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."'"

Comments

Games are not our priority

[macxcool]

... but solitaire and minesweeper are great training for stakeouts ;-)

Re:Games are not our priority

[Thelasko]

How do they ever expect to catch Riddler?

Re:Games are not our priority

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

... but solitaire and minesweeper are great training for stakeouts ;-)

Doesn't the default version of Ubuntu have both? Mine does along with Chess, Othello, Tetris, Sudoku, Mahjongg, Blackjack, and a few others.

Re:Games are not our priority

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

In fact, solitaire really is great training for using a mouse. Time and again I have seen novice computer users of all ages, who would otherwise struggle with the mouse, become quite proficient after only an hour or so playing solitaire.

Now if they could just be gotten to stop playing solitaire afterwards, they could move on to other lessons.

Re:Games are not our priority

[JWSmythe]

    Fortune is good for teaching people how do web programming.

    Make it show Fortune.

    Make it format pretty.

    Keep clicking reload, and keep making it prettier. :)

    I actually put it back into my personal site. I got the BOFH excuses fortune file, so whenever someone needs an excuse, they can just click.

    "Power Company having EMP problems with their reactor" :)

Re:Games are not our priority

[SleepingWaterBear]

Come on, how much better can minesweeper or solitaire be?

Well, the minesweeper's basically identical, but Aisleriot solitaire (the default Gnome solitaire game) comes with 80 different solitaire variants, which beats the 3 or so that come with windows by a good ways. I personally like Hopscotch.

Gnome also comes with something like 17 games by default, and you can install hundreds more if you want them without even opening a web browser. I will grant that the networked hearts/spades games in XP are something I would like to see an equivalent to in Ubuntu.

Run away or I shall taunt you a second time

[Teresita]

You don' frighten us, Microsoft pig-dogs!

Re:Run away or I shall taunt you a second time

[MacColossus]

They said they were looking for the Vista Grail. I told them we already have one.

Re:Run away or I shall taunt you a second time

[Anonymous Coward]

Fetchez la vache!

Go France!

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

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.

Re:Go France!

[whoever57]

Sadly, so long as corporations are allowed to lobby, the pork train will probably continue.

Hey, it's not "pork", it's an "economic stimulus".

Re:Go France!

[Darkness404]

Honestly, not supporting a business that resides in your nation during the current state of the economy is a pretty bad thing for the government to do.

But which companies to support? Red Hat is based in the USA as are many other Linux-based companies. The thing is, when you keep buying things from a certain company just because its made in the USA, you help monopolies and deny justice. Why would the justice department pass a ruling on MS if everything they use is MS based and in the short term it would cost more money to switch?

The point is that the government should be helping to foster the development of it's own economy by investing into it.

But why support a company convicted of running an abusive monopoly? Sure, if it was cheaper to do it the MS way it might make some sense, but compared to Linux, MS is very expensive for little to no quality benefit. By buying MS products governments are helping MS build an even larger monopoly along with effectively tying the hands of judges in monopoly cases.

Re:Go France!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

If your choice is between equivalent options, one foreign and one domestic, then perhaps that is true. However, if the options are not equivalent, that doesn't necessarily hold.

In this case, for instance, the contention is that a government agency can save millions of dollars by using Linux. Millions of dollars saved is millions you don't have to collect in taxes, or millions that you can do other things with(depending on whether you think the organization in question should focus on present level of service, controlling costs, or present level of cost, improving service).

If a government can actually save money by using linux, then their using Windows amounts to overtaxing their citizens for the benefit of a private corporation. That is bad.

Re:Go France!

[IdleTime]

And the corn syrup produced in such copious amounts can now be found around Americans waists...

Re:Go France!

[dedazo]

Why is it so difficult to understand that breaking the law does not equal committing a crime? Would you be OK with the police putting you away for a year because they caught you going 5mph over the speed limit? After all, you did break a law by doing so.

A criminal conviction can result in prison time, execution and/or a fine. A civil judgment will never land you in jail, it will never get you killed (although it can bankrupt you) and it does not imply criminal behavior in any way. It only means you were found to have broken the law in some way.

Microsoft was found to be in violation of antitrust law because they abused their position as a monopoly. They were never "convicted" of anything, and the legal proceedings against them were civil, not criminal.

If you think that's a semantic point, consider having a felony (murder) on your record, as opposed to a misdemeanor (jaywalking). Then try passing a background check the next time you are up for a job.

Re:Go France!

[Lars512]

Defense has additional and different concerns than other areas of government. They need to make sure that even if a war broke out with a country that you and I buy components from, the military can still source the components to build what they need. If that means keeping a less efficient industry in business in the States, consider it an expensive insurance policy.

It makes perfect sense, but it's also a bit funny when you consider that DOD itself is just an enormous insurance policy. Or at least, it should be...

Duh

[spykemail]

Free is cheaper. Who knew?

Re:Duh

[Enderandrew]

Except for most of the suits I've dealt with at my last two companies. We keep talking about the need to save money and cut costs, so we lay people off. When I show them articles how IBM saved over 100 million dollars last year migrating more Windows systems to Linux, they balk at the notion. We literally use everything from Office 97 to 2007 here, and we can't share documents internally. We had a big crisis when departments couldn't work together on a budget, because no one could open each other's files.

I suggested OpenOffice to several execs, and not a single one would consider moving away from Office. It is just unthinkable. They keep insisting they want everyone on the same version of Office (and we have Mac users with Mac Office) but they won't buy new Office 2007 licenses for everyone. They want a solution that is free, but they are terrified of free software.

Instead, they'll cave and buy more Office 2007 licenses, and fire more people to make up the difference.

Re:Duh

[Totenglocke]

Your anecdote further strengthens my view that American companies are all run by idiots. I swear, American companies sit down and figure out the most efficient way to run the company and then say "Ok, great -- lets do the exact opposite".

Re:Duh

[dkleinsc]

They aren't run by idiots. They're run by selfish bastards. There's a big difference.

An idiot will make you fill out form 22/B in order to get a new stapler because he doesn't know of any other solution. A selfish bastard will make you fill out form 22/B in order to get a new stapler because he wants to save money on staplers and knows that most people won't take the time unless they really really need one.

This may seem like the effects are similar, but they aren't: the idiot, when he hears of a more efficient way, will at least consider changing it or at worst be very confused. The selfish bastard, when he hears of a more efficient way, will fire the guy who made the suggestion for undermining his authority. It's a difference between Dogbert and the PHB.

French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubuntu?

[canuck08]

"French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubuntu."

Jesus Christ! Windows was killing millions of people in France?!?!

Applications already migrated

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Applications already migrated

[Anonymous Coward]

They migrated their applications first, as part of a phased rollout, aimed at being a first step before the migration to Linux.

So the users did migrate applications, it just wasn't at the same time as changing operating system.

Re:Applications already migrated

[Chris Burke]

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.

Of course it would have been more difficult. That just means they did it right, switching to Free applications first then to the Free OS. They probably saved money in the first step as well as the second, and lowered the burden by doing it phased rather than dumping it all on the users at once.

Re:did i read that wrong?

[geekoid]

Yes.
I did have to pause a moment to think millions of what? Initially I thought people.

Re: French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubunt

[morgan_greywolf]

Jesus Christ! Windows was killing millions of people in France?!?!

Why do you think they call it the 'Blue Screen of Death'?

Re: French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubunt

[nixdroid]

No, no, millions of _Francs_. About $1.98.

Re:Allies?

[morgan_greywolf]

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!

Re: French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubunt

[Anonymous Coward]

And why do you think the French sigh of exasperation is "sacre bleu"?

Re: French Police Save Millions Switching To Ubunt

[hansamurai]

Not just in France, the summary says Euros, so people all over Europe.

For information

[godrik]

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.

Re:For information

[getclear]

Not particularly, they would have had to offer retraining from 2003 to 2007, as well as on the new OS.

No, that's not what they did

[kenh]

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.

Re:No, that's not what they did

[fm6]

The title of the article, and the title of the slashdot posting is inaccurate...

What's your point?

There are 2 separate national police force

[thirty-seven]

The French national police force, the Gendarmerie Nationale...

Actually, there are two separate national police forces in France.

The Gendarmerie Nationale is, (adapted from Wikipedia):

the national gendarmerie (a military body charged with police duties among civilian populations) and military police force. Its missions include:

• The policing of the countryside, rivers and coastal areas, and small towns with populations under 10,000. About half the French population is under the direct jurisdiction of the Gendarmerie.
• Criminal investigations under judiciary supervision.
• Crowd control and other security activities.
• The security of airports and military installations, as well as all investigations relating to the military, including in foreign interventions.
• Participations in ceremonies involving foreign heads of states or heads of governments.
• Provision of Military police services to the Military of France.

The Police Nationale is, (adapted from Wikipedia):

the main civil law enforcement agency of France, with primary jurisdiction in cities and large towns. In those larger cities and towns, its mission includes:

• Conducting security operations (patrols, traffic control, identity checks...).
• Conducting criminal enquiries, serving search warrants, etc under the orders and supervision of the Investigating magistrates of the judiciary. It maintains specific services ("judicial police") for criminal enquiries.

Re:Mandriva snubbed?

[basiles]

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).

Re:Sadly, "thanks" is all those programmers will g

[initdeep]

no
they donated their code.

if they wanted to get paid for their code, they should have not donated their time.

Mandriva?

[generalchaos23]

I am surprised that they didn't go with Mandriva, seeing how I am pretty sure they are based in France.

So now you have a project plan

[Colin Smith]

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.
 

Re:Pretty easy?

[Dan Ost]

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.

*Microsoft* surrenders!

[billstewart]

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?