Case Study: La Gendarmerie Nationale saves €2 million a year with Ubuntu Desktop Edition from Ubuntu

La Gendarmerie Nationale upgrades 85,000 PCs to Ubuntu Desktop Edition

La Gendarmerie Nationale, the French police force responsible for public safety nationwide, needed to reduce spiraling IT costs and simplify management across a large, distributed environment. After moving from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org and from Internet Explorer to Firefox, the organization turned to Ubuntu Desktop Edition to replace its Microsoft-based desktop setup across 85,000 PCs.

Ubuntu implemented a phased migration to Ubuntu Desktop Edition, supported by Canonical’s Premium Service Engineer service, while also repurposing 4,500 machines as local servers. The result was a major reduction in total cost of ownership, including savings of €2 million per year in license fees alone, plus lower hardware spending, faster maintenance, and easier software deployment.

La Gendarmerie Nationale

Jean-Pascal Chateau

Commandant