[Haifux] French Police Move to FOSS, Save Millions

[Eran Arbel]

In case some of you didn't go to Slashdot recently, I think this one is to
good not to share:
http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/french-police-saves-millions-of-euros-by-adopting-ubuntu.ars

The French National Police Force have saved about 50 million Euros (Not
Dollars) since 2004 when they started the move with Open Office. They plan
to complete it by 2015 with 90,000 Linux stations. The main reason for the
move was the need for the upgrade. When Vista came out in 2006, they learned
from Microsoft that moving to it wouldn't bring many advantages and would
require the training of users. Moving to Ubuntu was easier. The big
differences being Icons and Games. And games aren't a priority.
The French National Assembly runs Ubuntu on 1,000 workstations and the
Ministry of Agriculture uses Mandriva. They say it's better to have support
internally than to pay for support like with Red Hat.

I think it's awesome and that the first who should shift to FOSS are
government agencies. When you work off of tax payer money, you should save
as much of it as you can. Also when you work off of any government money or
have a limited budget.
Does any one know what is the proliferation percent, roughly, of FOSS in
Israel government and national organizations?

-- 
Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's within walking distance.
And no one ever said being a heretic was easy.
>>>><<<<
May we meet in Less Interesting Times...
http://eran.geek.co.il
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