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MicroFox
http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,61970345,00.htm
After the gendarmes and the Ministry of Culture, it's the French MPs' turn
to switch to open source. From June 2007, PCs in French deputes' offices
will be equipped with a Linux operating system and open source productivity
software.
The project, backed by MPs Richard Cazenav and Bernard Carayon of the UMP
party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on an open
source OS, with OpenOffice.org, Firefox and an open source email client.
A spokesperson for the parliament's administration said a decision as to the
choice of OS and email client hasn't yet been taken. Currently, some of the
parliament's servers have been running Linux, with Apache web servers and
the Mambo content management system.
The project was the subject of a study by Atos Origin, whose conclusions
convinced the French parliament, the Assemblee Nationale. "The study showed
that open source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to
the needs of MPs, and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the
associated migration and training costs," the parliament said.
Open source supporters have welcomed the decision. Benoit Sibaud, president
of the Association for the research into and promotion of open source
computing, said the decision to migrate to open source will allow the
Assemblee Nationale to have greater control over its IT, without depending
on any one vendor, and to realize a better use of public money.
This will be the first case of a French public institution switching its PCs
onto a Linux operating system. Previous open source initiatives concerned
servers, as was the case with the Minstry of Agriculture, or OpenOffice and
Firefox, which were brought into use by France's gendarmerie.
After the gendarmes and the Ministry of Culture, it's the French MPs' turn
to switch to open source. From June 2007, PCs in French deputes' offices
will be equipped with a Linux operating system and open source productivity
software.
The project, backed by MPs Richard Cazenav and Bernard Carayon of the UMP
party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on an open
source OS, with OpenOffice.org, Firefox and an open source email client.
A spokesperson for the parliament's administration said a decision as to the
choice of OS and email client hasn't yet been taken. Currently, some of the
parliament's servers have been running Linux, with Apache web servers and
the Mambo content management system.
The project was the subject of a study by Atos Origin, whose conclusions
convinced the French parliament, the Assemblee Nationale. "The study showed
that open source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to
the needs of MPs, and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the
associated migration and training costs," the parliament said.
Open source supporters have welcomed the decision. Benoit Sibaud, president
of the Association for the research into and promotion of open source
computing, said the decision to migrate to open source will allow the
Assemblee Nationale to have greater control over its IT, without depending
on any one vendor, and to realize a better use of public money.
This will be the first case of a French public institution switching its PCs
onto a Linux operating system. Previous open source initiatives concerned
servers, as was the case with the Minstry of Agriculture, or OpenOffice and
Firefox, which were brought into use by France's gendarmerie.