French Parliament switching to Linux

John A 0 401 Views

The French parliament is now going to dump Windows in favour of open-source. More specifically, Linux. The planned switch date is June 2007, with over 1000 parliament workers switching.

No word yet on what Linux distribution they're going to use, or what email client -- one thing is for sure: they're going to use Firefox as their web browser. At the moment, a number of the computers run Linux, using Apache as their web server, and a content-management system being run with Mambo.

"The study showed that open-source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to the needs of MPs," the parliament said. They also went on to say, "[it] will allow us to make substantial savings despite the associated migration and training costs."

Switching to Linux is a first for the French public institution.

Previously, Munich started using Linux, which may have influenced the French parliament. And before that, Mannheim switched to Linux.

Perhaps these cities are being foolish. After all, the cost of the operating system is minimal, when you compare the costs of training the staff to work with a new operating system. Or maybe they have found something in Linux that Windows doesn't have to offer.

Only time will tell.

Dani AI

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A concise follow-up to with practical context and what to watch for.

Reporting after the announcement shows the National Assembly chose Ubuntu and awarded the migration work to vendors (Linagora and Unilog) when it moved forward with the desktop refresh — so this is a planned, vendor-backed rollout rather than an informal experiment. (interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu)

Key practical checklist for any parliament-scale Linux migration:

  • Inventory every desktop application and document template (macros, mail rules, vendor tools). Identify Windows-only apps up front and test them in a controlled lab.
  • Start with a pilot of representative roles (assistants, committee staff, special users) and keep a Windows fallback (virtual machine, terminal server or dual-boot) for critical apps.
  • Standardize on an LTS-style distribution and a supported stack (desktop, office suite, mail client, update/management tooling) and buy vendor support/SLA for critical systems.
  • Test printing, smartcards, bespoke peripherals, and any integration with back-end systems (SAP, document management) before widening deployment.
  • Budget explicitly for training, helpdesk expansion, and migration of templates and macros — these are often the largest hidden costs.

Expectations and lessons from other public-sector rollouts: staged migrations that first replace office apps (OpenOffice/LibreOffice, Firefox, Thunderbird) and then the OS have succeeded in several French agencies, producing measurable savings — but the long-term outcome depends on management, support contracts, and handling of specialized applications. (wired.com)

A cautionary note from larger experiments: Munich’s LiMux shows political and operational risk can derail even technically successful projects; evaluate not just technical fit but procurement, governance, and total cost over many years. (lwn.net)

Short summary: the move can work and save money, but only with a disciplined inventory, a staged pilot, vendor-grade support, and explicit plans for Windows-only fallbacks and user training. (interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu)

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