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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."
that some large organization moving to Linux on the desktop is not considered news anymore.
They are planning to start soon trying Linux on the desktop:
The subject would suggest that it has been chosen to switch to Linux, but as we can see they are just going to be 'trying it'. How many people have 'tried' switching and given up under pressure from Micro$oft?
print 'Hello world!';
http://compbrain.net
How long before the US government starts to notice how much foreign countries are saving with OSS?
The US government forgoing M$ would surely be the death knell of Micro$haft W1nbl0ws.
Interesting notes such as "money saved on liscencing will have to be used on training. When will the linux desktop and desktops in general get to the point that they are so intuitive that training won't be requried? Judging by my own experience helping new computer users - not any time soon. While the interface may seem intuitive to you and me, to the complete computer newbie - it is still a challenging jungle.
"Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
Why is Munich the frame of reference for Linux on the Desktop when the region of Extremadura (Spain) moved 80,000 desktops to Linux nearly 2 years before Munich even announced its intentions?
More time should be spent on understanding how they did it and why they have had such good results. The move has been an incredible success with copies of Linex (the debian-based distribution they created) being given away when you buy the newspaper.
And schools have transitioned to it. The key, I believe, was localization. They switch the name of openwriter to "Cervantes", the famous Spanish writer, author of Don Quijote. They did the same for all of the applications and streamlined the installation to a process that makes it dead easy for anybody to install it.
Finally, the government is subsidizing the use of linux in rural areas for first-time computer buyers by paying for a chuck of a linux-compatible computer.
So why isn't this being talked about is the greatest mistery to me. Linux is on thousands of government, school and private desktops today. And it works!
Pragmatism as an ideology is not particularly pragmatic in the long term. Keep it in mind when you dismiss Free Software
The Italians I know use thise same tactic with women.
They tell the women they are with how much they love and adore them while they are working a deal with some other woman.
Evolution or ID?
So why isn't this being talked about is the greatest mistery to me. Linux is on thousands of government, school and private desktops today. And it works!
Because it not only had the interest of the nerds, it also had the interest of the clasic newsmedia. It was like a battle between Linux and Microsoft. Munich is also a larger and well known city. It holds the Octoberfest. If it were Madrid, then it would have been noticed. And sometimes newsstories just do not make it. The reason is that they were written or presented poorly.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Too true. "I haven't been trained in that system" is an all too convienent excuse. Especially for government work.
Better to fall at the first hurdle than spend a fortune on getting over every other little problem and find the final hurdle is insurmountable. Exchange migration (including keeping all the existing emails, calendar entries etc) is distinctly Non-Trivial.
If they can find (or write their own) system which Just Works as an alternative to Exchange then not only will they find the path to migraton that much clearer, but if they release it migration will become a real possibility for many organisations which right now couldn't even consider it.
Well, they could if they didn't have such moneypits as MSN, WinCE, Stinger and XBox, but they do and somebody has to pay for all that.
Remember that this is all just the beginning. So Thailand gets huge discounts, not just for the government, but for everybody. And all this because they started a very successful Linux programme. Munich got the chance for huge discounts but they declined. (What message is that? "Even at only 10% of the normal price, Windows isn't worth it")
How long until other countries start Linux programmes? It's a win-win situation, either you run Linux or you get huge discounts from Redmond, you can't lose.
I doubt that Microsoft's tactics can work. Currently they are encouraging everybody to start Linux programs and evaluations by offering hefty discounts to them while ripping off their loyal customers.
It will take years and probably longer than a decade, but in the end Windows and MS Office (not Microsoft, they have enough money to survive virtually forever) is doomed.
In 2004 AD, Rome shall be saved from the invasion of the Borg by another type of birds: PENGUINS!
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