The Italian Parliment Moves to Linux

[Vorian]

Maybe in the US soon too :)

from digg


After the French Parliament’s migration to Linux, the Italian Chamber of Deputies (http://english.camera.it/) (Camera dei Deputati) chose to let "The Penguin" enter into the heart of the Italian Democracy…
As reported (http://www.repubblica.it/2007/07/sezioni/scienza_e_tecnologia/linux-parlamento/linux-parlamento/linux-parlamento.html) by the Italian newspaper Repubblica on July 10th, 2007, a plan suggested by the left deputies Pietro Folena (http://www.pietrofolena.net/blog/) and Franco Grillini (http://www.grillini.it/) to migrate all the computers of the Parliament from Windows to Linux was approved by the Chamber.
The migration will affect about 3500 boxes of the Chamber, both desktops and servers, and each Deputy/Party may also ask to migrate his/its (private) computers to the Free System.
This choice has been taken for various reasons… Fist of all this decision will allow to economize, saving more than 3 million Euro every year (the licenses of each machine actually cost about 900€/year). It’s also a great step towards the technological freedom and independence, moving away from proprietary software that contrasts with the meaning of democracy itself.
There are many technical reasons as well, the most important dealing with the security of the Parliament (and because of that all the citizens).
With this decision Folena hopes (http://www.pietrofolena.net/blog/?p=269) that also the local administrations will move to free environments as well, like the province of Bolzano already has done with the FUSS! project (http://www.fuss.bz.it/welcome-fuss-project).
(give Trevino's story a digg) (http://digg.com/linux_unix/The_Italian_Parliament_Moves_to_Linux)

[lode]

Nice news :)

May other parliaments soon follow!

[M$LOL]

That's good news, hopefully some other countries will follow suit.

[eoshicute]

wow.. what a nice topic :) . I hope in my country will follow what Italian Parliment do.

[yota]

Wow, I'm proud of being italian today!
:grin:

[Hallvor]

:popcorn:

[Kowalski_GT-R]

:popcorn:


I have to say i am surprised.

[cunawarit]

I like Windows, but no government should use any closed source software. It isn't about the money, it is about security and independance.

Closed source is way too risky, bordering in madness!

[Kowalski_GT-R]

It isn't about the money, it is about security and independance.


I agree.

Being italian, i can tell money (or the lack of it) played a big role

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

[Kowalski_GT-R]

(OT: cunawarit, I really like your avatar :cool: )

[samjh]

Open governance and democracy should naturally encourage governments to use open software: that is software whose source code everyone can see.

Great move by Italy.

[cunawarit]

(OT: cunawarit, I really like your avatar :cool: )

Yours is pretty good too :) FWIW, no I haven't got one. I'm not that rich yet ;)

[Polygon]

even though they most likely did it because they are saving a butt load of money (300 million euro each year!)... but its good for other reasons as well :D

[Kowalski_GT-R]

wait till they can realise whart they were missing....:cool:

[Kowalski_GT-R]

an article from italian newspaper La Stampa (07/11/2007 - http://www.lastampa.it/_web/cmstp/tmplrubriche/tecnologia/grubrica.asp?ID_blog=30&ID_articolo=2731&ID_sezione=38&sezione=)


È stato presentato ieri dai deputati questori, insieme al dirigente del servizio informatica, il piano per il passaggio dell’infrastruttura informatica della Camera da Windows a Linux, il noto sistema operativo open source. Il piano prevede il passaggio graduale dell’intera amministrazione di Montecitorio al nuovo sistema e l’opzione, a richiesta, per le segreterie e i deputati. Inoltre la biblioteca di Montecitorio renderà disponibili al pubblico diverse postazioni informatiche con Linux. Il piano è stato sviluppato dal servizio informatico e dai questori dopo l’accoglimento di un ordine del giorno di Pietro Folena, presidente della Commissione Cultura, in sede di bilancio della Camera. «Si tratta - spiega Folena - di una decisione straodinaria e rilevantissima. L’istituzione centrale del paese, il Parlamento, decide non solo di risparmiare, ma soprattutto decide di rendersi indipendente sul piano tecnologico, adottando un sistema open source e quindi liberandosi dai vincoli del software proprietario. In tal modo si va incontro alle esigenze di trasparenza e di sicurezza che sono doverose per una istituzione pubblica. L’esempio della Camera costituisce un importante precedente per tutte le amministrazioni pubbliche, alcune delle quali sono già passate a Linux determinando enormi risparmi. Il merito va ai deputati questori e all’amministrazione della Camera, che si sono dimostrati sensibili ad un tema tanto importante. Invierò la mia proposta di legge sul software libero nella pubblica amministrazione a tutti i deputati, invitandoli anche a scegliere Linux per i loro computer in ufficio e per i portatili, sia per ragioni di costi che per quelle di sicurezza, trasparenza e liberta».

use http://babelfish.altavista.com/

I can't believe they made that decision.
Scandinavian countries switched long ago AFAIK
ciao,

Andrea

[smoker]

seems more and more government and educational authorities are moving to open source, especially in europe. i would like to see a map full of coloured expanding pins, maybe red for redhat, green for suse, brown(!) for ubuntu.... many distros, many colours!

:-)

[euler_fan]

Very nice. I hope that all of Europe and especially the US follows suite.

[greymongrey]

Very nice move for Italy. I wish we would see more of this in the US but I doubt we will.

[Bianchi]

Wow, I'm proud of being italian today!
:grin:

Hehe, me too! :D