French ministry dumps Windows for Linux
10th July 2004 – In another European win for Linux against Microsoft Corp., a French ministry is replacing 1,500 Windows NT computers with Linux systems, the supplier of the open-source operating system said Friday.
The Ministry of Equipment and Transport in Paris has decided to swap more than 100 Windows NT computers for machines with Mandrakel Linux Corporate server software, and plans to replace the remaining computers on a monthly basis until the project is completed in late 2005 or early 2006, Mandrakesoft said. A total of 1500 computers in all.
Gael Duval, Mandrakesoft’s co-founder, would not disclose how much the deal has been worth ot them but did say it was worth millions of euros.
Print, file and applications servers running around 1500 open source applications were first to be changed.
More and more companies and local governments are opting to replace Windows with Linux, mostly on cost issues as desktop use of Linux has become useable and acceptable throughout Europe. Munich city government has already begun to replace their Microsoft software systems with Paris city government and some governments in the UK also considering the move.
Duval said Microsoft was fighting hard for the Paris business.
“It’s clear that Microsoft is doing everything to avoid losing this deal because they don’t want to repeat the Munich disaster,” Duvall said in an interview.
