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French National Assembly Embraces Open Source

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the va-la-penguins dept.

eldavojohn writes "The French National Assembly is in the news as they have recently switched to Linux, OpenOffice.org & open source software at the request of several deputy members. Bernard Carayon wrote it it into the proposal entitled 'On Equal Terms' [French PDF]. From the article, 'IT staff at the National Assembly have almost six months to prepare the switch to open source.' The same document urged France to adopt ODF as a standard. Hopefully things go more smoothly for them than the Birmingham library effort."

88 comments

  1. Well... by jo42 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess now we'll have to stop making fun of the French... ~:->

    1. Re:Well... by dbolger · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why, because they surrendered to Tux? :)

    2. Re:Well... by tepples · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, because France didn't surrender to Bill Gates III.

    3. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      I guess now we'll have to stop making fun of the French... ~:->

      Cradle-to-grave healthcare for all citizens, regardless of their income or employment status.
      Trains that go 200 MPH.
      76% percent of the country's electricity generated from safe, clean, and abundant nuclear power.
      Free online services -- years before the Internet.

      Tell me -- why were you making fun of the French in the first place?

  2. I'd quite happily move to France. by caluml · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'd quite happily move to France. Just thought I'd say that. As long as I could have a girl like Letitia Casta, or Virginie Ledoyen.

    --
    Get your own free personal location tracker
    1. Re:I'd quite happily move to France. by easter1916 · · Score: 1

      Laetitia Casta...

    2. Re:I'd quite happily move to France. by Feyr · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'd quite happily move to France. Just thought I'd say that. As long as I could have a girl like Letitia Casta, or Virginie Ledoyen.how about melissa theuriault :)

    3. Re:I'd quite happily move to France. by advocate_one · · Score: 1

      Lou Doillon

      --
      Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
    4. Re:I'd quite happily move to France. by BBird · · Score: 1

      ... and Eva Green

  3. This has a European scope ... by foobsr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... and, as far as I could understand (I lack some French) is focussed on a better usage of economic resources - that is - why pay M$ Euros. Good move.

    And my bias is that France (for short) will not be bribed by M$s.

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
    1. Re:This has a European scope ... by arachnoprobe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't think the french can be lured by money. They are very patriotic, and the political decision to spend money on French products instead of giving it to a U.S. based monopoly-accused company can be hold up easily.

    2. Re:This has a European scope ... by porkThreeWays · · Score: 1

      I know a lot of people cite cost as a reason to use open source, but in my eyes that's never been the real advantage. Maybe that's an advantage for home users, but large organizations have lots and lots of money to burn and if it's not being spent on software it will be spent somewhere else. Open source has to do with control. I hate hate hate having to put in a feature request for software. It takes forever for it to make it into subsequent iterations or if you pay for them to customize it, there is no guarantee the feature will be incorporated into future versions and you may have to pay them again to integrate it into a new version again. With open source, if there is something we need, we do it ourselves. Same thing goes for open formats. With a closed format you are basically renting storage space for your data and are at their mercy. You never really own your data. You have no way to get to it except through their interface. With open standards, if it ever came down to it, you could write an interface yourself to read your data.

      --
      If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
    3. Re:This has a European scope ... by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Don't forget that Mandrake^H^H^Hiva is almost as close to a French national distro as Red Flag is a Chinese distro.

      --
      No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
    4. Re:This has a European scope ... by foobsr · · Score: 2

      In general, I am with you. I might add, though, that IMHO greater control (thus a better planning reliability) in the end leads to increased profitability (or efficiency with regard to the public sector, where all your arguments hold even more) which then via translates into money gained or saved.

      CC.

      --
      TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
    5. Re:This has a European scope ... by Fred_A · · Score: 1

      As a home user that's the exact reason why I've mostly run open source for ages (the mostly being because every now and then I have a Windows partition to run the games I buy). The price I've paid just for the random crappy games that I've only spent half an hour on before discarding them over the last five years could probably buy a couple Windows licences plus a lightweight MS Office. Price certainly never was an issue.

      However I've worked solo either on the side or full time for a very long time now and I've been bitten very early by the problem of proprietary formats and now tend to avoid them like the plague, whether the software is commercial or open source. With open source it's of course that much easier.

      I've seen quite a few of the businesses I work with stuck with that problem as well. Sometimes the format can be reverse engineered and the gist of the data can be recovered, sometimes it might as well have been stored in /dev/null...

      There was a much commented on article by some apparently famous guy from the Mac community a few months back explaining why after 20 or so years he was dropping Apple and going the Linux (or BSD, or whatever open source system) way because of that precise problem. I can't recall what it is but I expect someone will provide a link in reply. Read it, it's insightful and well written.

      --

      May contain traces of nut.
      Made from the freshest electrons.
    6. Re:This has a European scope ... by BokLM · · Score: 1

      What do you mean ? Mandriva is mainly a french company (and Brazilian now, since the merger with Connectiva), like RedHat is mainly an american company, nothing more. This is not like Red Flag.

      --
      wtf.n0x.org
    7. Re:This has a European scope ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And my bias is that France (for short) will not be bribed by M$s.

      Just as they weren't convinced to attack and occupy a sovereign state under false pretenses by Dubya, I suppose.

  4. New slogan by Ralph+Yarro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Freedom software... that's 'freedom' as in 'fries'.

    --

    The real Ralph Yarro posts as Anonymous Coward. Anyone else is an impostor.
    1. Re:New slogan by Svippy · · Score: 0

      As opposed to French software?

      --
      Clicked pie.
    2. Re:New slogan by picob · · Score: 1

      and no bugs as in "bush"

  5. What do you expect? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    They're socialists and their women will be wearing burqas soon anyway once the islamofascists they invited into their country take power.

    1. Re:What do you expect? by thanasakis · · Score: 1

      Don't hold your breath man...wearing burqas is forbidden in France.

    2. Re:What do you expect? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      Nothing like a good dose of xenophobia and ignorance to brighten up the day! Out of curiosity, were you born stupid or was it something that you've worked hard at? Everyone needs a goal, eh?

    3. Re:What do you expect? by Ruff_ilb · · Score: 1

      Well, what can you say? The French like their women Open-source.

      --
      http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
    4. Re:What do you expect? by b4stard · · Score: 1

      Bullshit, you trolling francophobe you! Go eat some liberty cabbage.
      The burqa ban applies to schools only.

    5. Re:What do you expect? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Burkas foridden in France ?

      Are you on crack ?

    6. Re:What do you expect? by lixee · · Score: 1
      Don't hold your breath man...wearing burqas is forbidden in France.
      Wearing T-shirts with Arabic text on them doesn't seem to be very tolerated in the US; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297822.stm

      The wearing of the Islamic veil can lead to exclusions from schools in France; Though in half the cases taken to court, the student gets back to school. For the anectode, the French justify it by saying that religious symbols shouldn't be allowed on school premises. It was only a matter of time before somebody went after the Christmas tree. How do you like'em apples! http://www.clubic.com/forum/rapport-explosif-des-i nspecteurs-de-l-education-t271800.html

      I'm not French, but it sure seems to me like we could all learn something from them.
      --
      Res publica non dominetur
    7. Re:What do you expect? by bibi-pov · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not that I want to be off-topic or a troll at all, but...

      Yeah right, like wearing burqas was a way for women to free themselves... On second though, maybe not ! Maybe next step is to allow men to pour acid on unfaithful women because, clearly, they deserve it and by not allowing it we impede men's freedom.

      But, wait ! Burqas are not forbidden in France, they're only forbidden in public school (along with kippas or too big christian cross), because, we (you should have guessed I'm French by now ;-) ) think that state and religion are to be separated and religion is a private matter.

    8. Re:What do you expect? by thanasakis · · Score: 1

      As some friends also pointed out later in the thread, the burqa applies only to schools. Sorry, my mistake.

      But anyway, I did not in any way mean it as an insault to the French people. On the contrary, I have been to France, it is one of the finest and most civilized countries in the world, and apparently they are very careful not to let religion get in the way of certain aspects of life. Hence, the burqa ban on schools. One of the foundamental ideas of the French democracy is Egalité which means that all people are equal. Letting people discriminate others or themselves would apparently heart the implementation of that idea.

      In fact, I wish that more countries could have the boldness to tackle sensitive matters like that in an active way.

    9. Re:What do you expect? by oliderid · · Score: 1

      Burkas is the whole body (hands and face hidden).

      The things that has been forbidden is the islamic veil (to hide hair) and only at school. It is only applied in their public school (there are already muslim private schools for those who cannot live without it).

      Immigrants in France are from North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and so on) and Turkey. There are no burqas tradition in these countries (Burkas is from Afghanistan I think).

    10. Re:What do you expect? by Guignol · · Score: 1

      Pardon,
      We like them WYSIWYG :)

  6. US of Eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whilst cheering them on, don't forget to order your Freedom toast or Freedom fries from your favourite -restaurant- or -cafe-. ;-)

    1. Re:US of Eh? by WilliamSChips · · Score: 1

      That was only the US Government Kitchen that served "freedom" toast or fries(neither of which were actually made in France) and they changed the names back to French Toast and French Fries.

      --
      Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
    2. Re:US of Eh? by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      Actually, if I recall, it was the cafeteria for one of the house office buildings. Not the entire government.

  7. Does this mean by Itsallmyfault · · Score: 1

    They've given up on Windows?

    1. Re:Does this mean by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HAHA funny! not.

    2. Re:Does this mean by Tony+Hoyle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yeah, they're using fenêtres instead :)

    3. Re:Does this mean by slack_prad · · Score: 1

      No, they're going to dual boot.

      --
      Sent from my desktop computer
  8. mo3 up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    implementation to bben the Best,

  9. Good for them! by tttonyyy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    While the rest of the world umms and ahhs about OSS and things like nuclear power, the French just get in there and do it. Despite the poor attitude that many have towards the French (you know who you are!), you've really got to admire them sometimes. :)

    --
    biopowered.co.uk - catalytically cracking triglycerides for home automotive use since 2008. Just say no to big oil!
    1. Re:Good for them! by turgid · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yes, but the French are smelly. British people are not. French people use Linux and nuclear power. The British run Windows and burn gas and oil to make elecricity. The French are proud of their culture. Britain tries to be like America.

      See any connection?

      Where did I leave my pills?

      --
      Stick Men
    2. Re:Good for them! by caluml · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the French just get in there and do it

      That is true. They are very good at delivering projects too, at least from my UK perspective. We worked with them to make Concorde. They built that huge new bridge above the clouds in France.
      I like many things about France. Let's hope they don't become too Anglicised/Americanised.

      --
      Get your own free personal location tracker
    3. Re:Good for them! by Cheapy · · Score: 0, Troll

      I will admit, they are a fairly good and consistent road bump for Germany.

      --
      Would you kindly mod me +1 insightful?
    4. Re:Good for them! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      No, I don't have to admire those bastards. I f'in hate them, frankly. Just one more reason
      to dislike the OSS community...

    5. Re:Good for them! by h4rm0ny · · Score: 1


      God! I have to find an excuse to go and see that bridge. I'm going to have to dig out a tour book and find something in the region that I can tell my partner we're going to see without giving away that I want to go to France so I can look at a bridge. :)

      --

      Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
  10. Typical French Approach by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Embracing the enemy

    Vichy Windows

  11. Wait until they found Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Is harder to use, and not very well integrated.

  12. a good but somewhat strange move.... by bedonnant · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...considering that the assembly recently voted the infamous DADVSI law on copyrights etc. remember when there were talks here on slashdot about a global licence for music and everything? well, everything got thrown out, and the so-called "Universal" amendments were brought in. Universal referring to the music magnate of the same name. Essentially, it is illegal in France to distribute or even promote software that "obviously" aim at sharing copyrighted material. Downloading and sharing mp3s is still assimilated to counterfeiting and thus theoritically punishable by up to 300 000 fines and some years in jail. Other amendments are so clearly incompatible with OpenSource practices that many companies, associations, and experts have repeatedly sent petitions and warnings. To no avail. And today the assembly annouces it will run Linux. Maybe they will realize that in order to view DVDs legally bought, one has to circomvent protections (which is illegal according to the DADVSI law). As a Frenchman though, I welcom this annoucment even though it is a small joy after the DADVSI fiasco. At least the inner workings of our democracy will not depend on a foreign company's goodwill.

    --
    ~~~ Paf. Le chien.
    1. Re:a good but somewhat strange move.... by bedonnant · · Score: 1

      lamely replying to my own post... this move towards embracing opensource software in the French administration is not new. as far as I know, the police has switched to openoffice and firefox, and this summer about 400 000 government computers switched to openoffice as well. it is an encouraging trend.

      --
      ~~~ Paf. Le chien.
    2. Re:a good but somewhat strange move.... by Conti · · Score: 2, Informative

      What you probably don't know is the fact that even if sharing copyrighted material is forbidden in France (as in the US), there's one big difference... The justice is asked not to deal with that issue. I mean, you almost have to do a living out of copying copyrighted material to risk being sued. There're several reasons for that: - the department of justice has already enough *real* issues to deal with (real criminal activities), - suing individuals would reduce internet expansion in the country, which is a priority of the government. In France, one can often see large ads in the streets made by ISP. Those ads often explain how much *MOVIES* or *HOURS OF MUSIC* one can download with the available bandwidth. ;)

    3. Re:a good but somewhat strange move.... by BokLM · · Score: 1

      Hopefully this is only temporary, and a new law will be voted next year.

      --
      wtf.n0x.org
  13. grumble by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, all right.

    I, for one, welcome our new open-source software embracing surrender-monkey French overlords.

    viva le Tux!

  14. Considering... by Noryungi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The same parliament voted recently for the most restrictive copyright law in Europe, a law that could potentially kill french open source projects, and that was practically written by the French RIAA, there is a sweet smell of irony in the air...

    On the other hand that was probably the plan all along: write a stupid law to placate the RIAA/MPAA of this world. A law so totally impossible to enforce, that any case brought in front of a court would be laughed out of the justice system. And then, benefit from Open Source, safe and sound in the knowledge that you [the members of Parliament] have taken your bribe, and you get to benefit from Open Source on top of it. Bastards.

    And if you think I am making this up, I invite you to read the documents in the link above and discover the whole sorry mess for yourself.

    [As a side note: I am French, and I despise all these wankers, so take this not as a troll, but a letting off steam.]

    [Side note 2: also, I was one of the few French who actually took the time to protest the whole thing, so don't give me the "you should have done something" line Mmmmmm'kay?]

    --
    The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
    1. Re:Considering... by Mr+Thinly+Sliced · · Score: 1

      Hehe a French guy quoting Rowan Atkinson :) Drole

      Having seen the whole sorry state of affairs we have here in Europe for the moment surrounding software patents (Brit in Beglium), I salute a fellow geek who is not ashamed to show his true colours. Its about time some of the more apathetic geeks STARTED VOICING THEIR OPINIONS

      *looks at our brethren over the water*

      Guys, hows about it? You know how important the internet is to your economy, right? Just one or two little *protests*.....

      [Nota Bene: Le discussion entre la commission et le parliament est pour l'instant gele sur le sujet du "patent sur logiciel" - sous marine est le strategy dans chaque pays si je comprends bien.... ]

    2. Re:Considering... by ericwb · · Score: 1

      Nice try. Let me translate that into French for you:
      :)

      [Nota bene : la discussion entre la Commission Européenne et le Parlement est pour l'instant gelée concernant les " brevets logiciels ". La stratégie est sous-marine dans chaque pays, si je comprends bien...]
    3. Re:Considering... by PhB95 · · Score: 1

      The EU parliament dropped software patents, so for now it's officially a dead case. But I repeatedly hear intense lobbying goes on to re-open the debate. Probably not with the current chamber, as this would be considered an outrage. Now wait when the next MEPs are elected and I'm sure it will resurface...

      --
      One of those Europeans...
    4. Re:Considering... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe this is one benefit we can get from this *** law : the procedure was launched during DADVSI, under the demand of several anti-DADVSI members of the Parliament... and obviously, their arguments were good enough for the President to ask an audit of the national assembly's information systems.

      Among them, Christian Paul and Patrick Bloche, Frederic Dutoit, and especially Bernard Carayon and Richard Cazenave, both part of the UMP majority (which helped), who first demanded this procedure. You can read their reaction to that great news on their web sites.

      Let's hope this new IT environment will enable *all* the members of the parliament to realise how important free software is, why it's being threatened permanently, and why we should *all* protect it.

    5. Re:Considering... by Mr+Thinly+Sliced · · Score: 1

      Thanks for toughting me.

  15. OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

    Having lost my Office CD a few months back in an unfortunate smelting accident... Okay I stepped on it... I was forced to switch to OpenOffice myself. I'm still using Windows due to compatibility issues with my hardware components, but everything besides Windows and IE7 has been replaced with OSS. My personal opinion: 1) OpenOffice Writer is 95% as good feature-wise as Office imho, and the PDF support is a boon. My two biggest complaints are the somewhat limited spellcheck, and the fugly Office 97 interface. Needs some polishing, but other than that, it is a perfect replacement for Office, for me. Additionally, as a law student, the excellent cross-program file support is a boon. I started using OO originally to open WordPerfect documents (WP is heavily used in the legal profession), and it didn't need the darned Office CD to do it! :) Odd cursor behavior, occasionally, and the default word completion are annoying... 2) Thunderbird is a great replacement for the mail component of Outlook. However, again, interface problems make it a little more difficult to use than the Microsoft offering. Visually, the interface is a little more up to date than OO. However, some default settings are very irritating, like starting a reply message at the bottom. Plus, some options are difficult to locate, but I do like the ability to adjust settings for all accounts on the same screen. 3) Gaim. Please make the cursor work correctly. It is a wonderful problem, but for some reason, on some of my machines, there is no text cursor.

    1. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by Petrushka · · Score: 1
      Odd cursor behavior, occasionally, and the default word completion are annoying...

      Tools - AutoCorrect - "Word Completion" tab - uncheck the "Enable word completion" box (or else customise to suit taste).

    2. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by jo7hs2 · · Score: 1

      No, I know how to turn it off, otherwise I probably wouldn't have mentioned that it was a default. Point is, the default itself (which isn't exclusive to OO) is annoying. Worse still, I find the automatic numbering and bulleting MORE intrusive than in Office, and a little more difficult to turn off, because the toolbar for it seemed to keep "forgetting" I wanted the numbering off. The menu setting did, however, work in stopping it. Still less intrusive than Office.

    3. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by sponga · · Score: 1

      Well you probably should have made a backup of the cd or just downloaded another one off the net and use your cd-key. Oh yah and if you are a student you can get office for super cheap; like $20 whever they offer it.

    4. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by jZnat · · Score: 1
      However, some default settings are very irritating, like starting a reply message at the bottom.
      That's proper netiquette. ;)
      --
      'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
    5. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by Budenny · · Score: 1

      OO macros however, its not sweet, its simply diabolical. No chance for a non-programmer. You may not approve of non-programmers using MS Office macros. But fact is, there are a few small things lots of people want to automate, which they can do easily in MS Office, and not at all in OO. Like, for instance, having a character input, any character input, which would operate the toolbar total button... Easier to write your own application from scratch than try to figure out how to write an OO macro to do this.

    6. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by Bert64 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Email replies should always start at the bottom, unless your writing in a language that reads from the bottom upwards (do any exist? theres a few left to right languages but i`m not sure about bottom to top)...
      Trying to follow a conversation where the reply comes BEFORE the original question is a horrendous thing to do, this is known as top posting... And consider the following short example:

      A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
      Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
      A: Top-posting.
      Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

      Ever noticed how on slashdot, the story is at the top, and the comments descend from there, with child posts being below their parents etc... Now imagine the whole thing upside down.

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    7. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yes your right, and for this reason I hate /. especially as most of the idiotic posts that people put no thought into always end up at the top and you have to wade through the shit to get to the better ones! or were you for some reason trying to say top down is good???

      seriously though I hate TOP down, it sucks, in an email you more often then not know what the topic and discussion is about by the subject and DON'T want to wade through the crap to get to the next message in the thread. It may not be as language intended but it is done that way because it is EASIER.

    8. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by Bert64 · · Score: 1

      If slashdot were done the way you describe, how would you understand the context when reading this reply?
      Would this post make any sense whatsoever without seeing it's context?
      Email is the same, because:
      Often in business people get CC:'d in right in the middle of a conversation (So you need to read the context)
      In mailing lists, it's often easiest to go to the last post and read the whole thing in one block than trying to find every post and read each one.
      And if you revisit an old email (many people keep their mails for years) it's much easier to read the whole thing in one block than read it backwards or find every related mail.
      And as for wading through crap, in mail you know the reply will be at the bottom, just go straight down, or configure your mailer to start after the indented text (your mailer can do that, right?)

      --
      http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
    9. Re:OpenOffice is pretty sweet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When someone answer to me in a mail or newsgroup you know what I hate ?
      reading my own word because he replied UNDER my words, forcing me to scroll to read the actual interesting stuff...
      You know why I dont NEED people to answer under what I just wrote:
      because even the so called worst newsreader of the world outlook express is smart enough to use a tree to order the post when someone use the reply button....
      And for mails, theres no more than 2 or 3 ANSWER/Reply, or you just use the goddam phone since you seemingly cant communicate properly enough to keep the question answer ratio short enough.

      third thing, people only bitch afeter the first 'rule' of usenet telling to answer after quoting, but never makes it to second rule:dont fucking quote the whole post if you only answer a 2 or 3 lines argument....

  16. but..... by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 1

    do you really want to be embraced by a Frenchman?

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:but..... by chris_mahan · · Score: 1

      Maybe you should try a Frenchwoman someday...

      --

      "Piter, too, is dead."

  17. I'm confused by Plutonite · · Score: 1

    I thought the French were all going straight to Hell.

    1. Re:I'm confused by Coeurderoy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Of course they are going to hell, where else do you think they will be able to find loose women (or men) and good wine ?
      And of course all the dead pan humorist, and agnostics thinkers, funky artists and other enemy of orders.

  18. Which "linux"? by flydpnkrtn · · Score: 1

    I'm curious "which linux" they're switching to...
    Are they...
    1. "Rolling their own" like Munich? (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux/)
    2. Picking a vendor/distro? e.g. RedHat/RHEL, Novell/SuSE, etc.
    3. Going with an established distro like Debian?

    Anyone know?

    --
    Here's to the crazy ones
    1. Re:Which "linux"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, if the website of the French Communist Party is any indication, it will be Debian.

    2. Re:Which "linux"? by David+Off · · Score: 1

      I can't answer your question but I've worked on some French govt. OS projects. Antares - a Ministry of Education system for recruiting lecturers and professors used Weblo. (as it is called here - Weblogic AS) on RedHat.

      The Interior Ministry, Finance and Economic Ministry, Customs and Ministry of Works all use Open Office having migrated from Office 97. The Gendarmeries eC@RE project is also migrating a lot of functionality to Open Office. We are talking around 150,000 to 200,000 seats in total for these ministries. In most cases these systems will run legacy Windows 98 or 2000. A lot of the equipment is very dated so can't run more recent OSes.

      My wife works for the Conseil d'Etat (Supreme Court) and most judges and recorders are still on Windows and Office but there is no reason beyond administration I can see why this couldn't be migrated as they only use limited parts of these applications.

    3. Re:Which "linux"? by Odiseo70 · · Score: 1

      What about Mandriva ? It's a Frech distro. It's my favorite distro too because It seems to me perfect for desktop. Anyone knows ?

  19. OK-considered by zogger · · Score: 1

    In the US a lot of crap is technically illegal. For the most part, when it is really stupid, we just ignore it. See "prohibition" for one instance. See "speed limits" for another. And so on. It may take us some years, and unfortunately, some times it takes decades, but eventually a lot of stuff gets sorted out for the better.

  20. Pour les gens français... by mkiwi · · Score: 1

    C'est forte intelligente!

  21. You can make fun of them... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... whenever you want.

    But with a name like Carayon one would make a lot of success here in Brazil...

  22. Safe Nuclear Power? by ClosedSource · · Score: 1

    "76% percent of the country's electricity generated from safe, clean, and abundant nuclear power."

    You put the words "safe" and "nuclear power" in the same sentence. That's an oxymoron.

    1. Re:Safe Nuclear Power? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it isn't. It all depends on the nuclear power technology being used. I don't know if the currently used French nuclear power plants are of this safe-considered technology. At least I know they are working on a new generation of nuclear reactor that ensures a much smaller risk of meltdown or other hazards.

      Things develops. So should your assumptions.

    2. Re:Safe Nuclear Power? by ClosedSource · · Score: 1

      The issue is nuclear waste.

  23. Mod parent down by alexhs · · Score: 2, Informative

    Mandriva is as close to a French national distro as Red Hat is an american national distro or SuSe a german national distro.
    Red Flag is state-founded, others aren't.

    Please inform yourself before commenting or moderating inappropriately.

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    1. Re:Mod parent down by tehcyder · · Score: 1
      Please inform yourself before commenting or moderating inappropriately.
      No, the phrase "national distribution" does not mean "state funded distribution" except in the eyes of a rabid free marketer; so it's perfectly legitimate to say Mandriva is French and SuSe is German.

      If I say that football and beer are the national sport and drink of England, I am not implying that they are State funded or approved in any way.

      No doubt the original poster was attempting a Linux=Communist troll, but it didn't make sense.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  24. They are way ahead... by phred75 · · Score: 0

    The French hate the Americans way to much to ever become like them. :) I totally applaud their move to open source and I'm hoping one day to see my government (Canada... once we get rid of the conservatives) move toward open source. The cost of switching would be initially high but once we stop forking out shitloads of $$$ to M$ we would for sure come out ahead. Create a nice chunk of IT related work too! I would even like to see a distro that caters to multiple levels. One for home users, another for goverment, another for law-enforcement, health care, intel, military.. etc. Has this idea ever been looked at before?

  25. Re: Toughting by ericwb · · Score: 1

    "Toughting"? And what does my EKG explanation have to do with this thread?

  26. Calling All Docs, Calling All Docs by Mr+Thinly+Sliced · · Score: 1

    Sigh must I explain everything. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

    I was pointing out your error in the spelling of the word 'taught'. Thought I'd explain some english to you. Guess we missed that boat, eh.

  27. State subsidized nuclear power. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    That means, not economically viable.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.