Image: “Keep calm and use open source” (MedithIT/CC by)
General Xavier Guimard, a Free Software specialist at Linagora
If the weight of proprietary software publishers (such as at Defense or National Education) in the administrations is heavy, the gendarmerie is often cited as an example, on the contrary, of a successful migration to free software, there are more ‘a decade. Among its craftsmen, Xavier Guimard, brigadier general, whose arrival Linagora announced as Chief Technology Officer software from February 1st.
X-Télécoms by training, he was previously Deputy Director of Information Systems at the Ministry of the Interior. Linagora says: “He has spent most of his career with the National Gendarmerie, particularly in the digital field.
Xavier Guimard is an expert known and recognized for his impact in the digital transformation of the State by making massive use of Free Software. He was at the heart of major Open Source solution implementation programs such as GNU/Linux, LibreOffice.org, OpenLDAP, OBM… within the National Gendarmerie.
He is also known (and recognized by his peers) for his active contribution to many free software (postfix, openldap). Above all, he is the creator of the Open Source SSO technology LemonLDAP::NG which is at the heart of the many critical authentication infrastructures in production to date in many administrations and private entities.
An expert in the fields of TDD (Test Driven Development) and javascript programming, he is also a very active Debian contributor and packager with more than 1,200 packages under his responsibility in terms of quality monitoring.
The company indicates that the ex-gendarme has a double mission: “to bring his experience to accelerate the success of Linagora’s software offer, in particular the Digital Workplace Twake solution and to create a new subsidiary based in Mauritius. .”
Adullact: “If we only use free software, we have understood nothing”
The Republik-IT site interviewed François Elie. The president of Adullact (Association of Developers, Users of Free Software for Administrations and Local Authorities) and elected in Angoulême explains in particular:
“For a large number of niche software, business applications, there is a strong need but, opposite, little or no supply. If customers don’t do them, no one will do them for them. Our approach is to promote, to cover these needs, the use of free software. But if we only use free software, we have understood nothing. It must also be produced.
Let’s take an example: the management of cemeteries. This is a subject that does not interest anyone among free software developers but which interests 36,000 municipalities which all have more or less the same need. The city of Arles had created software and opened it under the name of OpenCimetière. From the moment a software is free, it can be shared.”
Two other passages:
“Let’s take a recent example. In Angoulême, I have banned the migration of workstations under Windows 11 because it involves replacing many PCs. To make the hardware last, it is necessary to switch to Linux. 95% of the servers in the world are under Linux: it is a solid system.
“When you ‘buy’ proprietary software, you actually rent it at a prohibitive price in addition to paying for maintenance, service, etc. To compete, in a public market, between proprietary software and free software, is a very bad way to proceed.
Digital Commons at the University of Bordeaux
Wikimedia (which includes Wikipedia and associated projects) and OpenStreetMap are on the program of the University of Bordeaux, announcement in a tweet Pierre-Yves Beaudouin, administrator of the Wikimedia France association, and more precisely of the Regional Unit for Training in Scientific and Technical Information (Urfist) New Aquitaine University of Bordeaux where he is a resident Wikimedian – a formula that is progressing in France, after other countries where the practice is older.
Pierre-Yves Beaudouin explains: “A Wikimedian-in-Residence is a person temporarily posted to a cultural institution, a learned society, or an institute of higher education to facilitate the creation of entries on Wikimedia projects related to mission of the institution, to encourage and assist in the publication of documents under free licenses, and to develop relations between the institution and the Wikimedia community.
The principle of hosting a Wikimedian in residence appeared in 2010 with a first at the British Museum. Since 2010, more than 150 wikimedia residencies have been organized around the world. In France, the first institution to welcome a Wikimedian in residence was the Château de Versailles in 2011.
Read also
Linagora trial: the Paris Court of Appeal rules in favor of the founders of Blue Mind – December 4, 2022
Teaching Wikipedia and related projects: a wikimedian in residence in Auvergne – July 31, 2022
Local authorities and free software: the Adullact is twenty years old – June 19, 2022
The gendarmerie, a textbook case of a large-scale migration to free software – March 17, 2009