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French National Assembly Embraces Open Source

Posted by Zonk on Thu Nov 23, 2006 04:52 PM
from the va-la-penguins dept.
Government Software Politics Linux
eldavojohn writes "The French National Assembly is in the news as they have recently switched to Linux, OpenOffice.org & open source software at the request of several deputy members. Bernard Carayon wrote it it into the proposal entitled 'On Equal Terms' [French PDF]. From the article, 'IT staff at the National Assembly have almost six months to prepare the switch to open source.' The same document urged France to adopt ODF as a standard. Hopefully things go more smoothly for them than the Birmingham library effort."
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[+] Linux: Birmingham Drops Open Source Initiative 275 comments
eldavojohn writes "Birmingham, England put a stop to a half million pound project to put Linux and open source applications on library access PCs across the city. From the article, 'The council planned to roll out Linux software and applications on 1,500 desktops in libraries across the city, but in the end went no further than a 200-desktop project. Several industry watchers have voiced their concerns about the project, particularly around the number of PCs rolled out. Birmingham's expenditure averaged over 2,500 pounds per PC.' Why did they stop after 200 PCs? Because they claimed with Windows, the project would have been 100,000 pounds cheaper. One may wonder if they paid for initial training of their workforce making the first 200 more expensive than the rest but the article does not say whether or not this occurred."
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French National Assembly Embraces Open Source 25 Comments More /

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  • Well... (Score:5, Funny)

    by jo42 (227475) on Thursday November 23 2006, @04:54PM (#16966872) Homepage
    I guess now we'll have to stop making fun of the French... ~:->

  • This has a European scope ... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by foobsr (693224) on Thursday November 23 2006, @05:00PM (#16966944) Homepage Journal
    ... and, as far as I could understand (I lack some French) is focussed on a better usage of economic resources - that is - why pay M$ Euros. Good move.

    And my bias is that France (for short) will not be bribed by M$s.

    CC.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by arachnoprobe (945081)
      I don't think the french can be lured by money. They are very patriotic, and the political decision to spend money on French products instead of giving it to a U.S. based monopoly-accused company can be hold up easily.
    • I know a lot of people cite cost as a reason to use open source, but in my eyes that's never been the real advantage. Maybe that's an advantage for home users, but large organizations have lots and lots of money to burn and if it's not being spent on software it will be spent somewhere else. Open source has to do with control. I hate hate hate having to put in a feature request for software. It takes forever for it to make it into subsequent iterations or if you pay for them to customize it, there is no gua

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by $RANDOMLUSER (804576)
      Don't forget that Mandrake^H^H^Hiva is almost as close to a French national distro as Red Flag is a Chinese distro.
      • Mandriva is as close to a French national distro as Red Hat is an american national distro or SuSe a german national distro.
        Red Flag is state-founded [wikipedia.org], others aren't.

        Please inform yourself before commenting or moderating inappropriately.

  • New slogan (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ralph Yarro (704772) on Thursday November 23 2006, @05:04PM (#16967004) Homepage
    Freedom software... that's 'freedom' as in 'fries'.

  • Good for them! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by tttonyyy (726776) on Thursday November 23 2006, @05:16PM (#16967118) Homepage Journal
    While the rest of the world umms and ahhs about OSS and things like nuclear power, the French just get in there and do it. Despite the poor attitude that many have towards the French (you know who you are!), you've really got to admire them sometimes. :)
  • ...considering that the assembly recently voted the infamous DADVSI law on copyrights etc. remember when there were talks here on slashdot about a global licence for music and everything? well, everything got thrown out, and the so-called "Universal" amendments were brought in. Universal referring to the music magnate of the same name. Essentially, it is illegal in France to distribute or even promote software that "obviously" aim at sharing copyrighted material. Downloading and sharing mp3s is still assimi

  • Considering... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Noryungi (70322) on Thursday November 23 2006, @05:44PM (#16967390) Homepage Journal
    The same parliament voted recently for the most restrictive copyright law [eucd.info] in Europe, a law that could potentially kill french open source projects, and that was practically written by the French RIAA, there is a sweet smell of irony in the air...

    On the other hand that was probably the plan all along: write a stupid law to placate the RIAA/MPAA of this world. A law so totally impossible to enforce, that any case brought in front of a court would be laughed out of the justice system. And then, benefit from Open Source, safe and sound in the knowledge that you [the members of Parliament] have taken your bribe, and you get to benefit from Open Source on top of it. Bastards.

    And if you think I am making this up, I invite you to read the documents in the link above and discover the whole sorry mess for yourself.

    [As a side note: I am French, and I despise all these wankers, so take this not as a troll, but a letting off steam.]

    [Side note 2: also, I was one of the few French who actually took the time to protest the whole thing, so don't give me the "you should have done something" line Mmmmmm'kay?]
    • Don't hold your breath man...wearing burqas is forbidden in France.
      • Well, what can you say? The French like their women Open-source.

      • Don't hold your breath man...wearing burqas is forbidden in France.

        Wearing T-shirts with Arabic text on them doesn't seem to be very tolerated in the US; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297822.stm [bbc.co.uk]

        The wearing of the Islamic veil can lead to exclusions from schools in France; Though in half the cases taken to court, the student gets back to school. For the anectode, the French justify it by saying that religious symbols shouldn't be allowed on school premises. It was only a matter of time before s

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by bibi-pov (819943)
        Not that I want to be off-topic or a troll at all, but...

        Yeah right, like wearing burqas was a way for women to free themselves... On second though, maybe not ! Maybe next step is to allow men to pour acid on unfaithful women because, clearly, they deserve it and by not allowing it we impede men's freedom.

        But, wait ! Burqas are not forbidden in France, they're only forbidden in public school (along with kippas or too big christian cross), because, we (you should have guessed I'm French by now ;-) ) think th
    • That was only the US Government Kitchen that served "freedom" toast or fries(neither of which were actually made in France) and they changed the names back to French Toast and French Fries.
    • Of course they are going to hell, where else do you think they will be able to find loose women (or men) and good wine ?
      And of course all the dead pan humorist, and agnostics thinkers, funky artists and other enemy of orders.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Bert64 (520050)
      Email replies should always start at the bottom, unless your writing in a language that reads from the bottom upwards (do any exist? theres a few left to right languages but i`m not sure about bottom to top)...
      Trying to follow a conversation where the reply comes BEFORE the original question is a horrendous thing to do, this is known as top posting... And consider the following short example:

      A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
      Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
      A: Top-po

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