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French Police Migrating To Linux

Posted by timothy on from the actually-I'd-rather-the-police-use-windows dept.

kernel_dan writes "According to heise online, la Gendarmerie Nationale française (French police) will be changing all their computers to Linux. The numbers: 35,000 computers by the end of this month and 80,000 by the end of the summer will be running Linux."

7 of 44 comments (clear)

  1. RTFA by madaxe42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    It'd be great if the moderators bothered to read the article. They are NOT switching to Linux, they are switching to OPENOFFICE.

    1. Re:RTFA by madaxe42 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ok... Replying to my own comment - how sad!

      According to the linked article (in French) they have been evaluating open source solutions, however want to wait and see how things pan out for Munich before moving to Linux altogether, as it is, there have been worries about compatibility with openoffice of XML documents which they apparently generate with MSOffice. Also, 35,000 machines in a month is one hell of a quick rollout.

  2. Title WRONG! - to OpenOffice, not Linux by jamsho · · Score: 3, Informative


    "French police to switch to OpenOffice
    The French police are planning to switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice, the French industry news service Toolinux reports. By the end of January some 35,000 PCs and workstations are to be equipped with the open source office suite; by this summer the number is to reach 80,000. The French police expect to be able to cut costs amounting to more than two million euros by this move. (Robert W. Smith) /
    (jk/c't)"

  3. Another inaccuracy by LeninZhiv · · Score: 4, Informative

    La gendarmerie nationale is not the same thing as la police nationale--the latter of whom I would call "the French police". The gendarmerie would be better described as "the French military police", since they are considered part of the armed forces whereas the police are civilian--although they do also take on roles analagous to those of US State troopers.

    1. Re:Another inaccuracy by imr · · Score: 2, Informative

      They are not "considered part of", they ARE military.

  4. The gendarmerie is not the police ... by file-exists-p · · Score: 2, Informative

    It may seem confusing, but the "gendarmerie" is not the police. It is an army force dedicated to civil troubles and criminal investigation.

  5. Re:And what exactly is the police by file-exists-p · · Score: 2, Informative

    The difference between french "police" and "gendarmerie" is clear: the former is part of the "ministere de l'interieur" (minister of internal affairs ?) and the second is part of the "ministere de la defense" (minister of defence).

    From a more practical perspective, there seem to be far more discipline and order in the gendarmerie than in the police.