Rome Moving to Linux

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."

Comments

Re:Massive deployments of Linux desktops

[dtio]

For more info on other massive deployments taking place in Europe see The Register's Linux in Europe.

Very interesting.

Re:Next thing you know,

[gertsenl]

No, it's not off topic, it's Funny. Some people don't know their Roman history. See: Caligula and his horse, Incitatus, who he tried to appoint Senator.

Keep in mind folks, that it's a fine line we dance between Funny and Offtopic, because clearly, posted stories are serious things, and to have humor demands that there be something in the statement that is outside the expected line of discussion.

Re:A great success story of Linux on the desktop..

[pixelbeat]

Miguel de Icaza has some interesting comments on the Extremadura deployment.

Re:A great success story of Linux on the desktop..

[4lex]

In fact, the success of LinEx is being so great that it inspired other spanish communities, so that in Andalucia they've got Guadalinex. In Malaga, Andalucia, there was recently an Open Source World conference. There, about 5000 copies were distributed. Further 100.000 copies of Guadalinex will de distributed in 2004. Free software is alive and well in Spain, thank you :) We didn't get the press because Ballmer didn't visit us to offer 90% discounts.