Reports from the Solution Linux Conference 2008 in Paris say the gendarmerie will progressively move its 70,000 desktops using Windows XP to the Ubuntu distribution of open source Linux.
The plan marks the final phase of the gendarmerie’s move away from Microsoft, a process that started in 2005 when it switched from using the Microsoft Office productivity suite to the free OpenOffice open source offering.
The reports from Paris quote Colonel Nicolas Geraud, the deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT unit, saying the administration will transfer 5,000 to 8,000 PCs to Ubuntu this year, then 14,000 to 15,000 a year over the next four years so that its entire fleet of desktop is Linux-based by 2013-2014.
Colonel Geraud said the change was made for three reasons: to reduce reliance on a single supplier; to give the gendarmerie control of its own operating system; and to reduce IT costs.
The gendarmerie abandoned Internet Explorer and Outlook in 2006, moving instead to Mozilla’s open source Firefox and Thunderbird browser and email client.
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