-document from a customer, edit it, and send it back.

    For some people, OOo does the job just fine. For me it doesn't. So I paid $55 for Crossover Office.

    --
    8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
  8. Re:Good move. by uradu · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > Israelies invented ICQ, PHP, the UAV, A couple of smart bombs and some [more killing tech]

    That's "developed" more than "invented", though one might argue where one stops and the other begins.

    > Don't refer to Israel as third world country. Please.

    Well, South Africa is very similar to Isreal in those areas, yet it's also still struggling to get some respect.

  9. Re:Is this a growing trend in business? by Afrosheen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The main factor here in having lower wages for Asians in general is cost of living. When, in Thailand, you can get a fresh bowl of rice and seafood soup for less than $1 US, and a nice apartment with air conditioning and plenty of space costs you around $150-$200 a month (depending on region), how can US companies compete on labor costs? The US has a horribly inflated cost of living compared to asian countries and arguably the quality of life isn't that much better. At least in Thailand you can afford to get dental work done, some people fly there just for that reason. For the price of a root canal here you can fly to Bangkok and get all the work you need done professionally.

  10. What the market will bear by Morosoph · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Uh, any economist should tell you that "what the market will bear" is one of the fundamentals of capitalism - it's hardly something that's just popped up in the last few decades.
    Not quite. First level analysis, yes, but then customers tend to buy what they did last time, so greatest immediate profits may not be synonymous with long-term profitability.

    I was going to make a pun about "bear markets", but it seemed rather poor, and thought that slashdotters would "correct" the joke, po-faced, so I won't.
    --
    Wikileaks, no DNS