4 ms·

A bit of trivia, which makes the title actually wrong: it's "Gendarmerie Nationale" (which is a military corps, handled by "Ministère de la Défense" ~ DoD), not

by lloeki 13y ago

A bit of trivia, which makes the title actually wrong: it's "Gendarmerie Nationale" (which is a military corps, handled by "Ministère de la Défense" ~ DoD), not "Police Nationale" (which is not a military corps, under "Ministère de l'Intérieur" ~ DoHS). The USA relies (IIUC) on 2nd amendment to resist oppression, possibly from its own police forces and government, whereas in France guns are outright forbidden but there are by design those two distinct and independent entities, with an autonomous chain of command, hopefully guaranteeing one will defend the people rights should the other be subverted.

jackjeff 13y ago
Sort of... There has been a lot of talks about merging the two bodies, and some steps have already been made towards that goal by the current administration and the previous one. It's not unthinkable that distinction and separate chain of command would eventually go away in the next decade or so.
epsylon 13y ago
> A bit of trivia, which makes the title actually wrong: it's "Gendarmerie Nationale" (which is a military corps, handled by "Ministère de la Défense" ~ DoD), not "Police Nationale" (which is not a military corps, under "Ministère de l'Intérieur" ~ DoHS). Well, since 2009, the Gendarmerie receives its budget and orders from the Ministère de l'Intérieur. It's not a police force stricto sensu, but their missions are those of a police force.
- scriptproof 13y ago
  Gendarmerie is the police for rural areas.
mathattack 13y ago
This seems very much a French ideal. I used to visit France a lot for work, and there seemed to be a lot of disrespect of authority. (Strikes, unions, etc.) This gets me thinking about Open Source. I would think that adoption is consistent with the Power to the People ethos in France. How is their Linux adoption as a country compared with the rest of the world?
- forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
  In France Unions ARE the authority. Most of the French work for the government and unions have lots of power.
  - Vlaix 13y ago
    Most of the French DON'T work for the government and unions have almost no power whatsoever. That's why they make a lot of noise.
  - johnchristopher 13y ago
    The union culture in France is much smaller than in Belgium or Germany. The french media are giving it a lot of coverage (while criticizing it at the same time) but it doesn't mean its influence is as effective as you make it sound. There are your classical Poujadas scapegoats.
- Vlaix 13y ago
  The adoption of Linux is just consistent with the fact that we're getting poor.
  - mathattack 13y ago
    Are there stats of Linux adoption in France versus elsewhere? Or increased adoption as countries become poor?
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  > This gets me thinking about Open Source. I would think that adoption is consistent with the Power to the People ethos in France. How is their Linux adoption as a country compared with the rest of the world? There is a funny fad of the week in the part of the IT field I am involved in that has old-timer one-finger typing IT guys shouting "Yes but the cost of maintaining linux and training people greatly outweigh those of windows; people don't realize that everybody knows windows but if something goes wrong with linux you have to pay to get help". The bearded windows guys are scared.

by lloeki 13y ago

jackjeff 13y ago

Sort of... There has been a lot of talks about merging the two bodies, and some steps have already been made towards that goal by the current administration and the previous one. It's not unthinkable that distinction and separate chain of command would eventually go away in the next decade or so.

epsylon 13y ago

> A bit of trivia, which makes the title actually wrong: it's "Gendarmerie Nationale" (which is a military corps, handled by "Ministère de la Défense" ~ DoD), not "Police Nationale" (which is not a military corps, under "Ministère de l'Intérieur" ~ DoHS). Well, since 2009, the Gendarmerie receives its budget and orders from the Ministère de l'Intérieur. It's not a police force stricto sensu, but their missions are those of a police force.

scriptproof 13y ago
Gendarmerie is the police for rural areas.

mathattack 13y ago

This seems very much a French ideal. I used to visit France a lot for work, and there seemed to be a lot of disrespect of authority. (Strikes, unions, etc.) This gets me thinking about Open Source. I would think that adoption is consistent with the Power to the People ethos in France. How is their Linux adoption as a country compared with the rest of the world?

forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
In France Unions ARE the authority. Most of the French work for the government and unions have lots of power.
- Vlaix 13y ago
  Most of the French DON'T work for the government and unions have almost no power whatsoever. That's why they make a lot of noise.
- johnchristopher 13y ago
  The union culture in France is much smaller than in Belgium or Germany. The french media are giving it a lot of coverage (while criticizing it at the same time) but it doesn't mean its influence is as effective as you make it sound. There are your classical Poujadas scapegoats.
Vlaix 13y ago
The adoption of Linux is just consistent with the fact that we're getting poor.
- mathattack 13y ago
  Are there stats of Linux adoption in France versus elsewhere? Or increased adoption as countries become poor?
johnchristopher 13y ago
> This gets me thinking about Open Source. I would think that adoption is consistent with the Power to the People ethos in France. How is their Linux adoption as a country compared with the rest of the world? There is a funny fad of the week in the part of the IT field I am involved in that has old-timer one-finger typing IT guys shouting "Yes but the cost of maintaining linux and training people greatly outweigh those of windows; people don't realize that everybody knows windows but if something goes wrong with linux you have to pay to get help". The bearded windows guys are scared.