French Parliament shifts to open source software

Though this was interesting:

Starting with July 2007, the computers used by the French deputies will be
equipped with Linux operation system, Open Office software and Firefox
browser.

The project, initiated at the request of the General Assembly President, was
based on a study made by Atos Origin, a technology services company. The
study has shown that the open source software can be adapted to the needs of
the Members of the Parliament allowing for serious savings in spite of the
costs required by the change.

Benoit Sibaud, the president of APRIL (Association pour la Promotion et la
Recherche en Informatique Libre) which is supporting open source, stated
that switching to open source will give the French Parliament a better
control over its IT systems without being dependent on the software
supplier, at the same time giving the possibility to use the public
money for better purposes. Previous initiatives in this sense belong to the
French Ministry of Agriculture where open source software was chosen for
servers and to the French gendarmes who adopted Open Office and Firefox.

Open source software in the General Assembly (only in French - 22.11.2006)
Assemblée nationale : communiqué de presse

Free Software fro the deputies (only in French - 23.11.2006)
http://www.april.org/articles/commun...-nationale.txt

French parliament dumping Windows for Linux (27.11.2006)
French parliament dumping Windows for Linux | CNET News.com

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Sig: Before I post on Domain Social, I read the rules!

Can you summarize what this means? I am a newbie and this has me completely confused. As always I appreciate your help!

It means that the french government will now only use "free" software.

That means, no Microsoft (word, excel; etc) but only Open Office or another open or free software suite.

Pretty cool if you ask me!

__________________
Sig: Before I post on Domain Social, I read the rules!

That was a great article Zach. It would be interesting if American government made the same switch to free software. How many tax dollars would that save the average American?

That would be awesome! The move to free software would be great, as many people would become aware that it was out there (and every bit as good as the expensive Micro$oft stuff).

I have a question? Is all of this new techno stuff France has, is it compatiable with all the Americans soft wear? Echos