By gradually migrating to a complete open source desktop and web applications, Gendarmerie Nationale, the French national police force with 105,000 employees, has saved millions of euros. The move cuts Microsoft out of the equation, helping the French national police force slash its IT costs by 70 percent.

"Today the Gendarmerie Nationale (The French national police force) announced the migration of up to 70,000 computers to Ubuntu over the next 3 years..."

French Directorate General of Public Finance dumps Microsoft software; The French Gendarmerie should remove Mono from Ubuntu

The French national police force has slashed its IT costs by 70 per cent by cutting Microsoft out of the equation.

The French paramilitary police force said Wednesday it is ditching Microsoft for the free Linux operating system, becoming one of the biggest administrations in the world to make the break.

According to Lieutenant-Colonel Xavier Guimard's calculations, the French police plans to save $50 million in switching from Windows to Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is more than a desktop operating system. That continues to be the message from Canonical, which is promoting another Ubuntu Server Edition user survey...

In preparation for the Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) release, Canonical is reaching out to independent software vendors (ISVs). In fact, Canonical says there are 10 reasons why developers should embrace Ubuntu 10.04 Desktop Edition, and nine reasons why they should support support Ubuntu 10.04 Server Edition. Here the are.

Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, announced today that Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix is free to download from Thursday 23 April. Also announced were the simultaneous releases of Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop Edition and Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition.