About 18 months ago, the Assembly shifted from running Windows on the 1,100 computers of its members and their assistants to running a version of Linux called Ubuntu. (I profiled the rise of Ubuntu in a
recent article.) According to Rudy Salles, vice president of the assembly, the decision to abandon Microsoft's Windows software was both an economic and political gesture. The French Parliament should save about 500,000 euros over the next five years, thanks to the low price of Ubuntu –- free –- and have lower management costs. Linux tends to have fewer security issues than Windows, for example.
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"We're quite happy because it's all working very well now," Mr. Salles said. "We see that many countries are interested in our experience, and so we'll try to help the other parliaments around the world."
According to Mr. Salles, a survey polling members of the French Assembly found that 80 percent of the members were happy with the new software, which included new e-mail and office applications, while 14 percent felt Windows should return.
