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Secret EU Open Source Migration Study Leaked

Posted by kdawson on from the why-they-stick-with-office dept.

Elektroschock writes "For 4 years MEP Marco Cappato tried to get access to the EU Council's 2005 open source migration study because he is a member of a responsible IT oversight committee in the European Parliament. His repeated requests for access were denied. Now they have finally been answered because the Council's study has escaped into the wild (PDF in French and English). Here is a quick look. It is embarrassing! Gartner, when asked if there were any mature public Linux installations in Europe, claimed that there were none. Michael Silver said, 'I have not spoken to any sizable deployments of Linux on the desktop and only one or two StarOffice deployments.' Gartner spread patent and TCO FUD. Also, the European Patent Office participated in the project, although it is not an EU institution."

3 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Oh noes! by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Essentially, a 6 year old and a 96 year old need to be able to use the system.

    Actually, those two demographics are the easiest to convert. While my mom isn't 96 by a long stretch, she uses Ubuntu and has no problems whatsoever. Her computer literacy is close to 0.

    The problem users are those we call "power users". People that have used Windows for years and know the ins-and-outs, but do not know them deep enough. They can pretty much be found in the 20-65 demographics, also known as those of working age. My dad falls in the power-user demographic and he still uses WinXP. That said, he is very open to Linux and understands it well enough to use it.

    Do note that you said "use". The system still has to be set up by someone who knows what he does.

  2. Fraud and conflict of interest by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sue Silver for fraud; also he has a conflict of interest because he is a self-declared Windows tool and Linux is the main competition (sorry, Mac users.) Finally, never ask an all-business BA+MBA for technical information. You will only get statistics.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  3. Re:Why do we let Gartner Continue? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    let's see from the top of my head:
    - all government and schools in extramadura in spain
    - schools in gran canaria
    - french police (still migrating)
    - munich

    and those are just the ones that immediately come to mind, there's undoubtfully more if you dig a bit.