Wow

[jongkind]

It's Suse but...wow
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-01-31-016-26-NW-DT-SS

[smoker]

is seems everyday some company or cityhall is switching over to linux - the open source community must be doing something right! :-)

[Ghil]

good news!

[mips]

Is it just me or does Europe seem a bit more progressive on the Linux front compared to the USA ?

[mcglnx]

It's Suse but...wow
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2007-01-31-016-26-NW-DT-SS

May be they will finally build cars. I mean 'good' cars!

[mcglnx]

Is it just me or does Europe seem a bit more progressive on the Linux front compared to the USA ?



I know different major US banks using only Linux on server side.
This is not much advertised, but it's a fact. And they certainly have good reasons for this (TCO).

[Ghil]

yeah, Europe and Asia seems more inclined to use Linux than USA, for some odd reason.

[mips]

I know different major US banks using only Linux on server side.
This is not much advertised, but it's a fact. And they certainly have good reasons for this (TCO).

Why do they not advertise this ? The more the better, include BSD while you are at it.

[mcglnx]

Why do they not advertise this ? The more the better, include BSD while you are at it.

Don't know. Their PR is very specific - based on discretion. Banking secrecy culture, you know.
As well as no interest for adevertising it.

[bonzodog]

I get the feeling that Europe uses Linux much more than the US for a number of reasons -

a] A lot of Europe is Socialist Democracies, not based on Capitalism, and the philosophy of Open Source appeals to them.

b] Linux is primarily a European Invention, having come out of Finland courtesy of Linus Torvalds, who, ironically, now lives in California.

c] They don't like the Idea of a major US corporation basically 'owning' them and their ideas. They are very anti-monopolistic here. The US is to be treated with extreme caution as far as buying into US corporations is concerned.

d] The EU wants to be seen as a major world power to be reckoned with, and with it's own identity, and own in -EU systems, which the US has no say over in any way shape or form.

e] In recent times, this has extended as far as the EU expressing major Grievances over the ICANN debate, and that the EU ought to be able to control it's own section, without having to listen to ICANN.

[Choad]

good news, good news!

i thought novell was german?

[mips]

i thought novell was german?

Nope, they are as american as apple pie.

Maybe you are thinking of SUSE which Novell acquired ? SUSE was of German origins.

[Choad]

im pretty sure that expression is wrong. surely someone must have put apples inside pastry before the americans. :p

[Choad]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_pie

yeah, i thought so :)

something about being "wholesome" is where the expression comes from tho...

[nalmeth]

b] Linux is primarily a European Invention, having come out of Finland courtesy of Linus Torvalds, who, ironically, now lives in California
The linux KERNEL came from Finland, GNU was born in the US of A.
And doesn't Linus live in Oregon or something? Same thing I guess..

[Brunellus]

The linux KERNEL came from Finland, GNU was born in the US of A.
And doesn't Linus live in Oregon or something? Same thing I guess..
Linux: the globalized operating system.

[floke]

I get the feeling that Europe uses Linux much more than the US for a number of reasons -

a] A lot of Europe is Socialist Democracies, not based on Capitalism, and the philosophy of Open Source appeals to them.

b] Linux is primarily a European Invention, having come out of Finland courtesy of Linus Torvalds, who, ironically, now lives in California.

c] They don't like the Idea of a major US corporation basically 'owning' them and their ideas. They are very anti-monopolistic here. The US is to be treated with extreme caution as far as buying into US corporations is concerned.

d] The EU wants to be seen as a major world power to be reckoned with, and with it's own identity, and own in -EU systems, which the US has no say over in any way shape or form.

e] In recent times, this has extended as far as the EU expressing major Grievances over the ICANN debate, and that the EU ought to be able to control it's own section, without having to listen to ICANN.


(a) Not any more, not really, well, perhaps a bit (but definitely not in Britain :( )
(b) The best thing to come out of Finland since, er.... hmmm?
(c) Largely true. Also true for OSS developments in Asia too. China have even developed their own version of Linux called Red Flag Linux.
(d) We already are. So don't mess with us or we'll have to give you a serious talking to.
(e) Common standards throughout the EU are also a key concern. An EU initiative to promote common interoperable and open standards has been a useful driver for the adoption of OSS throughout Europe - though often at the sub-national/local level, where more autonomous decisions can be made.

[koenn]

(e) Common standards throughout the EU are also a key concern. An EU initiative to promote common interoperable and open standards has been a useful driver for the adoption of OSS throughout Europe - though often at the sub-national/local level, where more autonomous decisions can be made.
True, and a very important factor, I think.
But it's not just common standards, it's rather open standards and open file formats, for reasons such as
- legislation on "public record" : when in digital form, information can not really be considered "public" if you need proprietary software to be able to read it, and therefore depend on a software vendor to continue to provide that software and support the formats you've stored your information in
- archiving. governements tend to keep archives, and they're more and more stored in a duigital form. proprietary software and proprietary file formats are a problem as over time, the software required to acces them may not longer be available.

With open standards, it's (more) reasonable to assume they(ll be able to create applications that can read their files, either by writing those apps from scratch, or (and that's were oppen source comes in) because the source code is availabe and can be studied, rewritten or ported, ... so archives are not 'locked' when proprietary apps are retired by their vendors.