Bi0[x]iD's WaY oF LiFe

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The Debian Project http://www.debian.org/
Debian adopted in the Extremadura press@debian.org
August 3rd, 2006 http://www.debian.org/News/2006/20060803
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Debian GNU/Linux adopted in the Extremadura

The councillor for Infrastructure and Technological Development, Luis
Millán Vázquez de Miguel, announced that within one year all the
computers of the Junta of Extremadura (government of the autonomous
region of Extremadura, Spain) will run Free Software office tools and
gnuLinEx, the local flavour of Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, as mandatory
operating system. It will be gradually introduced to all
administrative organisations of the Junta of Extremadura.

From now on, all workers of the public administration will also use
Open Document Formats (ISO/IEC DIS 26300) for their office
applications as well as PDF/A (Portable Document Format, ISO
19005-1:2005) for document exchange, when guaranteed unalterable
visualisation is required.

Vázquez de Miguel explained that at the end of the period all
additional software must be distributed under a free license. «This
is an important initiative that the Junta of Extremadura has been
working on for a long time, accumulating experience and analysing the
impact on our organisation so as to guarantee its success», the
councillor declared. According to Vázquez de Miguel, Free Software
also improves security, autonomy and rationalises public spending.

Using Open Document Formats will guarantee the conservation of all the
administrative documents for longer periods of time. It will also
improve the relationship with the general public since it’s not
obliged to acquire proprietary software to access official documents.

About Extremadura
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Extremadura is an autonomous region in the West of Spain, with a
population of about 1 million. It is well known due to its innovative
efforts to bring the information society to all citizens, recognised
with distinctions such as the 2004 European prize for regional
innovation, granted by the European Commission.

About gnuLinEx
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gnuLinEx is based on Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, with GNOME as the default
desktop. In 2004, it was already deployed in all public schools in
Extremadura, and was in use in other environments, such as community
centres. gnuLinEx closely follows the development of Debian, with a
special focus on translation into Spanish, and easy of use and
maintenance.

About Debian
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Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system, developed by more than a
thousand volunteers from all over the world who collaborate via the
Internet. Debian’s dedication to Free Software, its non-profit nature,
and its open development model make it unique among GNU/Linux
distributions.

The Debian project’s key strengths are its volunteer base, its dedication
to the Debian Social Contract, and its commitment to provide the best
operating system possible.

Contact Information
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For further information, please visit the Debian web pages at
http://www.debian.org/ or send mail to press@debian.org.