The French government will install open source software on the desktop as part of Project ADELE, a plan to computerize much of the country’s administration by 2007, a government official says. The administration will migrate a significant number of its desktops to open source operating systems and application software, Jacques Sauret, director of the French Agency for the Development of the Electronic Administration, said at a recent meeting of the French IT and Telecoms Press Club.
French Officials Eye Open-Source Apps
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10 to 1 says they go with Mandrake.
I really hope, they will use mandrake …
I also hope that the mandrake peoples see that article, and do “publicity” for their distribution. If u do nothing, u get nothing !
They might want to wait and see how Munich’s migration pans out.
I doubt you are French.
Let me guess .. yes, you are an american “patriot” that don’t understand anything. Be patriot is good, but unfortunately it does not make you clever.
if the French do that to only get better deal from Microsoft, instead of really evaluating open source as a replacment. And yes, I think they’ll go with Mandrake. It will be beneficial for both the French administration and Mandrake as a business. Mandrake is user-friendly and if they’ll bundle the greatest of the latest in their os (kde3.2,kernel2.6), they will make waves. It’s hard for regular windows users to switch to something else. But if you can offer them speed and reliability and security, without sacrificing productivity – you have a winner.
Invest in a company that was bankrupt just a few months ago just becasue its french? That be a huge mistake and a poor business decision. They would be better of going with a company with a strong finacial backing and a clear picture of where they are going; Suse/Novell,SUN or Redhat. Again an example of where Linux religious interests conflit with real world business needs.
this is not what i read in http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/technologie/0,39020809,39141669,00.h…
it is said maybe, 15% desktop computer will switch to open source software. But there is no plan for it yet.
it is a bit early to be happy. it is just an announce. wait and see what will happen next.
and the “Ministère de l’éducation” signs blindly with microsoft a deal because of a 50% discount.
and Mandrake will not have that name in the future
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/business/0,39020715,39141846,00.htm
and “la mairie de Paris” is angry because unilog reveals it asked for a migration plan study to open source
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/technologie/0,39020809,39141306,00.h…
Too bad that Open Source somehow seems te be an equivalent for “Linux”, while in a way that is the least interesting part of the computing experience for the end user.
After all, an OS is nothing more than a program that allows to to start *other* programs, applications.
So, while it certainly would be nice if they would be able to switch to Linux, but it is much more impartant that they get rid of closed file formats, like the Word and Excel formats, and non-standard-conformant applications, like Internet Explorer.
Once you’ve got a considerable amount of people working on OpenOffice and Mozilla, only *then* it is time to start thinking about Linux. OSS is so much more then just ‘Linux’.
They are doing this to negotiate a better deal with MS. But who can fault them, Microsofts offerings are way to expensive. If they go Mandrake I will be upset, they need to go SuSE or Sun Java Desktop System. They are the best.
Sun Java Desktop System = Suse. And an old and really sucky version at that.
They are the best, aren’t they? What a lot of nonsense!
As Jim Morrison mockingly said: “They West is the best”
“Invest in a company that was bankrupt just a few months ago just because its french?”
Unfortunately that is the way french government always went, go and will go about business decisions.
That is the reason why France Telecom uses OS2 on Bull computers.(IBM was subsidised to set up a subsidiary in France).
Bull was, is and will always be subsidised to stay in business, or hopefully will go the way of the dodo.
I don’t think for a minute that the french government will choose Mandrake; They are far more likely, if they go ahead with open source, to buy an IBM linux adapted for the french market(Meaning developped in France), or a Bull Linux(god forbid) or do as the Chineses, Koreans and Japanese did, and pay french developpers to make their own version of Linux.
I strongly believe that the latter will be their choice. It’s what they did with the D2Mac format, or the Telecom series of television satellites, they are now being used for peanuts by the russians.
pitiful..
The argument against doing so since they were nearly bankrupt entirely is meaningless.
Entirely GPLed product who cares? If they produce a product that the government pays for then the product is there and could be supported by other third parties should Mandrake then fall over.
But of course, getting real government money should prevent that from happening. Here’s hoping it does.
10 to 1 says they go with Mandrake.
To win such a competition they would need a lot of money for lobbying. I’m not sure they have it.
If I had to bet for a winner, it would be SUN.
What all the jingoistic idiots forget is that we all gain from strong public-sector support of a GPL distro such as Mandrake, whether you are french or not.
There will be open source software on M$ Win and open source os (Linux) as well. The goal is to switch between 5 to 15% of the desktop pcs.
I bet on Mandrake too. It’s quite good on the desktop, match Suse afaik.
Great … well I hope the French administration is not going to wait for 2 years talking and asking for certifications, reports on details and custom changes, then take its decision and order one million os with the service and pay 365 days end of month as it use to do: that may kill Mandrake.
Anonymous:
”
That is the reason why France Telecom uses OS2 on Bull computers.(IBM was subsidised to set up a subsidiary in France).
…
Bull was, is and will always be subsidised to stay in business, or hopefully will go the way of the dodo.
….
It’s what they did with the D2Mac format, or the Telecom series of television satellites, they are now being used for peanuts by the russians.
”
ok there was some failure like Concorde. It’s easier to know after it happens than before. There was a lot of joke about Ariane rocket, Airbus airplanes, TGV high speed train, and so on. All proven successfull. (coming soon: Gallileo: a satellite system that will soon rival GPS system)
I generally don’t like state intervention on business but hey be fair !