In an effort to move out of the proprietary field, the French parliament has made the decision to switch to Linux from Windows. Including over 1100 individual workstations, the Parliament will be using an unnamed Linux distro along with OpenOffice, FireFox and other free software. Even though this means that many people will be suddenly thrown into a software world they've never used before, they will continue with the plan and have no concerns over adoption:
"The study showed that open-source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to the needs of MPs (members of parliament) and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the associated migration and training costs," the parliament said.
It seems that much of this switch was influenced by politics, with the French parliament wanting "greater control" over their technology. From a more practical standpoint, other reasons such as no longer relying on a single vendor to provide service and to make use of additional public funds were cited. The move is expected to begin next year.