Italian Military To Switch To LibreOffice and ODF

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Italian Military To Switch To LibreOffice and ODF

Posted by timothy on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @02:33AM from the latin-roots dept.

jrepin writes: The Italian military is transitioning to LibreOffice and the Open Document Format (ODF). The Ministry of Defense will over the next year-and-a-half install this suite of office productivity tools on some 150,000 PC workstations — making it Europe's second largest LibreOffice implementation.

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Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 02:41 · Score: -1

What do do, guard against an invasion from the Visigoths?
1. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 02:52 · Score: -1
  
  Yes, Italy has a military. And it's not full of obese, alcoholic, ugly cretins like yours (given your post, 99.9% chance you're american).
2. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:00 · Score: -1
  
  Apparently you have no clue.
3. Re:Italy has a military? by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-15 03:02 · Score: 1, Flamebait
  
  Italy has a military?
  Italy had a powerful military when Americans were crapping on the ground and worshiping buffalo.
  
  --
  You are welcome on my lawn.
4. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:05 · Score: 0
  
  Oh, you means the guys who didn't need boats to get to America, before the guys who did need boats to get there got there... Gotcha :)
5. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:06 · Score: -1
  
  I think he/she does instead.
6. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:22 · Score: -1
  
  Stop living in the past. Now we don't even need a military to order Europeans to eat our feces. Can you feel that TTIP going up your ass, eurosluts? I bet you can squeal like pigs! Weeeeeee!
7. Re:Italy has a military? by Type44Q · 2015-09-15 03:29 · Score: 2
  
  Italy had a powerful military when Americans were crapping on the ground and worshiping buffalo.
  What, Florence and Venice?
8. Re:Italy has a military? by Type44Q · 2015-09-15 03:32 · Score: 2
  
  Florence, Venice and the Vatican all relied on a private military known as Condottieri; was that what you were referring to?
9. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:32 · Score: -1
  
  Yet which military crumbled like a cracker the last time these two forces went head to head?
10. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:32 · Score: 0
  
  The last actual thought I had about the Italian military is that they had recently decommissioned their ancient Lockheed F-104 Starfighters. Being thin is the natural state of the poor.
11. Re:Italy has a military? by ShanghaiBill · 2015-09-15 03:34 · Score: 2
  
  There are 16 countries without a military, and Italy is not one of them. There are about 175,000 people in the Italian Armed Forces, and according to TFA, 150,000 of them produce documents. I believe that the last time they won a war, was their invasion of Albania.
12. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:49 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Way before Florence and Venice. You know, there was this thing called Roman Empire, which basically amounted to 90% of the civilized world 2K years ago. If we look at more recent times, Italy was part of 3 wars over the last century, it won two of them (one against the Ottoman Empire and WWI). It lost WWII only because it was driven by an idiotic dictator who entered the war after a 3 month preparation. As for the US, the last three wars it was part of were in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention the recent "proxy war" with Russia in the Donbass region: the brilliant results speak for themselves.
  But probably in US high schools History is not cool enough to be taught, they teach you "courses" like rollerblading and "home economics" instead, and at night you might enjoy the katrashians.
13. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:49 · Score: 0
  
  You mention that Italy HAD a powerful military. The GP asks if Italy HAS a military. :P
14. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:57 · Score: 1
  
  1939. Which was just 6 years before the US won its last war, in 1945.
  Unless you consider what happened in Iraq a "victory" (is ISIS your ally?), let alone Afghanistan, that is still today largely controlled by the Talibans.
15. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 04:00 · Score: 0
  
  Italy had a powerful military when Americans were crapping on the ground and worshiping buffalo.
  Never live in the past, man.
16. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 04:11 · Score: 0
  
  It seems that your views of daily American life are just as wrong and skewed as you think ours is of yours.
17. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 04:49 · Score: 0
  
  Well if your army is so great and superior to the US then by all means show us how to do it. Go ahead and walk right into Iraq and Afghanistan and show us all how it's done. History tells this American born citizen that the Russians had the same problems in Afghanistan so we aren't the only ones who had "lost" battles there. In Iraq against Sadam's military, we wipe the floor with their best tank divisions in what a week or two? And the Iraq airforce was defeated the US how fast? Go ahead and explain to all of us how you defeat the war we currently have where the bad guys wear the same clothes as the good guys?
  I'll wait for your genius response.
18. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 05:21 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Go ahead and walk right into Iraq and Afghanistan and show us all how it's done
  Why should I? And why should Italy? Saddam Hussein didn't do anything wrong to Italy, he was a pretty good leader, he kept its country stable, I don't remember any refugees coming here when he was in power. I wouldn't have attacked him in the first place, just like Khadafi in Lybia, just like Assad in Syria, two other pretty good leaders. And there wouldn't be massive amounts of refugees coming to Italy and several other european countries as a result. As for the Talibans, sorry, but Bin Laden was harbored by Pakistan, not Afghanistan, as events eventually proved. But Pakistan has nukes, so you were afraid to bomb it, right?
  Basically everywhere you go you make a massive mess, just like the obese kid in the class when he tries to decorate the christmas tree: many kilograms on the belly, zero neurons inside the head. Except that the damages of your mess are paid for by somebody else.
19. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 05:42 · Score: 0
  
  You mean WWII? When the Americans waited in Sicily for three years for the Germans to leave Italy?
20. Re:Italy has a military? by Eunuchswear · 2015-09-15 05:51 · Score: 1
  
  You know, there was this thing called Roman Empire, which basically amounted to 90% of the civilized world 2K years ago.
  If you somehow failed to know about China.
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
21. Re: Italy has a military? by Eunuchswear · 2015-09-15 05:52 · Score: 1
  
  Well if your army is so great and superior to the US then by all means show us how to do it. Go ahead and walk right into Iraq and Afghanistan and show us all how it's done.
  
  History tells us that "walking into Afghanistan" is how it is not done
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
22. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  Indeed. One does not simply "walk" into Afghanistan.
23. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 06:36 · Score: 0
  
  Ok, the expression "civilized world" might be offensive because China was already "civilized", but only the most desperate sinofiles would really claim that 2K years ago China was on par with Rome, especially considering that Rome also enjoyed the cultural, artistic, scientific and technological progress of the civilizations that it had conquered, some of the most advanced in the world at that time (especially the Greeks and the Egyptians).
24. Re:Italy has a military? by behrooz0az · 2015-09-15 06:54 · Score: 1
  
  And Persia, Britannia, Egypt and bunch of others.
  
  --
  Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
25. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 07:43 · Score: 1
  
  How to do it is to not do it. Simple. It is not possible to conquer a complex country like Afghanistan. If you really want the territory where the Afghans are living, than you have to kill them all, just like the Romans did in their prime time when tribes didn't want to join the empire. But a war to spread democracy and liberty in Afghanistan? It can't be done.
  Iraq? It's easy to kill a dictator, but it was not the solution to the non existing problem. It was a dictator with blood on his hands, that is something we all know. But there flows even more blood without that dictator. Iraq is a country that shouldn't exist. It should be divided in different nations or it should be part of a pan-Arabian state with a part joining a Shiite empire and another part joining a Sunni empire, where all other religions have to pay their taxes or convert to Islam. Or again, if you just want the territory, commit genocide. Hunt down the people, village after village. Scare them with brutal executions. IS shows the way. They don't even have to kill everyone, most people are on the run. But a war to spread democracy and liberty in Iraq? It can't be done.
  So many empires in history have failed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yes, many have won battles, but nobody ever won a war. Just leave them alone in their misery. Maybe they become enlightened some day. Maybe the genocide by IS is what is needed to stabilize the region? Maybe this apocalyptic end of Syria and Iraq is the plow that prepares the land to plant the seeds for a successful and peaceful society that has turned its back to this awful religion?
  Now Europe is planning to also start dropping bombs on Syria. So both the US and the EU will be dropping bombs on both Iraq and Syria. But to what purpose? What bloodthirsty minority are we going to help this time? Do you really think that removing Assad or IS from those deserts will all of the sudden bring peace to those countries? It was rather calm over there when the dictators where still in power. The Arab spring didn't bring democracy, it only made it clear to me that Islam is a religion that wants total control of the world. Moderate or not, it's what Islam is all about. Islam is not just a religion, it's a complete way of live including laws, politics and culture. Islam is not competing with Christianity, but with Globalism and liberalism.
  Look at Egypt. There was democracy when the previous dictator was gone but the majority chose to live in a totalitarian theocracy. Egypt would have been a totalitarian theocracy if the new dictator didn't take action. This is what the current Islam is all about. Once it might have been a tolerant religion that brought peace over a large region and brought prosperity and scientific progress. But something went wrong when some theologists started to reinterpret the holy scriptures and demanded total submission to Islam and only to Islam. That's why the crusades where necessary back in those days. Europeans still have to apologize for the crusades, but the region was rather peaceful under the Crusader states. To protect the 'moderate' people in the 'holy lands', the crusaders had to become ruthless killers themselves. Islam has radicalized again, and only a small percentage of radicals in a sea of moderate Muslims is needed to bring terrorism and this horrible IS.
  Do you want to stop this? Kill everyone who doesn't want to submit to your authority and place someone of your own kind as the local leader. Don't want to just randomly kill people because that is an unethical thing? Than stay out of that area, you can't solve their problem without bloodshed.
26. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 07:57 · Score: 0
  
  And Italian army has some specialized forces, like Alpini, Carabinieri, Granadieri, which are not found in any other army.
  For example Alpini are trained on the alps, they have specific training for mountainous and high elevation terrain, they can operate where cars, and helicopters have problems. They were explicitly requested for operation in Afghanistan.
  Carabinieri are the only military police which operates ordinarily as a civil police, they have a specific know how in the sector, they were requested for operations in Iraq by the US. Many died there and there was a terrorist attack on their base there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Nasiriyah_bombing
  To the OP:
  Please remember that the US isn't the only country paying with their military lives in the conflicts around the world.
27. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 07:58 · Score: 0
  
  Egypt was conquered by Rome, just like most of Britannia:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
  You might want to open a history book sometimes, ignorant idiot.
28. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 08:12 · Score: 0
  
  Throw an Unsigned italian sausage up your ass...
29. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 08:20 · Score: 1
  
  Britannia and Egypt were both part of the Roman Empire. And London itself was literally founded by the Romans. Finally, the Persian dynasties lost many of their western territories to the Romans, especially in the 2nd century AD.
  You must have attended elementary schools either in the USA or in the fourth world.
30. Re:Italy has a military? by RabidReindeer · 2015-09-15 08:31 · Score: 1
  
  I had a friend who claimed the the Italians had never lost a war, even if it meant they had to change sides to make sure of it.
  He was Italian, BTW.
31. Re:Italy has a military? by fph+il+quozientatore · 2015-09-15 08:54 · Score: 1
  
  As far as I know, Alpini have a specific training only for drinking grappa.
  
  --
  My first program:
  Hell Segmentation fault
32. Re:Italy has a military? by redmid17 · 2015-09-15 08:57 · Score: 1
  
  Not trying to take away from Italian special forces here, but are you seriously saying that they have roles/forces not found in any other army? The 10th mountain division has existed in the US army since WW2. Hell they served specifically in Italy. The US military has 4 mountain training facilities. As to the Carabinieri, well they are basically a mixture of MPs and the FBI. They aren't unique either. The French Gendarmerie are the identical (national police as part of the army). The Dutch and Portugese have one too.
33. Re: Italy has a military? by Rakarra · 2015-09-15 09:12 · Score: 1
  
  As for the Talibans, sorry, but Bin Laden was harbored by Pakistan, not Afghanistan, as events eventually proved.
  
  He was harbored by both. In the ten years before he was caught, he had a lot of time to move around. He was in Tora Bora when the US invaded Afghanistan, but managed to evade capture, at which point intelligence agencies lost track of him.
  
  But Pakistan has nukes, so you were afraid to bomb it, right?
  You may have missed the part where once the US tracked down Bin Laden, they invaded without telling the Pakistani government. Caused a bit of a stir.
34. Re:Italy has a military? by unixisc · 2015-09-15 09:35 · Score: 1
  
  What do do, guard against an invasion from the Visigoths?
  That was gonna be my question as well. Ever since the end of the Cold War and the open-border approach of all European countries, it's a wonder that any of them have militaries at all. In Italy's case, who do they defend themselves against? Austria? France? Switzerland? Croatia? The only people invading them are refugees from Libya, and they don't even have the balls to turn them away w/o needing a military. So what good does it do Italy to have a military?
35. Re:Italy has a military? by unixisc · 2015-09-15 09:37 · Score: 1
  
  You have to go back pretty far to get to the time that Italy had a decent military. In the Middle Ages, it was a part of the Austrian Empire.
36. Re:Italy has a military? by unixisc · 2015-09-15 09:39 · Score: 1
  
  The US won a war against Iraq in 1991, unless you consider the non-removal of Saddam as a stale-mate
37. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:06 · Score: 0
  
  The Maritime Republic of Venice was actually a pretty fearsome military power during the medieval and renaissance ages, they fought a lot against the hungarians (hun ogres) both at sea and on land. At the Lepanto battle of 1572 that broke ottoman turkish sea power forever, venets provided 2/3rd of the christian coalition's ships and manpower, alongside the Pope and the Spanish Kingdom. Venetian galleys didn't use slaves or prisoners at all, so in CQB even their oarsmen would take up arms to fight, which gave them the upper hand.
  Venetian power was actually broken by two huge pestilence epidemics in 1574 and 1630, which killed 35% and 40% of the city state's population, respectively. After that, both their demographics and morals remained permanently broken, catholicism having been replaced by 6 month carnevale, freemasonry and gambling. By the time of Casanova, even their nuns became prostitutes.
38. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:10 · Score: 0
  
  Completely wrong. Only northeastern Italy - and not even all of it - fell under austrian control, and only for some decades between the 18th and 19th centuries (definitely not in the middle ages), and not even continuously. Plus, Italy defeated the Turkish Empire in 1912 (conquering Lybia) and was among the winners of WWI.
  This discussion is becoming ridiculous, pure american ignorance at its best.
39. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:22 · Score: 0
  
  > they had recently decommissioned their ancient Lockheed F-104 Starfighters
  Huh? They had decommissioned their Starfighters a LONG time ago. Because the Eurofighter wasn't ready at that time, italians actually leased a few dozen F-16 from the USA to fill the gap. Those F-16 have also been returned last year and now Italy uses the EFA-2000 Eurofighter for air to air combat, with the Panavia Tornado and the AMX doing the air-to-ground attacks (and soon the Macchi M346 as well). In fact, last week Italy has seen the first flight of their first F-35 JSF fighterjet prototype, which american aircraft type is made in Japan and Italy to a large degree (carbon reinforced carbon parts making). Italians have B-767 aerial refuelling tankers to support their Eurofighters and Tornados, a rare capability in Europe. Italy is world's third manufacturer of helicopters (Augusta Westland) behind Kochbrotheristan and Putinistan and of the three, Italy has the most advanced, highly carbon based designs, although they are still more problematic than legacy dural sheetmetal builds.
40. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:28 · Score: 0
  
  He was harbored by both.
  
  That's what you say. There's no proof the Taliban government actively "harbored" him. While it is blatantly clear that Pakistan did, since he was "hiding" near a Pakistani military academy.
  
  You may have missed the part where once the US tracked down Bin Laden, they invaded without telling the Pakistani government.
  
  You may have missed the part when the USA fought a 10-year war with Afghanistan, while it didn't do the same with Pakistan even once it knew Bin Laden was really being harbored there. A one-night "invasion" doesn't cause a nuclear war, but only a diplomatic incident. It's easier to only bully the shortest kid in the classroom, right?
  Just today the North Korean leader threatened the US with nuclear war, however for some strange reason you don't really feel like "exporting democracy" there, right? Last time it didn't go very well, and they didn't even have nukes yet.
41. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:33 · Score: 0
  
  Just for the record, USA/UK couldn't break through Italy to the north and reach Austria (then annexed Volks-Deutsch lands of the Reich) before WW2 ended. The nazi troops and their italian fascist comrades (the so-called Salo Republic led by the rescued Benito Mussolini) put up really big resistance. The USA was very desperate, they even tried aerial terror bombings, razing Monte Cassino, Padova, etc. but the Axis frontline wouldn't budge and the anglo-americans could only watch the soviets march into Austria ending the war.
42. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:50 · Score: 0
  
  The middle ages ended with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks. Venice was still powerful. Occasionally the French and the Holy Roman Empire got involved as did lots of mercenaries from northern europe. The City States of Italy were very rich and powerful the Renaissance started there as well as double entry book keeping the beginnings of modern finance and capital.
43. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 13:23 · Score: 0
  
  It lost WWII only because it was driven by an idiotic dictator who entered the war after a 3 month preparation.
  The oh-so-clever democratic rulers made less progress fighting the mafia in decades than Mussolini in just a few years. He was not stupid.
  There are many reasons the war was lost, but blaming the country with the fewer troops makes little sense. Even if every Italian fought for two there wouldn't be anywhere close to enough men to hold the line.
44. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 13:41 · Score: 0
  
  Are you nut? It was about "90% of the civilized world 2K years ago." which is of course false unless he was only counting western world. And you are saying that if roman empire "enjoyed the cultural, artistic, scientific and technological progress of the civilizations that it had conquered", it means it is 90%?? You can go all nut.
45. Re:Italy has a military? by unixisc · 2015-09-15 14:01 · Score: 1
  
  The war that Garibaldi fought was against foreign powers who colonized Italy - namely the Austrians and the French. And that was during the post Napoleonic period
46. Re:Italy has a military? by youngone · 2015-09-15 14:47 · Score: 1
  
  My Grandfather was in Italy during the war and ended up in Trieste
  He like the Italians, and learned to speak Italian quite well, so that he could order wine for his unit. His take was that Italians pretty much wanted everyone to go home, they generally had no interest in fighting.
  His view may have been coloured by the fact that his unit, (the New Zealand Division Signal Corps, so not front line troops) took a lot of Italian prisoners during the Middle East campaign.
47. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 16:29 · Score: 0
  
  You're an idiot and clearly ignoring basic things, like China in relation to North Korea and why would USA start war with ally AFTER killing Bin Laden?
  Your logic is busted.
48. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 20:06 · Score: 0
  
  Not being a native English speaker I clearly did not make myself perfectly clear. What I meant is that those special forces were specifically requested for certain situations in international missions. There are a few details about the training of some of those forces which are said to be unique by experts, but I don't know the details and can't speak about it.
  In the end what I was trying to show is that Italy does have a military, and they do have proficiencies and expertise. Italy definitely has a military force.
  As a side note Italy constitution forbids Italy to levy war to another country, we can only take part to international peace missions and defend ourself (and no, attack as defense does not count). So Italian military force isn't structured for attack.
49. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 21:54 · Score: 0
  
  Ok, so, to sum up:
  - The post Napoleonic period has nothing to do with the Middle Ages
  - Austria controlled just a small part of Italy (Lombardia and Veneto, and not even all of them) and only for a few decades
  - Actually France HELPED Italy to regain its independence. It backed the Kingdom of Piedmont and Sardinia (whose military was directed by Garibaldi) that re-unified all of Italy for the first time since the Roman era. You're probably confusing "France" with a branch of the Bourbon dynasty who ruled a kindgom in southern Italy and who happened to have french origin, but it was not backed by France
  - You forgot to mention that Italy won a war vs. the Turkish Empire in 1912, and was among the winners of WWI. So you don't really have to go back to the Roman times, or to Venice, or Florence in the Renaissance, etc... to find and era when Italy had a great army
  Hopefully your IT skills are better than your knowledge of history.
50. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 22:05 · Score: 0
  
  Are YOU nut? Do you really want to compare the degree of civilization, scientific and technological progress of the Roman Empire, with China in the same period? It's like two alien civilizations in two different planets. This is how Rome looked like 17 centuries ago:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
  And several of those buildings are still standing today, the Pantheon is even used as a normal church every week (!).
  Now show me how Beijing looked like in that era...
51. Re: Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 22:40 · Score: 0
  
  Oh, reality bites, huh? So why was the Afghan war fought even after Bin Laden was killed?
  The crude truth is that when your obese camouflaged tourists face a serious military they get regularly wiped out, as it happened in Vietnam and partly in Afghanistan as well. So no wonder Pakistan is free to harbor Bin Laden without any consequences and North Korea to threaten a nuclear war on a weekly basis.
52. Re:Italy has a military? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 22:55 · Score: 0
  
  There are many reasons the war was lost, but blaming the country with the fewer troops makes little sense. Even if every Italian fought for two there wouldn't be anywhere close to enough men to hold the line.
  The same reasoning could be made about the war between Italy and the Austrian empire during WW1, as well as the war between Italy and the Turkish empire in 1912: but Italy won both. So it's just wrong.
  Plus, the better option for Italy was to stay out of WW2 and become a neutral country, like Switzerland: now it would be fully sovereign, without Nato and american bases, and probably richer than Switzerland itself (who the hell would have ever placed the headquarters of several international organizations in the ugly Geneva if they could have put them in Rome, Venice or Florence instead?).
  Mussolini was not only a dictator and a criminal, but also a world class idiot who chose the wrong ally and took the wrong choices at the wrong time.
53. Re:Italy has a military? by Archwyrm · 2015-09-16 03:27 · Score: 1
  
  Unfortunately the 10th "Mountain" Division carries this title only in name. They are simply another IBCT and conduct no specialized mountaineering training. They are located at Fort Drum, NY which is flat as a pancake and much closer to the Great Lakes than any mountains. In fact, there is no large formation in the US military with that capability. As far as training facilities/schools go, I am only aware of the Army Mountain Warfare School and the USMC Mountain Warfare Training Center. The former is located in Vermont (and both NY and Vermont's mountains are a joke compared to say.. the Alps or the mountains of Afghanistan) and I have never met anyone in 11 years of Army service that has attended the school (seems to be mostly a "fun" school for Vermont National Guardsmen and ROTC Cadets). The latter Marine Corps school seems to take things a little more seriously, located in the Sierra Nevadas and offering some pretty advanced training. I can't speak for Marine attendance at this school but the Corps is small and mostly concerned with the ocean. I would imagine the school gets some patronage from Special Operations Forces, for example the Army maintains a number of Special Forces mountaineering teams. Again, that is very small though. So no, unfortunately the US military has very little mountain capability. The days of the 10th Mountain skiing down the slopes in the Rockies is long gone.
  
  --
  Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
54. Re:Italy has a military? by vgerdj · 2015-09-16 05:35 · Score: 1
  
  Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, ... began on the night of 9/10 July 1943, and ended on 17 August. Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied landing on mainland Italy on 3 September 1943. How much wronger can you be?
55. Re:Italy has a military? by Eunuchswear · 2015-09-17 02:54 · Score: 1
  
  Roughly the same period as the Jin dynasty (265–420) in China.
  Population around 22 million, maybe a third of the population of the Roman empire at its greatest.
  
  --
  Watch this Heartland Institute video
56. Re: Italy has a military? by Rakarra · 2015-09-20 10:43 · Score: 1
  
  Oh, reality bites, huh? So why was the Afghan war fought even after Bin Laden was killed?
  Because the United States was not at war with Bin Laden, it was at war with Al Qaeda, of whom Bin Laden was the head. Killing Bin Laden does not kill his terrorist networks.
Confusion Intensifies by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 02:48 · Score: 1

Truthfully, I wasn't entirely cognizant of the existence of an Italian military.
It's kind of like the Canadian Navy. If you think about it; well sure they would exist. But did you actually realize that they exist?
1. Re:Confusion Intensifies by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:29 · Score: 0
  
  It's kind of like the Canadian Navy. If you think about it; well sure they would exist. But did you actually realize that they exist?
  I don't know. After all, most people around you still haven't realized (or believed) that you are supposed to have a brain.
Satya: by Snufu · 2015-09-15 02:50 · Score: 4, Funny

Handing a black briefcase to Clippy, "Get these free Office licenses to the Italian Ministry of Defense by any means necessary."
1. Re:Satya: by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 19:12 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  Clippy: "I see you are about to buy some persuading services from the Italian mafia. Would you like some help formulating an offer they can't refuse?"
Erm....what? by Notabadguy · 2015-09-15 02:51 · Score: 1

Wasn't there just a slashdot article a couple weeks ago about how Italian government is switching from LibreOffice back to MS?
Way Overdue by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 02:59 · Score: 0

Considering that libre is a Latin word, I'm surprised that this wasn't done years ago.
Not exactly... by mschaffer · 2015-09-15 03:00 · Score: 2

The article was about how the city of Pesaro, Italy was switching back to MS.
http://tech.slashdot.org/story...
1. Re:Not exactly... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:35 · Score: 0
  
  Not LibreOffice but a messed up mix of very old MS Office (for a set of complicated un-ported macro infested documents) and OpenOffice, with plenty of backward/forward switching within the department, i.e. worst possible combination of both worlds.
  Also they received reduced cost office 365, which made the deal cheaper than the mix. (make of that what you will)
Of course they have an army... by mschaffer · 2015-09-15 03:05 · Score: 1

Of course Italy has an army. It gives the Italian designers something to practice on.
Apparently even Armani has had a hand in their uniform designs.
http://www.styleite.com/news/r...
1. Re:Of course they have an army... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:22 · Score: 0
  
  Of course designers cannot practice on the future american "soldiers", like these two:
  http://media.komonews.com/imag...
  And I don't think that those two "kids" would even be considered "humans" in Italy. I really wouldn't let my children play with them.
  Plus, given the embarrassing results in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, I would rather be protected by some Cosa Nostra guys rather than the US military.
2. Re:Of course they have an army... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 04:05 · Score: 0
  
  If the shit hits the fan, you had better hope the U.S. military is there. They'll be the only ones in the NATO force not immediately dropping their guns and surrendering.
3. Re:Of course they have an army... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 07:48 · Score: 0
  
  But they'll be the first one to drop an immense amount of bombs on your head just to save you.
... and boy, can they run... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:08 · Score: -1

...run run run away. Watch those slender, tea-totting, pretty boys run.
If you are lucky, they will hold their ground long enough to surrender.
Hey! by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 03:10 · Score: -1

They don't drink tea. That's offensive. They drink espresso!
Hmm, maybe the next step'll be... by Type44Q · 2015-09-15 03:25 · Score: 3, Funny

...Sabayon Linux, baby! (And if you don't like it, vaffanculo!!)
1. Re: Hmm, maybe the next step'll be... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 04:25 · Score: -1
  
  Ma cagati addosso, pezzo di merda d'uno sfigato del cazzo.
2. Re: Hmm, maybe the next step'll be... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 05:34 · Score: 0
  
  Why do you rant like that? Sabayon is a pretty good and stable linux distribution, and it was created by an Italian guy. It would be good both for the military and for the reputation of the Italian IT industry.
3. Re:Hmm, maybe the next step'll be... by MechaStreisand · 2015-09-15 17:16 · Score: 1
  
  Sabayon? Gross. Why would anyone choose the Gentoo derivative that forces you to use systemd? The main reason to use Gentoo is that it doesn't force that on you, unlike almost every other distro.
  
  --
  Disclaimer: IANAL. This post is, however, legal advice, and creates an attorney-client relationship.
Let's see how it works out by chipschap · 2015-09-15 04:10 · Score: 1

I thought I would post something, you know, on topic .... as strange and possibly inappropriate as that concept might sound.
It appears that when something like this happens, Microsoft picks its moment, finds the moment of maximum chaos (all radical transitions have such moments) and offers a "deal" like cheap Office 365 (or is it 360, or 666, or some other number?) licenses, and some panic-stricken execs go for it rather than wait until the chaos dies down and a stable operating state is achieved.
I'm as anti-Microsoft as it gets, but no denying that marketing is something they are good at. This is not the same thing as pleasing the customer --- witness the forced Windows 10 downloads --- but they sure can sell things despite everything. They wouldn't be where they are if they weren't such a powerful marketing force.
I hope this works out for the Italian military but I'm not overly optimistic.
1. Re:Let's see how it works out by tom229 · 2015-09-15 05:01 · Score: 1
  
  They also aren't the first public entity to try this. Many don't weather the transition as Libre has great difficulty with legacy file formats, macros, etc.
  
  As one anecdotal case, I use LibreOffice in my office while literally everyone else uses MS Office 2010. I'm constantly running into formatting inconsistencies and straight incompatibility with complex spreadsheets. I muddle through it as I have the technical expertise and ideological philosophy that allows, and demands, that I do so; but I wouldn't wish it on my users.
  
  The fact of the matter is that when the business computing industry was naive and young, it got into bed with Microsoft. Now they're regretting it, for good reasons. They put too much faith in that relationship and built their entire lives around it. Now they've been together so long and become so co-dependant that it's going to be a really messy breakup.
  
  --
  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
2. Re:Let's see how it works out by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 05:38 · Score: 1
  
  AFAIK, the Scottish police and the French police (or was it the Gendarmerie?) are still using Open/Libre Office, and have been doing so for quite some time. Haven't heard anything about if for quite some time, so I guess they're happy with it.
  And actually, Microsoft isn't very good at marketing. They are good at corruption and on playing on peoples fear and ignorance, which might explain why they are having some problems with convincing the police. : >
3. Re:Let's see how it works out by darnkitten · 2015-09-15 06:38 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Anecdotally as well, I have had the opposite experience.
  Admittedly, I don't see complex spreadsheets or macro-heavy documents in my library, but patrons bring in old doc, docx, MS Works or WordPerfect documents, as well as a variety of simple spreadsheets and presentations--LibreOffice opens them all, with only minor formatting problems. Libreoffice will even open a large number of Office templates.
  The only persistent problem I have is that whenever I do a LibreOffice upgrade, Windows switches all the open/save preferences from Libreoffice back to MS Office.
4. Re:Let's see how it works out by chipschap · 2015-09-15 06:49 · Score: 1
  
  I should have been more clear. When I said "marketing" I meant to include Machiavellian meanings. Perhaps saying "Microsoft is good at selling" would have been better --- selling, whether through persuasion, coercion, etc. .... or, heaven forbid, offering value if there's no other way.
5. Re:Let's see how it works out by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 09:02 · Score: 0
  
  It's not so much marketing as it is extorsion and bribery, you know, what mafia is good at, but microsoft is the master. Libre office can't do that, so MS has a clear advantage here.
6. Re:Let's see how it works out by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 10:55 · Score: 0
  
  I'm as anti-Microsoft as it gets
  Fuck you, faggot.
7. Re:Let's see how it works out by turbidostato · 2015-09-15 14:40 · Score: 1
  
  "And actually, Microsoft isn't very good at marketing. They are good at corruption and on playing on peoples fear and ignorance"
  Why do you think corruption and FUD are not marketing tools along many others?
  And given current corporate ethos, as dignified as any other, I should add.
8. Re:Let's see how it works out by esonik · 2015-09-15 15:28 · Score: 1
  
  Anecdotally, I have the opposite to report.
  Where Excel 2003 would fail to load an complex file, OpenOffice (didn't try LibreOffice at that time) would load the same file just fine.
  Complex in the sense of lot's of cells used ( a few hundred rows with about 50 columns - not that much actually), with only basic arithmetic- no funky math or functions used.
Kind of. Coast Guard. Same size as 1 carrier group by raymorris · 2015-09-15 04:12 · Score: 1

> It's kind of like the Canadian Navy. If you think about it; well sure they would exist.
Technically they exist, and they do serve a role, a role similar in some ways to the US Coast Guard.
Canada's navy operates 1 destroyer, 12 frigates, 4 patrol submarines, 12 coastal defense vessels and 8 unarmed patrol/training vessels. They have about 8,000 sailors.
Each US carrier battle group includes about eight surface warships like those of the RCN, and typically two submarines. Plus a carrier. With 70 planes on it. Each carrier battle group has about 7,500 sailors - roughly the same size as the entire Royal Canadian Navy.
It's good to be close friends with the country who has 10 such carrier groups - Canada doesn't really need much of a navy when they're buddies with the US. That's an an under-appreciated benefit to the US of having a navy roughly as powerful as all other navies combined. Sure, we can defend ourselves materially, but we get just as much benefit from the fact that friendly nations enjoy our protection, and therefore want to be our close allies.
And here we are again ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 04:18 · Score: -1

... with the typical USA haters who only likes bashing everyone in their sight when it comes to the military subject !
When all these phallocentric douchebags realize that they didn't 'win' a single war since 1945 ... priceless ! In fact, a war is only won when the people see the occupant as a liberation army. Exactly what the US army is completly unable of as all the wars they have been involved in where directly driven by economics and ressources thief.
1. Re:And here we are again ... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 05:50 · Score: 0
  
  Give it a rest; no one really gives a shit.
Goof for them! by nospam007 · 2015-09-15 04:27 · Score: 1

Va bene cosi.
Re:Kind of. Coast Guard. Same size as 1 carrier gr by greenfruitsalad · 2015-09-15 05:38 · Score: 2

wouldn't canada (or anybody) be safer without a friend who goes around the world stirring shit at every possible opportunity?
i.e. if they had United States of South Canada for a neighbor, i'd imagine the south canadian (mounted) navy wouldn't just run around the world rattling guns and meddling in people's shit.
Understand your needs and pick the right solution by Ravaldy · 2015-09-15 06:33 · Score: 3, Insightful

Company CTOs or equivalent need to understand the needs of their company before they pick a product. Here's a list that shows the products side by side:
https://wiki.documentfoundatio...
Tested. Canada invaded? Needed a Navy? by raymorris · 2015-09-15 06:44 · Score: 1

> wouldn't canada (or anybody) be safer
Well, we've seen the results . Has Canada been invaded since the US Navy was formed? Have they had any need for their own Navy? (Other than for Coast Guard type operations).
Liberal:
One who is full of their own ideas, and refuses to learn from historical facts about those ideas.
1. Re:Tested. Canada invaded? Needed a Navy? by jbengt · 2015-09-15 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  Has Canada been invaded since the US Navy was formed?
  Yes, they were invaded by the US.
2. Re: Tested. Canada invaded? Needed a Navy? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 16:49 · Score: 0
  
  Yes, for fighting over North Pole with Russia and one or two others. If they didn't protect it, Russia surely would walk all over it and Palin could go to Baffin Island if she wanted to see Russia from her window.
Guessing they didn't like MS's spyware as an OS by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 07:07 · Score: 1

This is going to quickly become a trend as more and more foreign governments realize MS can't be trusted.
LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by MrL0G1C · 2015-09-15 10:45 · Score: 2

I've slated LibreOffice in the past for constant crashes and formatting problems.
They've done a great job of fixing bugs, it no longer crashes regularly and I haven't noticed any formatting issues with 5.0.x

--
Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
1. Re:LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 12:33 · Score: 0
  
  God, LibreOffice and Open Office are borderline unusable. I hate Windows 10 and really want to switch my laptop to Linux, but I just can't go back to an office application that's so shit.
2. Re:LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 20:19 · Score: 0
  
  In your situation I'd give a try to a linux installation with a virtualbox VM in which you can run a basic windows with MS office.
  Not ideal, but it could do.
3. Re:LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by vandamme · 2015-09-16 05:23 · Score: 1
  
  I've found God to be fairly useable, but you have to do things his way. Same way with LO too, I guess. I don't know what's so "unuseable" about it. I only use 2% of its capabilities.
4. Re:LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by MrL0G1C · 2015-09-18 01:21 · Score: 1
  
  I knew I was missing a trick, life is too hard, how do I use God? Is there a trick to opening some console?
  
  --
  Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.
5. Re:LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by vandamme · 2015-09-18 06:33 · Score: 1
  
  Yes. RTFM!
6. Re:LibreOffice 5.x is a big improvement by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-28 10:00 · Score: 0
  
  Which one? I've seen lots of manuals for God, but they contradict each other and I can't see any way to determine which is right.
Smart. Who would trust Microsoft? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 12:43 · Score: 0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQhwNtY3N2k
Follow this modded down comment... see how far the rabbit hole goes.
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=8000075&cid=50511399
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/kickstarter-ceo-fccs-fast-lane-internet-plan-threatens-free-exchange-of-ideas/2014/07/04/a52ffd2a-fcbc-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html
Who cares? by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 13:22 · Score: 0

And they'll switch back to Microsoft Office. Who the fuck cares?
Who Cares? by nicoleb_x · 2015-09-15 14:10 · Score: 1

What I really want to know is what kind of toilet paper they use.
Re:Kind of. Coast Guard. Same size as 1 carrier gr by turbidostato · 2015-09-15 14:31 · Score: 2

"wouldn't canada (or anybody) be safer without a friend who goes around the world stirring shit at every possible opportunity?"
Well, it depends. Our current world is only big enough for a limited set of military bullies, and it can be argued that the current set has a cardinality of one. So, if you happen not to be friend of the bully... what do you think is the alternative?
Like the inimitable Pavarotti said... by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-15 20:55 · Score: 0

Dilegua, o Lotus Notes!
Tramontate, MS Office!
Tramontate, MS Word!
Con la LibreOffice io vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!