Czech Post Turns to SUSE Linux

ssbljk writes "Czech Post is the second largest employer in the Czech Republic with nearly 3,400 post offices and 40,000 employees. The company delivers nearly a billion letters and receives more than 100 million postal orders each year. Czech Post relies on APOST, a customized system used by 20,000 employees for all postal operations. APOST had been running on a range of operating systems including DOS and Microsoft Windows NT, but reached a point where running in a proprietary environment was proving too costly. With a disparate environment across 3,400 locations, Czech Post was experiencing increased administration costs, as well as downtime and security issues. In just 10 months, Czech Post installed the new SUSE LINUX-based APOST system on 4,000 servers at 3,400 post offices across the country, as well as at 12,000 client terminals used by 20,000 employees. The company now has a centralized infrastructure with support for remote monitoring that will significantly reduce administration costs. "

Comments

Not on the front page?

[Pan T. Hose]

First of all, the parent first post would be +5, Funny if it was "First post turns to Linux." Second of all, why this story is not on the front page? This is a very important news. Does the Slashdot editors think that the Czech Post is less important than Munich with its weekly front page news? Hint: "Czech Post is the second largest employer in the Czech Republic with nearly 3,400 post offices and 40,000 employees." Don't the editors read even the first line of the stories they submit?

More of this to come

[Stevyn]

The argument brought up that even though linux is free, the cost of supporting it and switching over from windows is higher. However, in countries where even the price of windows is hugely discounted, it's still more than most people make in a week. Therefor, the relative cost of supporting it is less than in the US. I think linux and other OSS is going to gain popularity faster outside the US because of this.