Viva La UMP
For those who don’t know much about the French politics and French conservatives in particular this post will be very helpful. UMP means Union for the Presidential Majority (Union pour la Majorité Présidentielle). The movement has been founded in 2002 and its current leader is the present Interior Minister and charizmatic politician Nicolas Sarkozy. those of you who do peak French can read his blog at http://sarkozyblog.free.fr/.
The reason about this post however is not Mr. Sarkozy. It is a move made by two French members of parliament - Richard Cazenav and Bernard Carayon. Thanks to both of them French and other It companies will be able to grow by supplying the French government with Open Source It solutions.
The coutry’s gendarmerie as well as the Ministry of Culture have already changed Windows OS in favour of Linux and added Open Office to service. It is expected French MPs to start using Linux OS and Open source software from June 2007. The project will save millions of euros to taxpayers and will help hundreds of software development companies to grow.
I believe that the UMP’s move is real example on how does a conservative policy helps people to grow their business. The decision supports open IT market and steps agains the Microsoft’s monopoly on the destop software market (even this monopoly has been achieved on the same free market).
