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Spanish Region Goes Entirely Open Source
greengrass writes to tell us TechWorld is reporting that the Spanish region of Extremadura has decided to go completely open source with their day-to-day operations. While the region has long been a supporter of open source software, within a year it will be a requirement that all officials use the ODF and PDF formats for all documents. From the article: "Extremadura, Spain's poorest region, made headlines following a 2002 decision to migrate about 70,000 desktops and 400 servers in its schools to a locally tailored version of Debian called gnuLinEx. The government has estimated that the total cost of this project was about 190,000 euros (£130,000), 18 million euros lower than if the schools had purchased Microsoft software. "
I read that as "Spanish Religion Goes Entirely Open Source", and spent the next few seconds wondering about the implication of this transition.
Is this just a localised Linux distro, or does it have other specific properties? Small footprint, extra security, that sort of stuff? TFA weren't too clear about that, and the gnuLinEx website was a bit... Spanish.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
Good. Now if only my local government would listen to me and stop wasting millions of dollars on MS licenses. (Their "compatibility" issue boils down to being compatible with the printer -- they always print out their stuff on letterhead and mail it through the post!)
Our intelligent designer has never created an animal that we couldn't improve by strapping a bomb to it.
"NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!" ;-)
Paul B.
What exactly do schools look for in "Computer curriculum"? Most I know only look for a browser, a HTML editor and some presentation s/w on the clients side. The servr side is mostly some Courseware s/w - Moodle or Drupal; LDAP; Centralised File System etc.
There has been no incentive for schools to upgrade from Windows 98, indeed many schools near me have about 80% of their systems running Win98, and the students are quite happy with what they're getting. There's absolutely no incentive to upgrade to WinXP (although a RAM upgrade might allow XP to run).
Schools in fact have every reason to ask Microsoft WHAT EXACTLY they get in return for Big $$ they need to shell out in MS upgrades. If they switch (the servers are already on Linux) the clients also to Linux, schools will have absolutely zero incentive to upgrade to Vista.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Hasta la vista, Microsoft.
Good argument for GNU, Linux and open source in general with your boss: cuts your software costs by 98.9%. Finally someone puts an official number on this.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
I think 'Extremadura' would be an awesome name for a release of a major distro.
With every year, MS Windows loses another advantage or another killer-feature and the playground - while far from fair - gets a little bit more leveled.
I still remember the mid-late 90s, when you still had to recompile the kernel for sound (now it's autodetected), when there was no office suite (StarOffice came IIRC somewhen around 1998), when there was no KDE.
Of course, in many areas (especially gaming) Windows is de-facto without competition, but these areas become smaller with each year.
For the pioneers like Extremadura and Munich, a lot of political will and forsightness was needed.
For those governments that come later this political will won't be needed (or let's say not nearly as much will be needed) as the migration will be easier, cheaper and faster than in Extremadura or Munich - because of the experience made there, because some programs will already be ported, because the software was developed further.
In the next years, the biggest chance for OpenSource are the OpenDocument formats. While the old .doc format will remain "the standard" for quite some time, I think OpenDocument has good chances beating Microsoft's new XML format and becoming the standard in maybe 10 years. (Mainly because MS XML doesn't offer the advantage of the old .doc format (= being established) and has no advantage versus OpenDocument)
If that happens, MS Office loses it's dominating grip, Microsoft loses a lot of revenue and the ability to fund expensive pet-projects like XBox - and Windows loses another advantage...
I'm sure that with some thought they could cut that down to x minutes per infinite computers (unattended installations, etc), which would certainly make the price tag seem more logical.
I assume the parent means "both parents", as in Spanish - father is 'el padre', mother is 'la madre', but both together are 'los padres'. This masculine dominance happens with many words for people
If this were really happening, what would you think?
This is what Opensource should be using its power to do. Good work every one!
Yes. A few detailed points:
1. When you have tens of thousands of desktops, the money saved by not paying Microsoft is so great, that you can even afford to pay people to code a few specific things you need (regional customization, etc.). This is the beauty of the open source stack - you get 99% of the code FOR FREE; salaries for a few good programmers to code the last 1% is cheaper than 70,000 MS licenses. Now, I don't know if the region of Extremadura pay the salaries of the LinEx people; but my point is that even if they did, it would be a huge savings.
2. That last 1% of code may be GPL (in case it's integrated into the system and not completely standalone, or, even if it is standalone, a government or nonprofit might free the source code anyhow). So others will also be able to benefit from it.
Back to the article itself, this latest news is very good, and may be another sign of slowly-building momentum for the Open Source movement.
Sorry, I'm from Australia...You know, the place that had a slight chance in the last world cup until Itally decided to use our game for diving practice? So it's more like:
...Funnily enough this is probably what Microsofts price per seat offer will do in the country in question.
"YOU TOOK A BLOODY DIVE!"
I ate your fish.
Let's review the statement from Extremadura:
The government has estimated that the total cost of this project was about 190,000 euros, 18 million euros lower than if the schools had purchased Microsoft software.
Do you think that "Before buying printer, check Linux compatability at linuxprinting.org." is included in these 190,000 Euros? (= well over 200.000 US Dollars)
Do you think that they called vendors ahead before they bought whatever was needed to upgrade 70,000 computers to the new printing-needs?
Do you think that they called vendors ahead before they set up printers for 70,000 computers, no matter if run on Linux or Windows?
OK, I fully admit it:
For some gamer who runs a single computer in a basement, Linux is probably not the prime choice. Even for many non-gaming home users Linux might not be the best choice.
But this is about a government organization that:
Here you can find the "home-user" version.a zine_DVD.pdf
And here (PDF Warning!!),
https://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/64/Linux_Mag
you can read an English language article describing this special
home version called JuegaLinex (Play LinEx).
It gives an option at install-time to d/l nvidia or ati 3D drivers.
I put this on a 800mHz mini-itx box for my niece and nephew--
They loved it!
(You can easily localize this version to English)
Many educational apps and a ridiculous number of games!
I recommend to try it on any small people you may know.
Extremadura is the region of Spain from which most of Spain's global conquerors launched, starting a half-millennium ago. While that "pioneer" legacy does make it natural to lead in the brave new world of OSS, it's worth considering that its primary legacy from its past colonial leadership is extreme poverty.
--
make install -not war
Spain is not third world, by any account or figure.
Please google and research "peak oil" a bit. You will discover this crisis is a lot worse than they have told you
Adobe has a few patents on it but anyone is allowed to use the PDF standard royalty-free. so it is an open standard (although not free)
I'm almost as pro open source as they come, and this kind of news makes me smile.
However I really am sceptical of the cost comparisons. They do not seem to take into account distribution or installation or any of the other many factors that come into servicing an entire region with software.
I also suspect it does not take into account any discounts you may be able to get from Microsoft for such large scale installations.
Yes, there may be a large difference in licensing. But to say that you are getting a 99% discount is a fallacy. The cost of software is not just in the procurement.
As a community we should be encouraging responsible reporting so we don't fall into the same obfuscational traps that corporations like Microsoft revel in. It would be nice to be able to have faith in pro Free Software articles rather than approach them with the same sceptism that stigmatises any pro corporate publishing.
There's no substitute for hard facts and honesty and I feel the open source movement is becoming as marketing savvy as the commercial competition. It may win a bit in the short term but in the long term may undermine the cost-benefits that people perceive.
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