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French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubuntu
Ynot_82 writes "The French national police force, the Gendarmerie Nationale, has spoken about their migration away from the Windows platform to Linux. Estimated to have already saved the force 50 Million Euros, the migration is due to be completed on all 90,000 workstations by 2015. Of the move, Lt. Col. Guimard had this comment: '"Moving from Microsoft XP to Vista would not have brought us many advantages and Microsoft said it would require training of users. Moving from XP to Ubuntu, however, proved very easy. The two biggest differences are the icons and the games. Games are not our priority."'"
... but solitaire and minesweeper are great training for stakeouts ;-)
You don' frighten us, Microsoft pig-dogs!
Now if only state and federal agencies in the US would do some of the same. Sadly, so long as corporations are allowed to lobby, the pork train will probably continue.
Free is cheaper. Who knew?
Haiku for you!
"French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubuntu."
Jesus Christ! Windows was killing millions of people in France?!?!
What the summary doesn't mention, but is worth noting, is that they were already using open source programs where possible---Firefox, Thunderbird, OOo. Now I think their migration is wonderful, but I suspect it might have been somewhat more difficult if users were asked to adjust to new programs, as well.
Yes.
I did have to pause a moment to think millions of what? Initially I thought people.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Jesus Christ! Windows was killing millions of people in France?!?!
Why do you think they call it the 'Blue Screen of Death'?
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No, no, millions of _Francs_. About $1.98.
-- Consensus - 50% probability that the majority are wrong.
So can we now call Linux the Allies coming to save France? I didn't want to 'call' the other side of that.....
No! No, way! You absolutely, positively are NOT going to trick me into saying that Microsoft is the Axis of Evil! Do you have any idea how fast I'd be modded down by the Microsoft fanboys? Forget it! I'm not doing it!
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And why do you think the French sigh of exasperation is "sacre bleu"?
Not just in France, the summary says Euros, so people all over Europe.
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Actually, it's a reference the Virgin Mary, for whom the color blue is sacred.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
The Gendarmerie Nationale already used free software daily such as open office. The migration would have been more complicated is they were using MS Office.
They saved millions by migrating 90,000 desktops to OpenOffice, they have migrated only 5,000 desktops to Ubuntu, they plan for 15,000 by the end of 2009, and 90,000 by 2015. (IIRC).
The title of the article, and the title of the slashdot posting is inaccurate - the savings are real, but the reason was not Ubuntu - it was OpenOffice.
Ken
French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubuntu
French Police are going door to door these past days informing citizens of the long-term health
effects of Windows. The so far largest campaign for public health in the history of France is
expected to continue for another week and is aiming for a coverage of over 90% of the nation's
households. Jean Trudeaux, an elderly villager in the Bretagne recalls opening the door to officers
early in the afternoon and being asked if he owned a computer. Acknowledging the possession of
a computing device, Trudeaux learned of the immense cardiovascular risks associated with using
inferior desktop software that is sold to an unsuspecting public bundled with almost every sale
of computer hardware. At the end of the conversation with the officers, Trudeaux remarks:
"I don't use my computer that often but that's mainly because it's such a hassle to do anything
with it and then I get really really mad".
While the campaign has certainly not escaped the attention of Microsoft it has also been noted
by the medical profession world-wide. In an interview with Dr. Francois Boudoir, one of the foremost
advancers of the field of cardiology in France the connection was quickly made between reducing the
amount of time spent in distress to downright rage and the more than obvious benefits thus incurred
for cardio health. "This campaign will save millions of lives in the long run and we need to look at
this problem from more angles than just the cardiologist's perspective. This is also a quality of
life issue."
You?
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
Actually, there are two separate national police forces in France.
The Gendarmerie Nationale is, (adapted from Wikipedia):
The Police Nationale is, (adapted from Wikipedia):
Atheism is a religion to the same extent that not collecting stamps is a hobby.
According to Guimard the move to open source has also helped to reduce maintenance costs.
Keeping GNU/Linux desktops up to date is much easier, he says.
"Previously, one of us would be travelling all year just to install a new version of some anti virus application on the desktops in the Gendarmerie's outposts on the islands in French Polynesia.
A similar operation now is finished within two weeks and does not require travelling.
Aaah... government work.
Not only do they find an exceptionally complicated way to solve a simple problem - they don't know when to keep their mouth shut when it goes in their favor.
Traveling around French Polynesian islands updating anti-virus software for living?
Why yes. It is MUCH better to sit in some windowless room instead.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
First, a small precision: The Gendarmerie Nationale is not exactly the French national police (called Police Nationale in French), but an armed force (the fourth french armed force, after infantery Armée de Terre, navy = Marine Nationale, air force = Armée de l'Air). The small difference between Gendarmerie & Police is that Gendarmerie members are exactly soldiers (with strict military discipline).
In practice, Gendarmerie tend to work in rural or semi-rural areas, while Police tend to work in urban zones (actually, there exist some kind of competition between Gendarmerie and Police, which gives interesting french thriller films and books) And they have different legal abilities. For example, in some limited cases, a Gendarme can legally shoot his gun first, while in principle a Policier (policeman) can use his gun (policemen and gendarmes are armed with guns) only for self defense (but IANAL so I may be wrong).
Gendarmerie is centralized and military, so it was easy to order them to switch at once to Linux [no training needed; just an official order from a high-rank official]. And I hear their IT department was strong enough to customize (without subcontractors) some Ubuntu distribution to the exact needs of Gendarmerie (which includes access to some peculiar databases). This could be an explanation of why Gendarmerie did not need any support from Mandriva.
But Mandriva still has several French state contracts, including even research contracts on collaborative projects.
Disclaimer: I do work sometimes with Mandriva on collaborative research projects (such as GGCC).
no
they donated their code.
if they wanted to get paid for their code, they should have not donated their time.
I am surprised that they didn't go with Mandriva, seeing how I am pretty sure they are based in France.
1: Switch your applications to Open Source.
2: Switch your operating systems.
And ironically, the best way to switch people away from Windows is to port free and open source applications to the platform.
Deleted
How much training have you received in using the apps that you use 90% of the time?
Just curious.
I don't know anyone who has received formal training in how to use their email client, web browser, word processor, or presentation software. If they don't
know how to do something, they simply ask peer who does.
*sigh* back to work...
Oh, shut up and eat your 'freedom fries' already
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
Gendarmerie Nationale is a branch of the French army, and are not the police. One major difference is that they are allowed to shoot to kill, while the police is not allowed to shoot even after they get shot at and are injured.
"Bleu" was a voluntary mistake. Preventing to say "Dieu" (god) at that time it was forbidden to curse his name, but people did it none the less, just hid themself a bit" This guy is quite famous in curses. Sacre is the ceremony for making someone holy or something like that.
The games that come with Vista are quite a bit better than gnome-games:
Chess Titans
Freecell
Hearts
Inkball
Mahjong Titans
Minesweeper
Purble Place
Solitaire
Spider Solitaire
Most of these have been updated quite a bit, both with respect to looks, sounds and playability.
Although I miss pinball, I miss gorilla.bas even more :-)
The IBM PC was a hamster wheel, and MS-DOS smelled of Elderberries...
And what is the air velocity of a chair thrown by a CEO?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
French Police Save Millions
At first I was so glad and thought they saved millions of people.
But I was wrong it was again about money...
Staggering.
Essentially 500 jobs worth of money shipped to bill gates every year.
And that is just france.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.