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Comment Re:Themes... (Score 1) 452

Oh no. Don't forget training. Training is required (heck, it'd be required if considering upgrading to Windows 8). Unless you're working with IT people that could adapt themselves, never, ever forget about training. Going on Linux is a good way to escape the ~200$ upgrade fee to 8 (7 isn't exactly a good long term strategy) and to make the step in the open source way of things, but don't think that because it looks the same and they can do the same things, they will without having someone holding their hands at first.
And of course, make sure that there is no part of the workflow that requires proprietary software that could not run, or not have a viable alternative (by viable, I mean, that the users can handle without looking back) on Linux.
I made the switch for all our sales people at $WORK, and even the boss, but you need to show them at least how to get the minimal stuff done, or you'll get as much (if not more) support to handle than on Windows. Which shouldn't be the plan. 2 years after the switch, I can say mission accomplished, the only thing I was asked about were alternatives way of doing things they couldn't figure out just by googling it (and probably couldn't have on Windows either anyway). But we mostly use LibreOffice, Firefox & Thunderbird, so there was no real software compatibilities issues.

Comment Kindle! (Score 1) 415

I bought a Kindle.. And I now read a lot more than I used to, though it's especially in the train.. The e-ink display is really far ahead of the other technologies, and is really comfortable. Battery is never an issue, and the experimental browser is not too bad for news reading either.. The included dictionnary is really nice, as well as the nice wikipedia integration (especially while reading foreign litterature with local names and such..)
Then, you have 2 cons mainly.. a) PDF.. already mentionned here, but even if there are workarounds, it's mainly terrible.. b) the format.. can't really be happy with the amazon ebook format, but well, it works ®..
I'm happy with my Kindle, and as it's not a smart-tab-computer-coffee-machine, it's actually a lot better to stay focused on what you're reading, which enabled me to actually... read faster ;)

Submission + - Hacker Space Festival splits across locations (hackerspace.net) 1

lekernel writes: After the success of the second Hacker Space Festival, the international community of hackers are invited to participate in the multiple events of the third edition. Hackito Ergo Sum (Paris, April 8-10) will be your usual security conference. Breizh Entropy Congress (Rennes, April 15-17, submission deadline March 16) is an eclectic event themed around free culture and technologies. Les Contorsions Technologiques (Paris, May 1st, submission deadline March 20) focuses on DIY hardware. Tetalab Hacker Space Festival (Toulouse, May 28-30) will consist in conferences and workshops revolving around hackerspaces activities. Eventually, Estive Numérique (Southern Alps countryside, July 20-26) will be about autonomy and self-sufficiency in the digital age. With such events blossoming, France looks like the place to be during the next months!

Comment Re:You're doing it wrong. (Score 1) 332

I totally agree with your point of view. I think that there are many reasons our administrations should require opensource for their projects:
  • there is a real public audit of the software, should it still be developped by a selected corporation
  • money is not lost for private parties, as in, they are many things that could benefit other people, companies.. If it's the taxpayers' money, what can be more transparent to give it back this way to them?
  • it lowers the risk of lock-ins for the administrations, that usually end by costing a lot more when you need to buy again a new solution 3 years later..

I think there is a lot to write & tell about how the many general reasons to endorse opensource could be adapted to the government / administration specifics, in terms of local economy growth, global service & quality improvement of software, ability to share more easily the load between cities/states/whatever and so on..

Comment Re:Not a "right"! (Score 3, Insightful) 312

All of this is nit picking over the definition of the word 'right'. It has more than one meaning! Generally, the precise meaning is determined by who we are saying is 'giving' the right - and in the case of 'basic human rights' we usually imply that either 'the natural order of things' or $DEITY 'gave' the rights. All rights do not have to be innate though - I can contractually give you a right of access across my land. In the case of TFA we are talking about a government / constitutionally granted right. Ok? Can we all stop arguing semantics now? Kthx.

Comment Re:Bad statistics - GIGO (Score 2, Informative) 1231

The article sounds indeed more like a rant made public about a problem. Of course, this doesn't deny there is problems with 9.10, but heh, it was in alpha/beta, as the others, and nothing really "that serious" was pointed out I think. Anyway, people ranting loudly enough to make it to The Register may learn that they can also participate in testing the releases..

As for my story, I was running 9.10 since alpha, and it went quite nicely.. Minor pulseaudio glitches that were solved over time and so on. At work and on my laptop, I've upgraded from Jaunty to Karmic when offered to do so by the update manager, and it went nicely too. No problem here, not even a dependency issue, it really went fine, and 2.6.31 is really nice to my setups ;)

About all this issue.. I can't help but think it's more a PR prank than a real spotted issue.. The bugtracker doesn't tell that "that many" users are impacted, and also, that it may be more due to a ATI-card weirdness.. Heh. Not ubuntu's fault in the end, even if they could have worked around it..
Censorship

In the UK, a Few Tweets Restore Freedom of Speech 216

Several readers wrote to us about the situation in the UK that saw the Guardian newspaper forbidden by a judge from reporting a question in UK parliament. The press's freedom to do so has been fought for since at least 1688 and fully acknowledged since the 19th century. At issue was a matter of public record — but the country's libel laws meant that the newspaper could not inform the public of what parliament was up to. The question concerned the oil trading company Trafigura, the toxic waste scandal they are involved in, and their generous use of libel lawyers to silence those who would report on the whole thing. After tweeters and bloggers shouted about Trafigura all over the Internet, the company's lawyers agreed to drop the gag request.

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