Open Source Express: Linagor Cop, Adulact, Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap in College

Image: “Keep Calm and Use Open Source” (MedithIT/CC by)

General Xavier Guimard, Free Software Specialist at Linagora

If the weight of proprietary software publishers (such as Defense or National Education) in administrations is high, the gendarmerie is often cited as an example, in contrast, the successful transition to free software has been going on for more than a decade. Among its masters is Xavier Guimard, a brigadier general whose arrival Linagora announced as chief technical officer for software from February 1st.

X-Télécoms by education, he was previously Deputy Director for Information Systems at the Ministry of the Interior. Linagora says: “He spent most of his career with the National Gendarmerie, especially in the digital realm.

Xavier Guimard is an expert known for his contribution to the digital transformation of the state through the widespread use of free software. He has been at the center of major open source implementation programs such as GNU/Linux, LibreOffice.org, OpenLDAP, OBM… at the National Gendarmerie.

He is also known (and recognized by his peers) for his active contributions to many free programs (postfix, openldap). First of all, he is the creator of the LemonLDAP::NG open source SSO technology, which underpins many of the mission-critical authentication frameworks in use today in many administrations and private organizations.

An expert in TDD (Test Driven Development) and javascript programming, he is also a very active Debian contributor and packager, and is responsible for monitoring the quality of over 1200 packages.

The company points out that the former gendarme has a dual mission: “to use his experience to accelerate the success of the Linagora software offering, in particular the Digital Workplace Twake solution, and to establish a new subsidiary in Mauritius.”

Adullaq: “If we only use free software, we won’t understand anything”

Republik-IT interviewed François Elie. The president of Adulact (Association of Developers, Users of Free Software for Administrations and Local Authorities), elected in Angoulême, explains in particular:

“There is an urgent need for a large number of niche software, business applications, but, on the contrary, there is little or no supply. If clients don’t do it, no one will do it for them. Our approach is to promote, to meet these needs, the use of free software. But if we only use free software, we won’t understand anything. It also needs to be produced.

Let’s take an example: the management of cemeteries. This is a topic that no free software developer cares about, but that interests 36,000 municipalities that have more or less the same needs. The city of Arles created the software and opened it up under the name OpenCimetière. Once the software is free, it can be shared.”

Two other passages:

“Take a recent example. In Angouleme, I banned the migration of Windows 11 workstations because it involves replacing many PCs. For the hardware to last, you need to switch to Linux. 95% of the servers in the world are running Linux: it’s a reliable system.

“When you ‘buy’ proprietary software, you are actually renting it at an exorbitant price in addition to paying for support, maintenance, etc. Competing in the public market between proprietary software and free software is a very bad way to go.

Digital Commons at the University of Bordeaux

Wikimedia (which includes Wikipedia and related projects) and OpenStreetMap are part of the program of the University of Bordeaux, Pierre-Yves Baudouin, administrator of the Wikimedia France association, more specifically the Regional Training Department of Scientific and Technical Information, says in a tweet. (Urfist) University of New Aquitaine in Bordeaux, where he is a resident of Wikimedian, a formula that develops in France after other countries where the practice is older.

A Wikimedia Resident is a person temporarily assigned to a cultural institution, learned society, or institution of higher learning to facilitate the creation of entries in Wikimedia projects related to the institution’s mission, to encourage and assist in the publication of material free of charge. licenses, and develop relationships between the institution and the Wikimedia community.

The principle of housing a Wikimedian by place of residence appeared in 2010, for the first time in the British Museum. Since 2010, there have been over 150 Wikimedia residencies around the world. In France, the first institution to host a Wikimedian was the Château de Versailles in 2011.

Pierre-Yves Baudouin explains: “A permanent Wikimedian is a person who is temporarily posted to a cultural institution, learned society, or institution of higher education to facilitate the creation of entries in Wikimedia projects related to the institution’s mission, to encourage and assist in the publication of documents under free licenses, and also develop the relationship between the institution and the Wikimedia community.