The French Government is switching to Linux, OpenOffice, and Firefox.  Apparently the number of computers is just over 1,000, but this is significant nonetheless. 

À compter de la prochaine législature (juin 2007), les 1.154 postes informatiques des parlementaires n’intégreront plus Windows mais un OS Linux, ainsi que la suite bureautique OpenOffice, le navigateur Firefox et un client de messagerie libre.

Source: Linux s’installe dans les PC des députés – Entreprise – ZDNet.fr

Now I am not the one to back the French, and I have questioned their judgement before, like their attempt to build a search engine alternative to Google called Quaero.

But this is different.  I applaud their switch to open source.  In the examples here of operating system, office suite and browser, these are all tried and tested, and their employees will get on just fine with them.  They will get reliability, a far superior browser, a slightly archaic Office product, but one that works just fine.

Who is next ?