Another government department has embraced open-source software, this time as a replacement for 1,500 Windows NT servers from Microsoft

A French government department is replacing its legacy Microsoft NT servers with an open-source product from Mandrakesoft.

Announcing the deal on Friday, the Linux distributor said that the French Ministry of Equipment was replacing 1,500 office and infrastructure Microsoft Windows NT servers with Mandrakelinux corporate servers.

The move appears to be part of a general move towards Linux by the French government, which is wrestling with a large budget deficit. A recent report quoted the French civil service minister suggesting that one million state PCs could be shifted from Windows to an open-source platform.

"We are not starting a war against Microsoft or against American companies in the software sector," Renaud Dutreil told Reuters, adding that Microsoft "must return to being one supplier to the state among others".

Many governments across the world are giving serious consideration to deploying Linux. While some are primarily interested in the possibility of saving money on licence fees, others have said they are interested in avoiding being tied into proprietary solutions offered by single companies.

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