Computer Repair Tech

Those French! Linux Magazine has posted an article they've gathered from the Linux.com web site that is about the history of the La Gendarmerie Nationale (French National Police) and its quest to streamline, simplify, and reduce costs of its Information Technology infrastructure. They've finally come up with the solution of moving over 5,000 desktops to Ubuntu Linux. Ils sont si intelligents!

We can hope that our new Obama administration will give this move to open-source software and Linux desktops and servers some serious consideration. Here's the kicker! The amount of money (well, euros) that the French have saved so far and how much they expect to save over the next few years:

The Gendarmerie now purchases computers with no operating system licenses involved. That factor saves them €150 (around US$200) per computer. In five years, then end of their license renewal period, the Gendarmerie will save €12 million (nearly US$16 million) on operating system licenses alone. Add in client access licenses, mail system client access licenses, and so on, and the five-year cost to bring their users to this same level of functionality would be €60 million (nearly US$80 million).

Linux to the rescue! Penguinistas unite!