WTF?
I know it's fashionable right now to make fun of the French but is it really appropriate in that context?
It probably makes you feel "COOL" but that doesn't bring anything to the news.

Go ahead... I'm ready to get flamed!

Tres amusant, InfoWorld!

The French come of well here. It's funny and smart.

If they can make or drive Linux to be desktop and peripheral friendly (not all of us want to spend our nights tweaking), more power to them.

> I know it's fashionable right now to make fun
> of the French but is it really appropriate in
> that context?

it's been fashionable for the last 60 years.

> It probably makes you feel "COOL" but that
> doesn't bring anything to the news.

still no sense of humor? how sad.

Most probably the reason behind this is not to be dependent on American technology. By the way, if the French did not exist they should be invented! :-) It is so funny to ear the French news on TV, always looking so seriously at themselves and justifiying by looking behind why they are important today, starting by their language, only speak now by 90M people...

Hilarius, I'm french and I'm laughing out loud. I like this article. Very good

Letterman is safe. Keep the day gig. "Sad" indeed. ;-)

Indeed the world (not only France) is getting more and more alternatives to increasingly bad-engineered crap from the US...

I saw this on another site yesterday. Does anyone know WHICH email client they're going to? My company is interested in pursuing non MS options as Vista and the new MS Office come up, but Outlook / Exchange is our biggest worry.

In a couple of years after we Americans get our heads out of our butts, the French will be laughing at corporate America for still relying on Microcrap (a.k.a. Microsoft) to run our businesses. They, the French that is, will be farther ahead technology wise in both innovation and security. Their people and corporations will benefit from this transition.

We will be standing around looking at each other, asking "Why didn't we do that?", duh.

All Vista is, is the rewrite of the Linux model with their twist. Get on the Linux boat, or be left floating on the water....

Well, if you're French, what's really funny is not being in Iraq and having W for president. It's hilarious.

I am not a Frenchman, but I felt offended by the author's juvenile comments. What exactly was the point of this article? What is the author's position, if he has one?

Did he want the readers to comment on his chauvinistic sense of humor or on the technology? How about a nice series of articles about Linux and Jews, or Germans, Arabs, Blacks... Americans?

I understand that articles get published in a hurry, but a respectable publication such as InfoWorld should still maintain a basic level of editorial review. That is, if it wants to remain respectable.

It makes perfect sense for the French to go Linux ... SUSE Linux since they already use eDirecotry from Novell !!!

And as far as French being spoken by only 90M people well French is one of the most poetic languages on this planet and it is very far from those germanic based languages ( Not that there is something wrong with them, they just don't present themselves well to poetry).

Linux and French go hand in hand cause both are music (poetry) to my ears!!!

DocKnow
French Canadian

Email Client: Try GroupWise

This is ridiculously conceived and written. It's like some teenage MSCE did it. Let me help - No, it probably wasn't price for the French, but strategic flexibility, and software that actually gets better as it evolves, and improves productivity (vs. the opportunity cost we pay here every day of every year).

jwwjr

I, too, was offended by the ridicule of the French decision. They have just joined several other European government and commercial organizations in seeking alternatives to the MS stuff. WinXP is five years old and they are still issuing "critical" patches to it once per month. The open source community addresses problems as soon as they occur and there are not many of those.

You mean "adieu, Windows," surely?

Re: e-mail client, the linked articles say a decision has not yet been made. If they're using Exchange as their mail server platform then Evolution seems likely. If not, and especially if they choose a Linux distribution that favors KDE over Gnome, there are other choices available.

I am french, proud to be, and I did not appreciate such a stupid approach of a very original decision.

I am working in a company selling a lot of IT american products (Cisco, Juniper, HP, F5, Packeteer, RSA...). I do appreciate a lot of american startups and their innovative ideas.

But when I read such article, I am very disappointed...

My brother married an american women. Both of our families were proud and very happy to meet because we have so many things to share.

Mr Samson, stay in your little world.

Hi there, I'm french (who cares ?.. I was just introducing...) well, I make 550 000,00 euros per year (all by myself) dealing services on linux OS such as Debian, Red Hat, Mandriva, Open-Xchange... Instead of being reseller, I'm a services provider... France lost the hardware AND the software markets anyway, so... we reorganize in order to take back control on our local/national/european market. That's all folks ! Plus Open Source softwares improve flexibility, security, productivity AND... helps re-organisation of companies, i mean it often leads to think a better organisation, new tools, methods etc.) Hey ! for once I have the feeling we can make it all by ourselves ! ::laugh::

Hello Mr Ted, are you closed to open-source ? Which OS are you using everyday ?
Salut a toi.

Hello

At first, apologies for my poor english because I'm French.
I have two things to say to Mr Samson:
first: Mr Lewis who is for me an old memory of my youth is now perfectly unknown for most french peoples. Please stop to watch fox news.
second: With the actual situation in Irak, American newspapers could avoid to speak about military questions. In France we say "le ridicule ne tue pas". Sometimes, it can be wrong.
And about "sense of humor": I haven't a real sense of humor about the father of my grand-father who die the first of april in 1918 from a machine-gun bullet in the head. I have none sense of humor about my grand-father who stay four years in an east-prussia camp.
Have you ever read french jokes about 9/11?
American medias should stop to speak about things they don't know.

Hello

At first, apologies for my poor english because I'm French.
I have two things to say to Mr Samson:
first: Mr Lewis who is for me an old memory of my youth is now perfectly unknown for most french peoples. Please stop to watch fox news.
second: With the actual situation in Irak, American newspapers could avoid to speak about military questions. In France we say "le ridicule ne tue pas". Sometimes, it can be wrong.
And about "sense of humor": I haven't a real sense of humor about the father of my grand-father who die the first of april in 1918 from a machine-gun bullet in the head. I have none sense of humor about my grand-father who stay four years in an east-prussia camp.
Have you ever read french jokes about 9/11?
American medias should stop to speak about things they don't know.

Dear Mr. DocKnow,

I take offense at you taking offense. German as one of the germanic languages you disgust was the language of choice for many literature classics including tons of poetry.
I wrote poetry for years in German and it worked very well.

Finally a major government gets it! Bravo! But did this newsworthy story have to be relayed through an article that would get an F even in third grade? Come on, is Infoworld so cheap that they can't hire some real journalists?

Want a good, non-Exchange, managed messaging system that runs on Linux? Try Lotus Notes - the latest Version 7 runs on Linux desktops, and even from a USB memory stick. Version 8 will offer OpenDoc formats as well.

Want a good, non-Exchange, managed messaging system that runs on Linux? Try Lotus Notes - the latest Version 7 runs on Linux desktops, and even from a USB memory stick. Version 8 will offer OpenDoc formats as well.

Thank you, everyone, who commented on this piece. I just wanted to make a couple of comments of my own.

1. To those of you who appreciated my attempt at humor, I'm glad I made you smile, or chuckle, or roll your eyes and shake your head. To those of you who did not, fair enough. I'm fully aware that humor is relative. Some people like Henny Youngman; some people like Sarah Silverman. Whatever the case, I appreciate the input. (Well, most of it. :D)

2. To those of you who feel I was overly offensive about the French: Well, yes, I did employ satire, but I don't think I crossed any lines. Plus I didn't limit the satire to the French: I took a swipe at the Bush administration, Windows, and penguin meat. But if you were really and truly offended, my apologies.