Archive for the ‘Linux’ Category

French MPs Dump Windows for Linux

November 28th, 2006
by Krishna Mohan

Starting June 2007, PCs in French députés’ 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.

Open source supporters have welcomed the decision. Benoît 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 Assemblée 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.

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.

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Microsoft hugs Linux finally

November 3rd, 2006
by Krishna Mohan

Microsoft is preparing to offer sales support of Suse Linux, a variant of the Linux Operating System sold by Novell. The two companies have also seems to have agreed to develop technologies to make it easier for users to run both Suse Linux and Microsoft’s Windows on their computers. The two companies are expected to announce details of their plan today at a press conference in San Francisco.

In addition, Microsoft won’t assert rights over patents over software technology that may be incorporated into Suse Linux, the people said. Businesses that use Linux have long worried that Microsoft would one day file patent infringement suits against sellers of the rival software.

The pact marks an unusual level of cooperation between two longtime rivals. Microsoft has been battling all versions of Linux, but has faced pressure to assure that customers can run both Windows and Linux without problems.

Microsoft has issued a media alert confirming that CEO Steve Ballmer will make an announcement today.

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