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posted by mrpg on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the spending-a-huge-amount-of-money-for-zero-benefit dept.

The city will investigate how long it will take and how much it will cost to build a Windows 10 client ahead of a vote on whether to replace its Linux-based OS from 2021.

A decade ago, Munich was at the vanguard of a movement towards open-source software, switching thousands of staff to Linux from Windows at a time when a move on that scale was almost unheard of.

After spending nine years and millions of euros on the project, today the city's politicians agreed to begin preparing to return to Windows by 2021.

Under a proposal backed by the general council, the administration will investigate how long it will take and how much it will cost to build a Windows 10 client for use by the city's employees.

Once this work is complete, the council will vote again on whether to replace LiMux, a custom version of the Linux-based OS Ubuntu, across the authority from 2021.

Source: Linux champion Munich takes decisive step towards returning to Windows

Before the decision: Statement by The Document Foundation about the upcoming discussion

Linux's Munich crisis: Crunch vote locks city on course for Windows return

Previous: No, Munich Isn't About To Ditch Free Software and Move Back to Windows


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:31PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:31PM (#468586)

    The study pushing it is by a Microsoft backed consulting company. The end result will be higher downtimes, higher costs, malware, etc, but by then Microsoft will have its money, the people pushing the decision will be voted out with nice bank accounts, and it will be too expensive to switch back.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:32PM

    by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:32PM (#468587)

    I should add to this my standard line when dealing with open source in governments and large corporations: "Open source does not take you to lunch or buy you golf vacations".

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:52PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:52PM (#468676)

    The Original Submission [soylentnews.org] is far more interesting than what made made it to the S/N front page.

    That does mention Accenture.
    More specifically, it mentions how a minority in the current city gov't have rammed this through as well as how their agenda IGNORES the recommendation made by that hired-gun M$ "partner", something for which the taxpayers paid.

    The day after I submitted the story, Pogson had another blog entry. [mrpogson.com]

    Accenture’s report, which included a survey of Munich council staff, did not finger LiMux as the main culprit for employees’ dissatisfaction.

    "68.6 percent [of the council's users of the current software ecosystem] said they were completely satisfied with the software", [said Florian Roth of the Green Party].

    In the comments there, oiaohm (a really smart dude, despite his dyslexia) said

    [In] fact, [if] you go and read the Accenture report like the Greens did, at worst only 30% [are] unhappy. That means 70% are happy or don't give a [rat's ass] either way [when] it comes to the LiMux. Now, the over 50% [who are] unhappy [are displeased] with the way the IT system [administrators are] doing things like deploying new systems.

    N.B. 4 years ago, the ecosystem was 94 percent FOSS and the transition was declared a success by the then-mayor.
    As I said in the submission, this appears to be the doings of a politician and his cronies attempting to destroy the accomplishments of the previous regime.

    What is going to be interesting is how the taxpayers/voters react to the tens of millions this will cost.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]