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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."
chair == chaise
throw == jet
monkey == singe
boy == garçon
Frubuntu anyone? :-)
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.
To me, Fedora is the RPM equivalent of Ubuntu.
I'm not sure either should be used as an enterprise's first Linux desktop rollout; Windows admins aren't accustomed to their relatively furious rate of major releases.
Debian might have been a better choice, with its slow release cycle and decent security patch rollout rate.
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
enterprise-ish
Would you care to define enterprise-ish for us non-bullshit speaking types?
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
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.
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"
That sounds like pretty good description of Ubuntu to me!
Which of those characteristics you describe are Fedora, (Open)SUSE or Debian better than Ubuntu at?
Just to be clear, I'm not saying I think think Ubuntu is better than the others. In fact Fedora is probably my favourite disto. I just don't see how it is more "enterprise-ish" than Ubuntu is.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
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!
There's no law saying you have to be bleeding-edge; they can perfectly well stick with Dapper, which is the current 'long term support' release. The rest of us can install pre-release versions of Feisty if we want, but it's certainly not compulsory.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
The thing is that Ubuntu is built around the latest and greatest bleeding edge bits and pieces, it's quite common for stable packages to be replaced with beta versions and for things to break horribly without warning. Maybe Ubuntu could start releasing a toned down distribution for use in environments where stability and predictable behaviour is more important.
You have no clue how the Ubuntu releases work, do you? What you proposing exists since 06/2006, it is called Ubuntu 6.06 LTS
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Hmm. Perhaps you haven't heard of the LTS release. Dapper is supported on the desktop for 3 years, 5 on the server. Packages are stable, only getting security and bug fixes. Similar to RHEL. I'm sure this is what they're planning on using. If not, they need to fire the implementers.
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
enterpriseish: expensive, in such a way as to allow the head of IT to justify his large budget and hence status within the organisation; carries connotations of several very nice lunches with vendors and junkets to important conferences on an expense account.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
"Glad I don't do my IT work in France"
So are the French.
IMHO, the main area Ubuntu lacks is in configuration. It's a step backwards in that regard as it does require editing config files if the default doesn't cut it. Ie, if you need to change something with X you have to modify
"The Federal Reserve is a fraudulent system."--Lew Rockwell
End The FED. -
Linus... is that you?
Probably you aren't aware, but "debconf" (the tool) has a (working?) GTK backend, other than the "cursed" one...
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
In Ubuntu or Kubuntu you need to replace both GNOME and KDE to get something stable. They apply a bunch of experimental patches to "improve" the experience, but the patches often creates more bugs.
/usr/local to PATH!), and they have obscured everything but /home and /mnt in the file-browsers, making it hard to access your webpage in /var/www, your source code in /src and your optional packages in /opt !!
There also seems to lack mature features for installing 3rd party content. This might not be much of a problem for really basic desktop user, but for a standard Linux users not being able to install and run tar-balls is a real problem (ubuntu doesn't even include
In Ubuntu or Kubuntu you need to replace both GNOME and KDE to get something stable. They apply a bunch of experimental patches to "improve" the experience, but the patches often creates more bugs.
For serious? I haven't heard about any of this, nor experienced any of its effects (to my knowledge).
There also seems to lack mature features for installing 3rd party content. This might not be much of a problem for really basic desktop user, but for a standard Linux users not being able to install and run tar-balls is a real problem (ubuntu doesn't even include /usr/local to PATH!), and they have obscured everything but /home and /mnt in the file-browsers, making it hard to access your webpage in /var/www, your source code in /src and your optional packages in /opt !!
Last I checked, hidden system folders is a Kubuntu-specific feature.
We must tell the French government! What will they do without being able to find their source code!?
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 ;)
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 ]
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!
Once you've had a chance to actually deal with real-world users in the government enterprise environment, you know exactly what I mean. Linux is a great solution if every user has a basic grip on how to use a computer and are willing to explore and figure out how to do things. But in the real world, most aren't.
Actually, I think Linux is a lot better for this than Windows is. I've seen incompetent management types who can only access files from the "most recent" list in Word and have no idea where their files are stored or even what the whole file/folder metaphor is about. The difference is, with Linux it is fairly easy to customize the interface such that the tasks a user needs to accomplish are mapped directly to big buttons that are omnipresent and it is possible to make the one hundred random controls that those user don't ever want to touch, invisible by default. Remember we're talking about deploying in a centrally managed environment. Rolling out software and patches and even doing remote support tasks is a lot easier using Linux than Windows.
I guarantee that the oldest/most senior users in the french government are going to call IT every time they want to do something they weren't shown how to do, or simply forgot or became too tech-timid, when they were set up with Ubuntu.
Sure they will, and they'd do the same thing if they were upgraded to a newer version of Windows. The difference is the ease of accommodating them.
Despite the fact that "OMG Windoze wantz to rulez world so it suckz" seems to be the normal opinion here...
This is a strawman argument. No one but you said Windows sucks.
Windows XP is a solid OS with a familiar feel...
A "familiar feel" is an argument against all change. Change can be difficult and has real costs, but sometimes those costs are outweighed by other factors.
...most importantly, real support from a massive dev team.
Umm, Ubuntu probably has more professional, paid developers working on it than Windows does. Trying to get a flaw in Windows fixed is an exercise in frustration. Unless you are huge, good luck. You can wait till service pack 3 or the next release of Windows in another 5 years. Trying to get the same flaw fixed in Ubuntu is a matter of calling one of the two support companies that are part of this contract, or Canonical, or another Linux distro, or getting an internal employee to fix it, or hiring an independent contractor because all of those are options and have access to the source. Better yet, you can take competitive bids from all of them to see who will work most cheaply, and the same applies for new features of customizations.
Getting real support for Windows is a matter of hiring a company who will solve what they can without the source and pester MS on your behalf and hope for the best. That is the inferior support option.
As oppossed to a group of nerds who just don't want to pay for software so they build a modified version of Unix for themselves.
Are you smoking crack? Do you even know any Linux developers? Most of them work for IBM or Redhat or Motorola or Home Depot, or one of thousands of other companies that use Linux as a component of their business model. Heck we submit fixes and improvements to Linux all the time and not because Linux is license free, but because it was the best fit for our project and because customers demanded it. In fact some of our projects ran on BSD variants until customers demanded Linux for greater customizability with tools they were familiar with. Since the cheapest box we sell is about $40K, adding another couple hundred for an OS license is not really a significant expense if it had any benefits. It doesn't and has significant negatives.
The French parliament has two professional services companies for support and they are professional coders. They can buy support from Cano
Umm, Dapper isn't even the stable version, is it?
edgy is not a long term support release, support for it will be discontinued in a relatively short timeframe and its reported to be ubuntus buggiest release to date.
You speak as though all the support options rested on the shoulders of Canonical, but that is simply not true
do any of those companies have the rescources and inclination to do thier own tracking on what security issues pertain to what ubuntu versions and backport those security fixes themselves if ubuntus long term support promises turn out to be hollow?
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
I am computer geek remember?. French or not I am not supposed to know anything before Jan 1, 1970.
:)