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Rome Moving to Linux

Posted by michael on from the all-roads-lead-to-linux dept.

fmstasi writes "La Repubblica, one of the main Italian newspapers, reports shortly about an interview (in Italian) with Mariella Gramaglia, Communication Councillor at the Municipality of Rome. They are planning to start soon trying Linux on the desktop: 'The first tests will concern e-mail, address book software and sharing systems', she says. The Councillor also says that motivations are political rather than economic: 'In the short term, the money saved on license will have to be spent on training'. It seems that there haven't been any reaction yet from Microsoft: 'At Microsoft they know how much we esteem them', she says; 'for example, they are sponsoring a campaign to spread the use of computers among the elderly. And we'll keep on cooperating with them on other projects'. Maybe Microsoft also appreciates that there is (yet) no project of migrating all the clients? The Municipality has about 9,500 clients, so an eventual migration project would be slightly smaller than the one taking place in Munich."

2 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. La Repubblica by BlinkyBob · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It's no surprise--they are Socialists. It's good PR.

  2. Re:Let's do an analysis by fitten · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    so the whole thing snowballs until Linux dominates the niche (and in the long run all computing).

    So how is this any different than today supposedly is? I thought OSS was about "choice". If Linux "runs all the computing" how different is it from the Microsoft of today supposedly is? If the only choice is Linux, then the OSS community will have become exactly what it is they purport to be against today. It seems like many people in this community are of the mindset: "Everybody should have a choice as long as it's *my* choice." Which is exactly why the group tends to get the occassional bad press about being fanatical.

    Personally, I want *choice*. If I choose not to run Linux for some reason, I want to have that as an option, which many of you people seem to not want to allow me (and in fact, may attempt to cause me trouble through denial of service attacks and the like as is seen against other organizations that aren't in "favor" with the Linux community, a la SCO). With this seeming to be the sentiment of the community (at least one that is proclaimed by some of the more vocal minority), why should I not be *as* afraid, if not more-so, of the OSS/Linux community than I am of Microsoft? At least Microsoft doesn't brag about how much trouble they will cause, or intend to cause, me if I don't agree with their "world vision".