Slashdot Mirror
French Parliament Chooses Ubuntu
atamyrat reminds us that last November it was announced that the French Parliament had decided to switch to Linux. At that time the distro had not been determined. It will be Ubuntu: "[T]wo companies, Linagora and Unilog, have been selected to provide the members of the Parliament as well as their assistants new computers containing free software. This will amount to 1,154 new computers running Ubuntu prior to the start of the next session which occurs in June 2007."
It strikes me as a good distro for individuals new to Linux, but I personally would never deploy Ubuntu in a business or government setting. I would go for something a little more enterprise-ish, like Fedora, (Open)SUSE, or Debian.
--Thomas J. Owens
chair == chaise
throw == jet
monkey == singe
boy == garçon
the French would get something right?!?
The original generic sig.
Frubuntu anyone? :-)
Two years from now the parliament will be switching back. This is going to cost them thousands in retraining fees, and cause headaches when their users say, "but I used to be able to do this in windows," and "why do you mean we can't run vendor xyz's software on our computers?"
This should be interesting, but I ultimately think it will just set them back a couple of years.
just another gov't trying to get favorable pricing from Microsoft.
They may have passed a resolution "choosing Ubuntu", but I'll bet that most of the representatives probably think Ubuntu is a particular type of French grape grown only in the Camargue and processed by Monks of the Suse sect in Aix-en-Provence.
From FAQ: How does Wubi work?
Wubi adds an entry to the Windows boot menu which allows you to run Linux. Ubuntu is installed within a file in the windows file system (c:\wubi\harddisks\ubuntu.hd), this file is seen by Linux as a real hard disk.
How do I install Ubuntu?
Run wubi, answer the few questions, reboot and select "Ubuntu" from the boot menu, go grab a coffee and when you are back Ubuntu will be ready for you.
How do I uninstall it?
You uninstall it as any other applications. In windows go to the control panel and select "Add or Remove Programs", then select Wubi and uninstall it. You can also use the uninstaller that you find in C:\wubi\uninstaller.exe.
While it's not my favorite distro, there are plenty of support options available for Ubuntu. Of course I'm pretty sure you knew that and just felt like tossing out a troll. The alternative is you're just daft.
One word: Momentum!
Res publica non dominetur
Of our frog-eating, garlic-flavoured open-sourced political masters ...?
I seem to recall, just a few years ago, Microsoft was declared in court as being a monopolist.
Now as I understand it, that's not illegal as such. It is, however, to use a monopoly to manipulate other markets.
So, ever so quietly, Microsoft is supporting Linux in general up to the point where Microsoft can no longer be seen as a monopoly.
Then it can go back to its previous predatory practices, maniulate other markets merrily, and nobody can say a word.
Have I got that right?
(I mean, it wouldn't do to see this as good news, surely?)
"Cats like plain crisps"
A new desktop theme is not an operating systems revolution.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Well-done troll, except Canonical does indeed provide paid support. Also, I fail to realize how sodomy plays a role in this wonderful distro, but I'm not one to judge based on the omission of a few pesky facts. "Don't complain, fix it" is my philosophy. Great job!
What will you tell your children when they ask you why using an operating system that was free and therefore obviously developed by terrorists was more fun than using Windows?
What will your children think when they hear that terrorism had won because you installed VMware to make dual boot less annoying?
The future of the world is in your hands!
Because the first year of real bureaucratic workers using only Linux will be hell.
why not ORACLE enterprise linux??? you would imagine support would matter - well, oracle should be able to give support.
From the attitude of the OP troll I would guess he calls it "sodomy" if people of different skin color hug each other, or when people of the same sex do. (Remember the outcry 2 years ago about their theme photo, http://www.javipas.com/wp-content/ubuntu.JPG)
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
I'm still trying to put my stand into words. I'm for software patents, for open-source, and not against closed-source.
--Thomas J. Owens
I'm french and for once proud to be :-p
....
Obviously that the only good decision that the french gouvernement took for a long while
Why do they have to purchase new machines? I bet Ubuntu will run just fine on their current equipment.
just watch out for chairs though... ;)
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
It seems that the deal clincher was that Linagora and Unilog promised to integrate a surrender button so essential to French diplomacy in each computer provided.
The French parliament is obviously not going to submit patches. The companies they have hired to provide local support might submit patches that makes their support job easier, but those will just come in through the normal patch stream, and not be obviously linked to the parliament.
You might now that this kind of decision is taken internally to the French Parliament. They have their own independent budget (that they vote for themselves) and governement has no right whatsoever to interfere with this.
It's an implementation the the principle of separation of powers
(Voltaire or Montesquieu ?).So you can't even give credit to govt for this decision.
Will be bashing all Ubuntu linux users next as unAmerican. .... well at least the ones I know about
http://saveie6.com/
Send X% of I.T. budget to the U.S., and spend the remaining 100-X% paying local people for support OR Spend 100% of budget paying local service people/companies (This is government remember). I assume they probably chose Ubuntu because it isn't also tied to support contracts with Redhad and Novell (ie. They can support it locally if they wish). I'm curious, what would be the downsides of chosing Ubuntu for this purpose?
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
Did you know that the Isle of Mann is NOT part of the UK or the EU? In other words not very "British" at all ;)
...to lose the OS war!
Or go for the local national stuff, like Mandriva / Mandrake ?
As opposed to the south-african origins of ubuntu, german origins of SuSE and american origins of RedHat
(Although I personally prefere SuSE's YaST to Mandriva's DrakConf. But public backing could boost sales of the distro and help finance more work on the config tools)
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Actually the clincher was removing all of the false evidence of WMDs that could lead the US to attack them. After all the French can expect the Americans to attack almost anything that moves nowadays. I guess they really regret supporting those nasty rebels in the British Colonies, it has certainly not served the world well. God Save the Queen!
Of course, what did you expect from a law student? :D And as a Norwegian the Isle of Mann has a special place in our history. It was after all a Norwegian kingdom. Did you know Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame lives there?
Okay, this is entertaining. Are you accusing the French of being socialists? France is ruled by the UMP a Conservative political party member of the International Democrat Union just like the US Republican Party!
P.S. You are more likely to find sodomy in the halls of the U.S. Congress - where pages really know what pain in the ass means!
They say it "Eu-bun-teu".
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
I too am surprised that Mandriva did not make the grade.
As for an inaccurate view of the French mindset, I would posit that, none of us have a clear view of each others mindset on a personal level, much less a cultural level.
Then again, the French government is the only one, outside of a George Orwell novel, that has an agency dedicated to "language purity".
(Voltaire or Montesquieu ?). Montesquieu.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_Of_Powers or as we're talking about France: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9paration_des_
I see you've got a French url in your profile so you should know that or don't they teach that stuff in High School over there any more
Another urban legend :) Many countries have such an agency, for instance in Spain they have the Real Academia Espanola (equivalent to the French Académie française) and they also have the Instituto Cervantes (equivalent to French Alliance Française).
The purpose of these agencies is mostly to make sure that the written language does not differ too much from a country to another one while the spoken French can be very different (I have difficulties understanding people from some regions of Québec or West-Africa for instance, but we write the exact same language unlike Brits and Americans who have languages clearly diverging).
German is another example of a language with an even stronger "official" version, they had a huge language reform in the 80s/90s that went way beyond what the Académie Française ever did and which purpose was to normalize written German.
See the Wikipedia list of languages with a regulation body, which is a looooon list : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_regu lators
Absurd.
BTW, anyone notice that the only way that Linux can compete is thru government mandate?
I am computer geek remember?. French or not I am not supposed to know anything before Jan 1, 1970.
:)
Those French do so love their protectionism at the expense of flexibility and a fair market, after all.
Let's not forget that supposedly fair market loving Americans subsidize their cotton farmers with huge federal subsidies at the expense of African cotton farmers.
I don't know why the french deputies choose Ubuntu, but it could be, for example:
At least, it's some reasons I moved to Ubuntu recently. As I am french, perhaps it will enlighten you about "french mindset".
You see, the french can be quite idealistic: Remember that time, when the same National Assembly almost voted for free download, before being beaten into submission by the senate and the french government?
George Orwell talked about a country whose government spied on its population, used war as a mean to control it, and used the media as propaganda vehicle, to make its lies appear like truth...
Seems familiar, doesn't it?
; p
Must I conclude from you half baked wrong arguments you are still pissed about being wrong about Irak?
In the name of France, and all the french people, I say "We're sorry."
Sorry for being right. Sorry for your not-so-funny comment. Sorry your life seem to be so miserable you need to hide it behind ill conceived contempt for the french.
And believe us, if is there something the french are immune to, it is contempt... You see, arrogance is so much in our DNA and culture you'll need talent to even attract anything from us but smiling frowns of pity for the average disdainful comment. (I'm not speaking of your above abysmal comment, of course. Please, check your facts and have some brain examination for a possible Hydrocephalus affliction)
You see, it's like a game, for us. The Brittish know that we like to argument for the sake of argument... And the other's utter humiliation. Not so dissimilar from Tauromachy. We, the french, take some fact, and go against the official trend saying something we know is true. (Note the we know is true part. It's important). And somehow, there is always some braindead macho man coming up with his "My own is longer than your's" challenge to defy us on our own grounds. And then, of course, the braindead monkey ridiculizes himself. Of course, even after admitting some semantic miscalculation, the victim can't still accept being in the bad end of an international joke, apparently everyone knowing it even before the beginning of the invasion.
And then, after all the efforts we put together, using our intelligence services, working night and day, trying not to spill the joke and contain our laughter, sending our most talented orators, having half the world agreeing with our viewpoint when you painfully put together your supporters, the only biting, acid, venomous answer you have is "Hey, I was told they eat frogs, Muah ah ah!" ???
WTF???
-- Yours truly, France, (very, very, very disappointed)
ROFL. Wow, until you actually have any idea what I believe, you shouldn't open your mouth. I have absolutely nothing against France, it was an attempt at humor. I found it pathetic when our government renamed French Fries to "Freedom Fries", it struck me as a childish tantrum. I believed from the very beginning that the French were right about Iraq. So please, until you know what you're talking about, don't open your mouth. And you (by you I mean the French) are obviously not immune to contempt or you would not have posted such a lengthy reply to what you wrongly viewed as contempt. In actuality, the only thing I hold contempt for is you (and this time I mean you, not the French) for being such a brain-dead idiot you can't tell a joke from... not a joke.
I respect the French. I hope you're not an average example of the French because then I may just lose my respect for them. Go sodomize yourself with the Eiffel tower.
Grammar Nazi
This is great for Ubuntu! But, for atleast my brother and I, we use ubuntu, and find that it isn't easy to save on bandwidth when upgrading: Ie, both computers 'have' to download their own package files and install them. I'm sure you can save bandwidth somehow by looking at what is being upgraded, and if it is common between the two systems then downloading the latest version and sharing it between the two over our localhosts, but then again, that's hdd space which is limited over a few cents worth of bandwidth :P
signature is pants
Now Unbuntu has become un-cool.
news here and here.