TheOpenAnalyst » Ubuntu

French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu

TheOpenAnalyst — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:54:00 +0000

France’s Gendarmerie Nationale, the country’s national police force, says it has saved millions of dollars by migrating its desktop software infrastructure away from Microsoft Windows and replacing it with the Ubuntu Linux distribution.

The Gendarmerie began its transition to open source software in 2005 when it replaced Microsoft Office with OpenOffice.org across the entire organization. It gradually adopted other open source software applications, including Firefox and Thunderbird. After the launch of Windows Vista in 2006, it decided to phase out Windows and incrementally migrate to Ubuntu.

French police: we saved millions of euros by adopting Ubuntu – Ars Technica

Building belonging is the secret to open source success

TheOpenAnalyst — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

At the Southern California Linux Expo last week, Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon discussed the importance of community building and the role that it plays in accelerating open source software development.

The community-driven development model has proven enormously successful for many large-scale software projects. Communities often emerge organically around technologies that have substantial value, but it can be difficult to focus and direct the community’s efforts in productive ways. During his presentation, Bacon shared some insight about how communities work, why people voluntarily choose to participate, and what can be done to reduce the barriers to entry for new contributors.

Building belonging is the secret to open source success | Ars Technica

The New York Times On Ubuntu: Half-Right

TheOpenAnalyst — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:59:00 +0000

When an article about Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical, and Ubuntu begins with the words “They’re either hapless pests or the very people capable of overthrowing Windows. Take your pick,” then I’m fairly sure I’m not about to read a good article about any of the above. But that’s the first line of a piece about them in, incredibly, The New York Times.

Part of me remains unsurprised by the continually quizzical tenor of mass-media coverage of open source, for the same reason that the coverage of most anything technology-related tends to be lousy. Finer nuances get scrubbed down or ignored entirely, and hard-won distinctions are blurred.

The New York Times On Ubuntu: Half-Right | Open Source Blog | InformationWeek

Ubuntu and Its Leader Set Sights on the Mainstream

TheOpenAnalyst — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 05:59:00 +0000

THEY’RE either hapless pests or the very people capable of overthrowing Windows. Take your pick.

In December, hundreds of these controversial software developers gathered for one week at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. They came from all over the world, sporting many of the usual signs of software mercenaries: jeans, ponytails, unruly facial hair and bloodshot eyes.

Ubuntu and Its Leader Set Sights on the Mainstream | NYTimes.com