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French Military Police Switches to Firefox
Oslo_the_CKC writes to tell us that French Magazine Linux Pratique recently published an interview with General Brachet of the Gendarmie Nationale. In the interview he discusses why they have moved over 100,000 personnel over to Firefox and Thunderbird (70,000 and 45,000 respectively). This follows on last year's switch to OpenOffice.org so it seems like the French Military Police are enjoying the success of open source.
They gave up with IE.
I guess they surrendered to the superiority of Firefox.
Born on a mountain, Raised in a cave!
Giant orange lizard seen marching under the Arch de Triumph
In Soviet Russia, Firefox switches to YOU!
It's OSS but it's the French!! Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! I'm torn, really I am.
100,000 personnel over to Firefox and Thunderbird (70,000 and 45,000 respectively)
:)
So of the 100K people, 70K of them are swtiching to Firefox and 45K are switching to Thunderbird...
...so nobody will be using both?
We Surrender!!!
That would be nice.
You mean the "microsoft-french-division-surrenders dept'...
Sparks:Gadget:Beer Maker
Well, now we know who the loser in the browser war will be.
The military police of the US have just adopted the use of WorldWideWeb.
Note to mods: I'm probably being sarcastic.
but ferreal...
who cares?
-- Bryan
Honestly, the reason why firefox is the preffered choice is not only because of it's security, robustness, and general workability, but also because it's so damn customizable. Honestly, I can do anything I want on any operating system, if I have my handy dandy firefox.
.. it's pretty sweet.
Anyway, check out this kickass firefox extension that allows users anywhere to chat with other users viewing the same website as them. (It'd be cool to see a few slashdot.org people!) =)
Try the QuickChat extension out
I am glad they are using open source. I hope it helps them in the future:m l
http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.ht
Good for them! After all, the French Military deserve a success at least once a century.
at http://www.twofo.co.uk/
:P
2 pho!
Yeah, this isn't a troll or anything
Would have been a first post if it wasn't for crappy stolen wireless internet...
... French President Jacques Chirac surrendered.
When informed that his country was not under attack, Mr. Chirac declared victory and called for more wine.
Less than a dozen comments so far and the majority are "surrender" jokes. Where are my moderator points when I need them?
Another foreign government branch switches to an open source solution. Wow. How about "American corporation XYZ switches N hundred thousand employees to Firefox". That would be news!
Maybe the French military isn't the best group to have advocating for you
Come on guys, only two posts relating this story to surrendering or capitulation in a military arena.... very poor. You gung-ho chaps can do so much better. I'm sure that's the only reason the story made the front page.
Linux Pratique: What are the most important features of Firefox 1.5?
Général Brachet: These features are independent of the version number. The most important things about Firefox are its compliance with W3C standards and its availability on several platforms (Microsoft, Linux and Mac). When the Gendarmerie will deliver application on-line to homeland security organisations and, in the future, to citizens, it will not request the users to use any particular platform or piece of software from specific vendors. Using Firefox or any other Web-standards-compliant browser will be requested, independently of the platform (...)
Linux Pratique : How many seats are going to be deployed, and how long will it take?
Général Brachet : Starting January 1st, 2006, Firefox will be the browser of choice for the Gendarmerie. (...) This migration will impact every PC connected to the Intranet and the Internet, totalling 70,000 seats, before the end of the year 2006. Most of the Web services will be W3C-compliant by then. (...)
Linux Pratique : OpenOffice.org (last year), now Firefox, when will you swich to Linux?
Général Brachet : Thunderbird will be deployed as the only mail client on 45,000 seat in 2006. The idea is to provide every unit with a workstation and have it used daily. Every Gendarme will have four tools at his disposal: a bureautique suite, for writing documents and doing procedural work, a browser to access the Information Systems, a mail client to communicate and an antivirus. Our first goal is to migrate all the upper layers of the workstation to Open Source Software to be independent of the Operating System.(...)
It's a great pleasure to see this important project being finally revealed to the general public, and to see Gendarmerie Nationale understand the importance of Open Source Software and Web standards. It uses them, and even gives back some code the the community, while telling the world about it. If I had a wish for 2006, it would be to see large users do the same, and tell publicly that they use Open Source projects. For them, it would be a way to give back to these projects something they really need: visibility.
Am I the only one who is amazed that the French Military Police Force has 100,000 personnel working for it? The United States has approximately 840,000 police total, including military police, state police, county police, and federal law enforcement agencies. France's population is only 60.5 million compared to the US' 296 million. Is the military police force in France used for more than just policing members of the French military?
Article slashdotted:
Mirrordot link!
Dependency hell? =>
And about time. I mean, you'd think they would've learned from that business with the Maginot Line that a stateful firewall alone is insufficient.
they have moved over 100,000 personnel over to... Thunderbird
Whoa, France. I know that fancy wines are a little bit on the downside now, but surely you can find something a little fancier than the $2.99 bargain bin at the liquor store and isn't the sole inebriant of choice for Stephen King's hobos.
Now, if they could just get the enemies to use opensource software instead of the traditional weapons and artillery they'd be all set.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Who wants several thousand copies of MSIE? Only been dropped once! ...
This just isn't funny if it isn't guns, is it?
MoM++ - A Classic Expanded - [Master of Magic 1.5]
http://mompp.sourceforge.net/
This would seem to be a pretty bold move - think about it. They're using software which wasn't blessed by the winPope at Redmond. Were it any other commercial organization, there would be an acknowledgement that somebody within the organization had to be pretty gutsy to press for a non-Microsoft solution to anything.
Unless the organization were, say, IBM or Sun or HP, for example. ;^D
Just to clear things up the blog is talking about the French Gendarmerie, the french national police force.
It does not mean the actual French Military Police as we would think of it; the police force of the miltary.
the french army only has 136,000~ soldiers!
It won't be long before they surrender to Microsoft...
Linux Pratique : OpenOffice.org (last year), now Firefox, when will you swich to Linux?
Général Brachet : Thunderbird will be deployed as the only mail client on 45,000 seat in 2006.
Fun to know that after all this time, I actually ran Thunderbird OS...
I hate all sigs, mine included.
"I, for one, welcome our new open source overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted political leader I could be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground coding caves."
The reason that less than half are _also_ using Thunderbird probably has to do with the complete absence of personal information management software from the Mozilla Foundation. No, Sunbird doesn't count.
Laws are for people with no friends.
This slashdot story says, the French Department of Culture have told Free Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses." And "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code" should a bill proposal passes in the Parliament.
I like the way they have a specialized "bureautique suite", for generating red tape!
Ok, since we're all going there:
The Germans started using Linux and it was only a matter of time before that decision influenced the French.
Maybe it's because the Mozilla Foundation offered them all free tickets to Euro-Disney and a complimentary batch of Freedom Fries.
Mozilla Firefox just sounds better with a fake french accent than Internet Explorer does.
Then again "Safari is for Paris" seems catchier.
It's because firefox doesn't need WINE.
The French are just exploring various implementations of SOAP.
Woah, I hope they all use my "Spread Firefox" referrer button!
--
Superb hosting 2400MB Storage, 120GB bandwidth, ssh, $7.95
I think all countries should be working on their own information exchange platforms.
How do you think Dept. of Homeland Security would feel if all of their computers were running on a closed OS manufactured by China?
It's like outsorcing your whole communication infrastructure to a different country.
Foreign countres would do well to consider switching all of their government computation to open source OSs, or developing their own. Firefox and OO are a good start though.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Vive la france!
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
In a related news, U.S. stocks climbed today as shares of office furniture manufacturers like Chairs Inc. (CHR) rose and investors were optimistic that sells are going to increase in the area around Seatle. Based on the latest available data, CHR ended up 39.54 points, or 4.31 percent, at 1,880.95.
We don't really need a story every time we get a "Such and Such orginaztion switches to firefox/linux/apple" article. It seems to be a daily occurance nowadays. I know This is going to be marked troll, but I'm tired of seeing these barley news-worthy stories on the frontpage.
as per subject
Can you believe it? I guess there really are such things as miracles.
Someone just smashed french, military, and police together in the same sentence, and claims to be an advocate of firefox?!
You can get 15 minutes of fame, but you can go down in history for infamy.
OEM dealer 1: As in every browser of this size, there is a flaw.
Sultan: A flaw?
Gem dealer 2: The slightest flaw, your excellency.
Gem dealer 1: If you look deep into the browser source code, you will perceive the tiniest discoloration. The fix resembles an animal.
Sultan: An animal?
Gem dealer 1: A little fox.
Sultan: Yes! A fox. Come here, Monkey Ballmer. A gift to your father from his grateful people. Some day it will be yours. The most fabulous browser in all the world. Come close...
The thing I find interesting is that their MPs are a separate organization from their normal military.
Oh and good on them for the switch.
Just posted on /. today!!
3 7&tid=154
Is AllPeers FireFox's P2P "Killer App"?
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/04/13442
Cleary the French Police must have seen it and decided to switch!!
jokes...ah but that is still PC in your sick little liberal world isn't it asswipe???
...Our first goal is to migrate all the upper layers of the workstation to Open Source Software to be independent of the Operating System.(...)
To me, this was the single most interesting line in the entire article. Telling everyone that they must migrate to another operating system in one big step is bound to meet resistance and hassles. Instead they get people familiar with their day-to-day software tools, so that migrating to Linux/OSX/whatever later is largely irrelevant. If people's word processor and email system are still the same, they won't much care what OS is running.
With this strategy Windows loses its special status and becomes just a commodity, providing only storage and network access. It also becomes replacable on a whim (or close to it).
I don't get it, just because they refused to send their young men and women into Iraq to fight for basically American politcal interests, folks hated them?! And don't give me this shit about the Iraq war is part of the War on Terror. Show me some evidence that Hussein was in fact harboring terrorists and/or financing them!
The reason for this change is obvious.
One word.
Allpeers
Ellidi
You must be kidding. The French were just trying to protect their under the table oil deals. The Americans catch hell over even the possible implication of doing anything for oil. The French do it and it is suddenly "okay". Give me a break.
Did it occur to you that we're making fun of all the people with an irrational hatred of the French, especially by making such an absurd inferrence?
If Bill O'Reilly says "Well, isn't that just like the french to surrender", he's manipulating his audience (if you think O'Reilly is saying something like that because he actually believes it, you're assuming he's a simpleton. I see people do the same thing with Bush- assume he's an idiot, not someone playing the fool and manipulating people.) If someone on slashdot jokes "Well, isn't it just like the French to surrender and use Firefox", they're making fun of people like Bill O'Reilly, not picking on the French.
Then again, complex humor has never been a strong suite on slashdot...
Oh, and you know what? As long as everyone is laughing, I have zero problems with people cracking jokes about each other. I love teasing my friends from Smith about attending a "finishing school", and they enjoy punching me (they hit like girls, so no worries.) As long as everyone stays laughing, it's a way to celebrate our differences. Or something like that. There are way too many people on this world who take everything so seriously and get offended at the drop of a hat.
Please help metamoderate.
I had a hell of a time upgrading 15 users from 1.0.3 to 1.5.
I just didn't find a way to do it reliably and automatically, preserving the few installed extensions and plugins (Flash, QuickTime+ Real Alternative).
In the end, I had to physically go to each computer and check everything, making sure I also checked everybody's roaming profile.
I love Firefox for myself (it's my main browser since it was called Phoenix), but next time I deploy it in a company, it will need to have clear instructions on how to do that without a physical install/configuration/plugins and extensions install/etc.
I don't mind having to write a few Perl scripts to do it, if I can get clear instructions.
If the French military deployed it to 100000 people, maybe they have documented how they did it? Or maybe they just don't know about the upgrade hell yet?
After all, initial install was easy using FFdeploy. It's the upgrades that are a problem
A lot of U.S. Soldiers use Firefox exclusively. Thanks to websites like portableapps I can get Thunderbird and Firefox installed on my flash so I don't have to go through the bother of dealing with out backwards and semi-retarted IA department to get it installed on the machine I use. After showing it off to most of the people I work with and letting them see all of the great plug-ins and extensions that you can add on, plus custom skinning the browser, these guys were sold.
As to the Army as a whole accpting it, your guess is as good as mine. I only showed the more tech-savvy guys Firefox, some of the dudes around here didn't exactly sign their contract as much as put a bite mark on the dotted line, if you catch my drift. I really don't think that they're the ones that are targeted by Firefox - and that very well could be part of the problem. Most IT/IA soldiers that are outside the Linux / Open Source world see things like Firefox as a waltzing bear. Right or wrong, that's a perception that is going to have to be overcome before this is accepted as a standard, or even as a useable piece of software by those outside "the know".
hi mom!
In Other News, Ballmer was seen throwing a chair at France. /G
Maybe now the French police will stop the Muslim rioting burning down the country, and the pansies in the French military will contribute to the coalition forces in Iraq.
French? Military? Success? I'm going to have to stop skimming the articles...
Schrodinger's cat is either dead or really pissed off...
Sounds like another case of the French surrendering again to me!! ;)
we have to call it FreedomFox now?
This is definitely the best and most creative joke among the comments. While jokes about the French are overrated, why was this the one to be modded down?
I thought it was Freedom Fox... wakka wakka
The Don... The real trouble with reality is that there's no background music.
If they had any real balls they'd use IE with no virus protection and no firewalls! Bring 'em on!
Seriously kicked the Romans Butts many times as Galacia.
Did so again under Charlemange.
Kicked the English's butts under William the conqueror.
Kicked the English's butts again several times during the 100 years war.
Supported the rebels during the American Revolution.
Nearly united europe during the napoleonic wars (then foolishly tried to invade Russia during the winter).
Held off the german forces in WW I
When invaded by germany in WW II, held out just long enough for the British Expiditionary force to sail from Dunkirk.
After WW II the French failed to re-occupy Indochina due to resistance from the formerly US-backed Viet Minh. They pulled out of Indochina in 1954. The US also failed to gain power in Indochina.
Seriously... It's only from 1940 to 1954 that France's military record is any worse than any other, and when you consider what they were up against (USSR was still operating under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact when France was invaded, and on continental europe only France stood against the Axis), they really were no worse.
I have a French sister n' law. In fact my brother and her are currently in France. As far as millitary power, they are not to shabby for their size. Very advanced helicopters, airplanes, the ONLY other country in the world to have carriers(I'm talking about carriers with cats like the US has not jump jet carriers that the English have) They are also heavly involved with the new GPS like system that those Europians are working on. With all that said.... They still smell, need to shave there legs more(my sister n' law reuses her leg wax over and over by reheating the wax and removing the hairs)...... Definitly are.. stuck up... well from my experiance. Always exceptions. But normally steriotypes are there for a reason.
Firefrog
Why the hell didn't they contact me first? I really could have used the Google bar/FF referrals!
don't mod BOTH posts (mine and the one below) redundant at the same time! Now the joke has vanished!
It's gendarmerie. Oh never mind...what should I expect from here?
... And this shit about we "rescued them in WWII! We owed them one! How about that! ...
v ision
No, we paid that debt in WWI. "On the 4th of July [1917], the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry (2-16), paraded through the streets of Paris to bolster the sagging French spirits. At Lafayette's tomb, one of General John J. Pershing's staff uttered the famous words, "Lafayette, we are here!"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._1st_Infantry_Di
So, to use *your* phraseology, not mine, they owe us one.
Also, the French government that supported the US was the monarchy, not the current French government. "Current government" as in system of government, not the currenyly elected representatives. Do you think Lafayette would do business with Sadaam and make war on GreenPeace (literally, sink boat, kill member, rescue French agents/assasins from jail)?
Definitely a good win again for FireFox. Microsoft better be focusing on launching something respectful with IE 7. (Did I say Microsoft and respectful in the same sentence? Damn!)
[%] Cingular Ringtones
I'm guessing that 30% of the moderators work for Microsoft and 20% of them are French.
That said, I have always been somewhat in awe of two groups - the Allied warriors who fought and won WWII, and the French Free Resistance who daily disregarded personal safety to oppose evil. Granted they were fighting for their own homeland which must have been a marvellous motivating factor, but still . . .
Summary: not all of the French surrendered, just their government.
The Gendarmerie Nationale isn't military in the UK/US sense. They are the people who investigate murders and give out speeding tickets on national highways. In other words, it's the police force, it just happens to be set up a bit like an army. (By memory, it's responsible to the interior minister, to counterbalance the power of the defence minister in the case of a coup, but I could be imagining that bit..)
As mascots for bleeding edge Open Source adoption go, we could do better. The best Hollywood portrayal of French policing I have seen is in the Harrison Ford film "Frantic". They have now replaced their manual typewriters with wordprocessors, but to see them use them you wonder why. My favourite experience was taking a tourist to a police station to report a stolen passport. They had a Word template for the report, and someone had saved all the personal details of a rape victim into it, so everyone who reported anything could read all about it.
Of all the reasons suggested here for why they made the move, I haven't seen the most likely one - cost. Certainly there is a drive to get schools here onto open source to reduce licence costs and/or piracy. And the pupils and staff I know really really hate Open Office.
Virtually serving coffee
You can't just add them that way! The 70K that use Firefox likely account for almost all of the 45k that use Tbird, it's very unlikely that anywhere near 100k personnel are involved if there are only 70k Firefox users.
Good numbers still for one organization, but an awful flawed statement to have found it's way into a Slashdot front page. How did this get past our meticulous editors?
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Ooh Ooh, my postman also changed to Firefox!! /. as well?
/. herd mentality has got to go.
Can I get a post on
Seriously, can we get over this firefox-mania? It's a *nice* browser, with pros AND CONS compared to IE (I don't need to list the pros, everyone knows them. my biggest problem is how bloated it is - at times it's running at over 400mb in memory).
The
(Watch me get 'flame-bait', -1, 0, 'off-topic' mods for this)
If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
George Bush is stupid.
Al Gore did not invent the Internet.
my password really is 'stinkypants'
(Apart from that I agree with the parent post. The anti-France stuff is just another reminder that a lot of high-school kids post to Slashdot.)
Did it occur to any of you that just because Chirac is a bastard doesn't mean that all Frenchmen are ? Granted, he is not the only bastard in that country. Actually I'm considering moving out of France because there are many things annoying me in that country. I'd love to go to the USA. But I won't go there if it's only to get bashed all the time. Hell, I feel that french-bashing is getting a real form of xenophobia.
Also I don't understand why France was picked to be the target of bashing in the first place. For example, with Iraq, France was far from being the only country opposing the war. In EACH of the european countries, the percentage of people opposed to the war was very high. France, with 90% opposition, was not even the champion (it was Sweden with 92%). Even UK, which participated in the war, had 68% opposition in the poll I read.
I've had the same contempt for the French my entire life that I have now. Iraq II had nothing to do with it thank you very much.
What browser are the French rioters using?
Forget your babling about such unimportant matters as the French. So I'm going to take over this topic and tell you all that you should look into what Turkey did to Armenia during the 1915 genocide and that its about time the USA accept that it happened.
It may not be a financial contribution, but it's creating credibility. That's why Microsoft worked hard over Munich. Not because they cared in particular about losing Munich to Linux, but because they feared that a successful Linux implementation would create even more switchers.
Seems the French at least know good browsers.
This post should have been modded Funny rather than Insightful. 1) The only time they kicked the Romans butts was in the "Asterix and Obelix" Comics. Just to remind you, old time Gaul was where a certain Julius Caesar made his fame and fortune, thereafter becoming a nice little playground for the Romans for several centuries. 2) By the time Charlemagne appeared on the scene (mid-700s), the Western Roman Empire was long gone (as were the Romans themselves). 3) I think a certain guy with one good eye on a boat and a "Spanish ulcer" also played part in putting paid to Napoleon's territorial ambitions. Still, at least he got to see the Sphinx. 4) Held off the Germans in WW1? And what about the other members of the Alliance- where they mere observers? Just because the French were dumber than the British in wasting the lives of their nationals (despite Hague's best efforts), doesn't mean they held off the Germans on their own. 5) Held out against the Nazis while the BEF escaped? Yes, some French soldiers were there, just like some British soldiers were, but if you have anyone to thank for the miracle of that evacuation, it would be Goering and his ego. In your last line, you say that "on continental Europe, only France stood against the Axis". Absolute tosh! Most countries had resistance networks, just like the French. As a matter of fact, some of them, like the partisans under Tito actually managed to do a decent job of fighting against the Germans. Bleh!
The entire cast of Friends declared their undying support for Linux.
:)
Really, sure, it's cool, but does is this really worthy of calling "news?" There are many people using Firefox. It's growing, especially with the new marketing campaign as well as the new version out. It's a great browser. But I saw the headline and really thought "who cares?"
If there's an "insensitivity" mod, feel free to mod me down for it.
Seriously. It's about time someone challenges the propaganda surrounding OFF.
Mozilla Firefox just sounds better with a fake french accent than Internet Explorer does.
Now that one is so much better then the standard french joke around here, and nice placed in context.
Go slashdot we can do it!
What power has law where only money rules.
No, france opposed the war because of the French Military-Industrial complex. Did you miss the fact that the Iraqi airforce (when it existed) was made up French Mirage's? Or that if sanctions ended, it would be french oil companies set to make billions from Iraqi (and Iranian oil)?
In addition to being a bunch of CESMs, they have just as much corporate influence as the US does. Don't pretend they opposed the war on some hippy peace loving principles. Hussein was practically an ally of theirs.
It's amazing that the people who whine that we saved France in WWII so conveniently forget that Soviet Russia saved our asses in that same war... If it wasn't for the 20 million Russians who died fighting Hitler, who knows how much more bloody that war would have been for Americans.
Inspector Clouseau has replaced the dinosaur as the official FireFox French Police Edition Mascot.
"We find zat ze browser le 'Fire fox' combined with le "open office org" provides ze police with ze web-browsing et productivity tools necessary to put down riots in Muslim neighborhoods in a manner zat is both extensible and, uuhh, how you say? ruthless."
(1) Cheese eating. When I invite business associates out to dinner here in the US at a typical chain like Chillis, the thing they're sure to remark on is the enormous amount of cheese in the American diet. I correct them and tell them it isn't cheese, it's "Pasteurized Cheese Food Product".
(2) Surrender monkeying. Not the American way I agree. Declare victory and get the hell out is more like it.
Conclusion: we're not that different from the French. Just fonder of artificial.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
But in the end, lost. Germans slaughtered the Romans in the Teuteburg Forest, kept their independence. The French lost their language -- modern French is mutilated Latin -- and the good things about French cooking were introduced by the Romans.
Did so again under Charlemange.
Whose capital was in Aachen, Germany -- the empire was as much German as it was French.
Kicked the English's butts under William the conqueror.
Er, no. The Normans kicked English ass, in other words, those parts of France that were of Scandinavien decent. So, the Vikings kicked French ass, and the children of the Vikings invaded England.
Kicked the English's butts again several times during the 100 years war.
Now, this one is downright silly. The English owned half of France for most of that war, and the Battle of Poitiers was one of the worst military defeats in history. The French even let the English capture their king! Then, when Joan of Arc comes to rescue them, the French burn her at the stake.
Supported the rebels during the American Revolution.
Which, from their point of view, was a really, really stupid move because the American influence on France helped pave the way for the French Revolution.
You're missing an entry here: Bungled their Revolution, thereby giving democracy a bad reputation in Europe that would remain for more than 100 years.
Nearly united europe during the napoleonic wars (then foolishly tried to invade Russia during the winter).
This one is pretty sick -- this is sort of like saying the Nazis nearly united Europe (note: I am not comparing Nazi war crimes to what Napoleon did). Conquest doesn't count as unification. Well, unless you win, of course...but there we are again, right?
Held off the german forces in WW I
And afterwards made a point of humiliating Germany so badly that it didn't take much for the Germans to really want to get them. Technically you are right, but still not France's finest hour.
When invaded by germany in WW II, held out just long enough for the British Expiditionary force to sail from Dunkirk.
This one, again, is downright silly. Compared to how the Dutch and the Norwegeans fought, the French rolled over and played dead. For every Frenchman in the Resistance, there was one happily supporting the Nazis. The French spent the time before the war telling themselves how great they were instead of paying attention to military advances.
You forgot: Lost badly against Prussia. Created a slaughter in Algeria. Lost a war in Indochina (but then, who hasn't).
Now, strangely enough I actually agree with the original poster that French bashing is getting sort of old, and their opposition to the Second Gulf War turned out to be very much the right choice. They said there were no WMD, and they were right, and we were wrong, and now our kids are dying in Iraq for a lie, and their kids aren't. Chalk this one up for the French.
But that does not mean that we need to pretend that French military history is anything other than a fiasco all the way through. The did good things in literature, had some great scientists, some people even like their food. But great fighters, no. Those were one country further east.
I know, TROLL me. But I couldn't resist.
Enlightenment is a pipe dream. So where's the pipe?
And I was waiting for the Americans to dismantle their Statue of Liberty and send it back to the French.......
If it wasn't for the 20 million Russians who died fighting Hitler, who knows how much more bloody that war would have been for Americans.
If it were not for the US even more Russians would have died *and* they probably would have lost the war as well. The US and Russia most likely saved each other, it was mutual. Without US supplies and weapons Russia probably would not have prevailed, the Germans may very well have pushed them over the Urals and set up an effective defense of the mountain passes to prevent their return. In turn this would have freed many troops for the western front and the success of an allied invasion of the continent becomes very questionable. Hollywood to the contrary, it seems as though the allied victory in the west was not a sure thing. Alternatively without the US an invasion of the continent becomes highly unlikely and German troops could have been redeployed from the west to the eastern front to face the Russians.
Victory in Europe was a complicated collaboration between the US, Russia, Britain, etc. Make any significant change and the outcome would probably be terribly different.
I think I'll switch to Firefox.
XPI is a zip file idiot. With standard files inside.
for a public lab what you describe would be fine
for a situation where people are forced to use one setup like it or not it would also work.
and same for a situation where you can get away with riding roughshod over users setups again fine.
the issue the gp was asking about was how to upgrade firefox remotely whilst preserving user settings.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Do you think the IT guy signed up to adsense for the $1 per install before starting the rollout?
When Stephen Job announced his "I-Minor" McIntosh last year, it really caught my eye. Wanting to buy or build a small computer for my already cramped breakfast bar, I started pricing out similar hardware. The results startled me. Most of the configurations I found cost more than the humble US$499 of the "I-Minor", often much more. To match price with MAC I had to configure with a much bigger shuttle-style case.
So here's my question. What computers are currently on the market to compete with this? When my wife asks for the "cute little I-Minor McIntosh with dotMax Tigger OS® that MAC just invented", what PC can I buy instead?
This won't stand. Speaking as one of those descendants of Normans, I am very proud of my French ancestry. As for the rest of your tired, old, tedious, racist rant, here is an apt rebuttal. The attention of the audience is drawn in particular to the terms "ungrateful", and "ignorant", both of which apply fully in their rich buttery goodness to you, you troll.
What he can't kill, he has sex on. Trent.
Less people sitting means invariably more people walking. More people walking means more people need more shoes, more often. Demand goes up, supply goes up. Q&A on the shoes drops as volume increases. Minimum wage stays the same, as poor schmucks trod the streets of metropolitan American cities looking for work to feed their families.
Shoes become the only business model that makes sense, what with all of the layoffs and such. It remains the only self-sustaining business in America, while everything else dies a slow and outsourced death.
We are close to chucking thunderbird since lots of other sites send outlook express winmail.dat attachments which it cannot read without jumping some odd hoops. Obviously the French do not understand this or they would not be installing thunderbird at all.
Even though it is a 'dumb non-standard attachment', it is a common 'dumb non-standard attachment' and should be handled. No idea why it isn't.
I am in fact very grateful for the French support for the American Revolution, and the Louisiana Purchase, and a whole host of other things that France did for the United States. This does not change the fact that they were, from a French point of view, unbelievably stupid. Helping the Colonies against the British doomed French monarchy, and giving away the whole center part of the continental USA is was even more short-sighted than the Russians selling Alaska.
The definition of when the Normandy became French is a bit more tricky than you make it seem. At the time, they were not considered French, and later, they were technically part of England, which was what the Hundred Year's War was all about. The only view that makes sense is looking at what the people thought at the time, not what we think of them being today. For the record, if you have Norman blood, we share ancestors, which makes your (rather offense) claim of rascism a bit silly. For all you know, I might be sitting in Quebec.
Your link is interesting, but one-sided, too. For example, Joan of Arc was of course as great as they come, but this is not the point. The point is what happened to her once she had been used. The point is also not if the French could have won against the Wehrmacht -- as your text correctly points out and I never disputed, nobody could have, and in the end it took a Russian winter and 20 million dead Soviets. The question here was how hard they tried, which is why I referred to the Netherlands and Norway. Both punched far above their weight. France didn't.
Oh, and one more thing: Don't take this stuff personally.
I mean, they dont have a brilliant history, but no one has. And I mean no one. Not even the USA. Most of the USA victories were against small Latinamerican or other third world countries, or fighting backed by a coalition AND with their homeland not being bombed day and night, like England, for instance. Indeed, the joke we make here when a war starts is that ITALY surrendered, and Switzerland declared itself neutral, no matter where that war is. Italy has had a much worse record in the last couple hundred of years. And Switzerland, well, that's a clear case of lack of commitment for anything but money.
"..so it seems like the French Military Police are enjoying the success of open source."
Something about this bugs me. I know it's subtle, but construing the adoption of open source as riding someone else's wave doesn't encourage more people to join the party.
Visit Platinum Bucks at booth 1115 at Internext, the trade show for porno sites. Tomorrow through Sunday at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
It's been conventional wisdom in the porno site business that supporting IE was good enough. The customer base for porno sites is not tech-savvy. Apparently Firefox has now achieved enough market share to change that.
Vive le Resistance!
Finally, France has changed alot since the riots. They seem to be getting their act togeather instead of letting us English-speaking people make fun of them. Seriously, this is a positive thing.
The Rapture is NOT an exit strategy.
Just for your information and education, the
so called miracle of Dunkirk had nothing to do
with the French. Check you history books.
HITLER ORDERED HIS TROOPS TO LET THE BRITS GO!
> Many brave French citizens died resisting the Nazis. Unfortunately, just as many were assisting the Nazis. The rest were just ducking for cover.
In WWII the French lost 212,000 military personnel and 267,000 civilians. In the whole of the war in Europe the USA lost 131,000 military personnel. In the whole of the ward they lost 11,000 civilians.
Even in your despisement of the French you ought to use some facts in your argument.
And as has been said in other posts, it was the USSR that saved Europe. America, as in WW1, was late into the war. It only joined the war when it was attacked. Previously it had been selling dysfunctional destroyers to the allies and extracting territory in payment.
Here in Spain 90% of us were against that war of lies but our _ex_ president Aznar thoought we had to go to that oil war in order to get his photo with his beloved Bush.
That, and the 48 h. of censorship of information about the terrorist attack in Madrid is why he was not reelected, not the attack itself.
Hey mates, ...) : competition is a good thing for all of us to go ahead.
/. !)
:)
Couldn't we just being friends speaking frankly, not trying to bash each other all the time ? I'm French and I can tell you we have nothing against USA, we are thankful for your help during history (WW2...) and we would to the same for you if the same would happen to you ! We are just developed countries that are in a competition on a lot of points (economy, political influence,
For the IrakII we weren't ok with G.Bush point of view and we just told it. Whats wrong with that ? Why rename your fries for that ?
We are different, let's try to talk and understand each other : we all have to learn from our differencies !
I'll be happy to invite some of you to drink some beers to try to understand you better, so If you pass near Paris or Strasbourg in France just drop me a mail !
Cheers,
Jean-Noël (sorry for the anomymous coward, I have no account on
PS : You can thank Ted Stanger as he really help us to better understand you
No, we paid that debt in WWI. "On the 4th of July [1917], the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry (2-16), paraded through the streets of Paris to bolster the sagging French spirits.
Meanwhile, French and British soldiers were being slaughtered by the hundreds of thousands in the trenches. Luckily for the US, Lafayette did a little more than parading through the streets of Yorktown to bolster the sagging American spirit. He and his troops actually fought and won the actual battle.
Listen, it was nice of the US to join WWI, but let's not blow this out of proportions. Google for WWI casualties. The first result gives the following numbers : France 1,359,000 dead; Britain 658,700 dead; US 58,480 dead. WWI was a blood bath. France lost more soldiers in those 4 years than the US lost in its whole history.
If you visit France one day, try a little experiment. Choose any random village in the countryside, 500 souls or so. Somewhere, between the town hall and the church, you'll find a monument to the dead of WWI. Now count the names. You'll never find a place with less than 50 dead. And that does not include the wounded. 1,359,000 dead and 4,200,000 wounded out of a total population of maybe 35 millions at the time. Half of all French males between 18 and 50 were a casualty of that bloody war. No family was spared.
I think friends should not keep a detailed accounting of what they did for each other. Every French is thankful for US support in WWI, it certainly helped and hastened the war's end. But since you're in this "we owe / they owe" mood, I don't think Pershing's late involvement in WWI was as decisive as Lafayette's involvement in the US independance war.
Last, you seem to regret the time of French monarchy. I, for one, am happy for my American friends that they live under a republic rather than a monarchy.
And if you allow me a piece of advice. Look for reasons to like other people, not for reasons to hate them, you'll live a happier life.
It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything.
Are they enjoying the switch?
I'd like to see some comments from the police employees who have been made to switch. I regularly use Firefox and Thunderbird (although I primarily use Konqueror and KMail for business) but I have friends and clients who refuse to switch or have made the switch on a trial basis, only to go back to Outlook+IE later. The main reason being "they don't like it" / "they're not used to it" / "doesn't display this [in]correctly", etc, etc.
I've no doubt this switch to open source will be a good thing in the long run for the French police and many other organisations, but it interests me how the employees deal with it, do they find it frustrating and so on? If so, does it end up having a negative effect on work flow, etc?
1400 burning chairs have been reported last night. That's 10 times more than in a normal night. Sarkozy has promised to remedy the situation with his pet high-pressure cleaner...
Next!
There's nothing like a good gunfight to uplift the spirit--Calvin
If parent post is moded "+2 Insightful", then I expect my post being moded "+5 Insightful" if I say that the US made war because it would seriously help the american militaro-industrial complex.
And at least there would be some truth in it.
6 feet wide? That was an American.
<ducks>
1. Easieast to use of all browser (as it comes out of box)
2. Well balanced features - there is much more than in Internet explorer 6. Someone might miss something, but what most people need is in there
3. Extensions - for guys that miss something there are several hundreds of free add-ons, and often if you get used to them, you can't live without them.
4. Visual customization - easier and more complete than in other browsers.
5. Very fast - specially when compared to Internet explorer.
6. Best solution for annoyances - more proof than any other browser on viruses, pop-ups, worms, etc.
If you're not using Firefox, you should be.
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Keylogger killed my marriage, but saved my life.
2)Occasionally when multiple tabs are open the program seems to hang up. Not sure if this is a product of the web pages themselves or a bug.
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Keylogger killed my marriage, but saved my life.