Rome Moving to Linux

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Posted by michael on Thursday February 26, 2004 @02:25AM 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."

23 of 231 comments (clear)

I can't wait for the day by mst76 · 2004-02-26 02:27 · Score: 5, Interesting

that some large organization moving to Linux on the desktop is not considered news anymore.
1. Re:I can't wait for the day by jstave · 2004-02-26 02:31 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  A year or two after that maybe we'll start seeing stories about the stranglehold Linux has on the desktop.
2. Re:I can't wait for the day by FVK · 2004-02-26 02:51 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It may be sooner than we all imagine. There could be a turning point if MS doesn't get control of this virus and sucurity problem. I work for small business and home computer users, bottom of the barrel stuff maybe, but even on this level people are fed up with Windows and strongly considering OS X, if not Linux quite yet.
  
  On a corporate level, if Linux is up to the task, and the myriad costs associated with Windows are more than the costs of switching and retraining on Linux, well... maybe I'm just dreaming.
  
  Does anyone else think MS's future position seems less certain than ever?
3. Re:I can't wait for the day by AnonymousKev · 2004-02-26 03:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  A year or two after that ...
  Good. I'm glad you remembered that Rome wasn't ported in a day.
  
  --
  Anonymous Kev
  Proudly posting as AC since 1997
  (Finally got a dang account in 2004)
Next thing you know, by sinergy · 2004-02-26 02:27 · Score: 5, Funny

A horse will be appointed governer!

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1. Re:Next thing you know, by gertsenl · 2004-02-26 02:57 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  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.
  
  --
  --Leo
Trying or Doing? by compbrain · 2004-02-26 02:30 · Score: 5, Interesting

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
1. Re:Trying or Doing? by Vihai · 2004-02-26 02:55 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  No, italian mafia is Powered By Linux :) > telnet www.mafia.it 80 Trying 212.78.66.135... Connected to www.mafia.it. Escape character is '^]'. HEAD / HTTP/1.0 HTTP/1.1 200 OK Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 14:53:50 GMT Server: Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) (Red-Hat/Linux) Last-Modified: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 15:41:36 GMT ETag: "18094-5e-3e8b04b0" Accept-Ranges: bytes Content-Length: 94 Connection: close Content-Type: text/html Connection closed by foreign host.
Insert standard joke by tcomeau · 2004-02-26 02:30 · Score: 5, Funny

Don't expect to see this right away. After all, the Roman network wasn't built in a day.

(Sorry.)

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tc>
Most Americans don't understand science, and they wouldn't like it if they did.
1. Re:Insert standard joke by Lancer · 2004-02-26 02:57 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  the Roman network wasn't built in a day
  Of course it wasn't! Have you ever had to work a CLI like this?
  [caesar@router:/root]# ping -c II CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.CCLIV PING CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.CCLIV (CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.CCLIV) from CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.XVII : LVI(LXXXIV) bytes of data. LXIV bytes from CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.CCLIV: icmp_seq=I ttl=CCLIV time=I ms LXIV bytes from CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.CCLIV: icmp_seq=II ttl=CCLIV time=I ms --- CXCII.CLVIII.CCLIV.CCLIV ping statistics --- II packets transmitted, II received, no loss, time MVIIms rtt min/avg/max/mdev = I/I/I/none ms
  
  --
  Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside a dog it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx
Angling for free training by southpolesammy · 2004-02-26 02:30 · Score: 5, Insightful

Sounds more like they're trying to coerce Microsoft into giving them free training among other things. I'm not sold on their direction towards Linux based on the statements.

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Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Rome GA uses Linux by SphericalCrusher · 2004-02-26 02:31 · Score: 5, Funny

I live in Rome, Georgia, and I have to say that everyone here is switching to Linux nonetheless. Well, not everyone, but my large list of friends. =)

It's a fact that things that piss us off, we do not like to continue to use. And well, you know how Italians are... Sorry Microsoft; better them use a different product than yours, than them holding a Godfather-shootout in your HQ in Redmond.

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"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
1. Re:Rome GA uses Linux by sik0fewl · 2004-02-26 02:51 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  As much as I really like Linux and would like to see Rome using it, I think I'd still rather see a Mafia shootout in Redmond.
  
  --
  I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
How long? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-26 02:31 · Score: 5, Interesting

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.
1. Re:How long? by will_die · 2004-02-26 02:55 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  You do have a fair amount of systems that are switching over to Linux as the servers instead of windows. Granted alot of the older ones were originally running on Solaris, then were in the process of being switched in Windows, and then got switched to Linux. However you are also starting to see a fair amount of new large scale projects that start off on Linux.
  The biggest problem with Linux on the desktop and for local projects is that most branches of the military get huge enterprise licenses. For example when I was doing work with the Air Force we used Oracle because we could call a number and get a free license for Oracle, now I am working at an Army base we use MS-SQL server because I can call a number and get a free license for MS-SQL server.
  Sigh, I do miss my Oracle database it was far easier to provide the solutions the users needed.
Well ofcourse by PowerBert · 2004-02-26 02:32 · Score: 5, Funny

All roads lead to Linux!
Tux's new motto by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-26 02:37 · Score: 5, Funny

Veni, Vidi, Vici
A great success story of Linux on the desktop... by LibrePensador · 2004-02-26 02:41 · Score: 5, Interesting

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
Re:When in Rome by utahjazz · 2004-02-26 02:49 · Score: 5, Interesting

"The only intuitive interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned."
-Steve Jobs

(OK it was actually Bruce Ediger that said that, but Steve Jobs sounds better)
To bad its not the City not the Church by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-26 02:50 · Score: 5, Funny

Then we really could call non Linux users heretics.
Re:When in Rome by RetroGeek · 2004-02-26 03:04 · Score: 5, Insightful

Surprisingly, whenever an icon was added to the desktop there was an outbreak of confusion and mass hysteria, and more training was required.

Why is this surprising? Most users use a computer as a toaster, and mostly by rote. Imagine if tommorrow morning your toaster has a new lever on it labelled "PBT 1.0". What is PBT? It is Perfect Brown Toast. But did you KNOW that?

Most users are afraid of this thing called a computer. Here on /. we are comfortable using comnputers, but more importantly we are the curious and adventurous types. Changes do not faze us. We start a new program, without a manual, and can still get a pretty good feel of how to use it.

But to the normal user, a new icon is a terrifying thing. "OH MY GOD, IT IS DIFFERENT!" is a standard reaction.

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Re:A great success story of Linux on the desktop.. by pixelbeat · 2004-02-26 03:13 · Score: 5, Informative

Miguel de Icaza has some interesting comments on the Extremadura deployment.
Re:A great success story of Linux on the desktop.. by 4lex · 2004-02-26 03:17 · Score: 5, Informative

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.

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My journal. Mainly about freedom.