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
Related Stories
Recently, there has been a circle-jerk of clickbait, gleefully consumed and hyperlinked by the anti-FOSS crowd. The claim is that a certain (unspecified) number of city employees are whining that Linux isn't Windows and FOSS apps aren't good enough and that Munich city fathers have decided to go back to Windows. It's all wishful nonsense from Microsoft fans.
Nick Heath at TechRepublic spoke to city council spokesman Stefan Hauf.
He said the council's recently elected mayor Dieter Reiter has instead simply commissioned a report into the future IT system for the council.
"The new mayor has asked the administration to gather the facts so we can decide and make a proposal for the city council how to proceed in future," he said.
"Not only for LiMux but for all of IT. It's about the organisation, the costs, performance and the useability and satisfaction of the users." [...] "Nothing is decided because first we have to see the report and then we can decide," he said, adding the review has not been triggered by any dissatisfaction with LiMux but is rather part of a review of how to proceed now the LiMux migration project is complete.
In the Spring of 2013, Munich noted that over 94 percent of its computers were running Linux and that the city had already saved more than €10 million over what they would have paid for EULA-ware--even with the fire sale prices initially offered by Ballmer personally.
That anyone thinks the mayor would survive re-election after blowing tens of millions on MSFT licenses and tens of millions more for more-powerful hardware to run it defies all logic.
...and, as Nick notes there, it was never about money; the move to Linux was always about freedom.
Munich is ditching Linux in favor of Windows 10, at a cost of €49.3 million:
The Linux love affair of the German City of Munich, which decided to favor Linux in 2003, is finally over. The city has officially cleared the plan to bring back Windows 10 on about 29,000 PCs.
In 2003, when the city decided to switch to a Linux-based desktop called LiMux and other open source software, it showed that free software could be used on a large scale. However, things didn't turn out the way they were planned.
Coming back to the recent development, the politicians who supported the switch said that Windows 10 will make it easier to source compatible application and drivers, according to TechRepublic.
[...] Linux enthusiasts should also note that the city's IT Chief has previously said that any concrete technical reason doesn't back the move; it's all politics.
Also at Engadget.
Previously: No, Munich Isn't About To Ditch Free Software and Move Back to Windows
Munich Reveals Preliminary Costs for a 'Return' to Windows
Linux Champion Munich Takes Decisive Step Towards Returning to Windows
Another German state plans switch back from Linux to Windows
The German state of Lower Saxony plans to follow Munich's example, and migrate a reported 13,000 users from Linux back to Windows.
Apparently undaunted by the cost of the Munich switch (which we reported in January could be as much as €100m), Lower Saxony is considering making the change in its tax office. The state seems to expect a much cheaper transition, with Heise (in German here) reporting the first-year budget is €5.9m, and another €7m further out.
The tax office argues its decision is driven by compatibility: field workers and teleworkers overwhelmingly use Windows, while the OpenSUSE variants are installed on its office workstations. The office workstations are also ageing and due for replacement, something that helped open the door for Windows.
Related: Linux Champion Munich Takes Decisive Step Towards Returning to Windows
Munich Switching From Linux to Windows 10
German Documentary on Relations Between Microsoft and Public Administration Now Available in English
The site It's FOSS is reporting that India's Defense Services are switching to GNU/Linux, ditching an insecure legacy operating system, with an August 15 deadline. Little is known about their home spun distro except that it seems to be based on Ubuntu.
What's Happening: According to a recent report, the Defence Ministry of India has decided to replace Windows with an in-house developed Linux distro called 'Maya' on all computers that are connected to the Internet.
Also reported at The Hindu, Defence Ministry to switch to locally built OS Maya amid threats, which explains that this move is a reaction to increasingly successful attacks against a certain, pervasive, desktop legacy operating system. x
Currently, Maya is being installed only in Defence Ministry systems and not on computers connected to the networks of the three Services. On this, the official said the three Services had also vetted it and would adopt it on service networks as well soon. The Navy had already cleared it and the Army and the Air Force were currently evaluating it, the official added.
Maya was developed by government development agencies within six months, the official said. Maya would prevent malware attacks and other cyberattacks which had seen a steep increase, the official noted.
However, the attacks in and of themselves are less of a problem than the fact that a large, and increasing, number of them are successful against that aging legacy desktop operating system.
For India to pull this off successfully, they must study how their opponent has maneuvered over the years against GNU/Linux deployments and in particular look at case studies like Kerala, Munich, Lower Saxony, Vaasa, and Turku. India's opponent in this move has had many programmes, years ago one was EDGI, and a long standing mandate that "under NO circumstances lose against Linux".
Previously:
(2018) German Documentary on Relations Between Microsoft and Public Administration Now Available in English
(2018) German State of Lower Saxony Plans to Switch From Linux to Windows
(2017) Munich Switching From Linux to Windows 10
(2017) Linux Champion Munich Takes Decisive Step Towards Returning to Windows
(2016) Draft Report Doesn't Say -Which- Software is Causing Problems in Munich
(2016) Munich: The High Cost of Having Committed to Closed-Source Software
(2014) Another German Town Says It Has Completed Its Switch To FOSS
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:43PM
What's their reason for even thinking about a switch back? I think that would be useful information for in the summary.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:15PM
Take a look who moved to town (MS). Then ask yourself who has been paying or blackmailing who.
(Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:13PM
There are at least five reasons:
There are probably more, but those are the main ones making the rounds. Clearly the FIS failed to put away executives from M$ or Accenture, and without jail time white-collar crime has nearly a 100% recidivism rate.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 1, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:20PM
The same problems other users have with it - most of the system is a mishmash of half-baked software, written either by hobbyists (sf.net, freshmeat), incompetents (Canonical - Wayland/Mir where art thou?) or just morons (Gnome3)
With Linux you just have a good kernel, some nice toolset from RMS&Co and that's it! Everything written on top of that plain sucks.
(Score: 3, Informative) by zugedneb on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:46PM
My mother, a true but clueless humanitarian, saw on television a company who employs asperger people to do some "IT" related stuff, and she asked me why there are not "many" companies that see the value of these people...
I kinda thought about linux, but she is not involved with this stuff, and i could not explain...
But yeah, thats linux... Some stuff are mostly brilliant, like VLC, emacs, xfs and some drivers in the kernel.
But, compared to what it shuld be, even the kernel sux.
My worst complaint, yet again compared to what i think should exist, is the linux IO caching.
Instead of a relatively small cache fixed to some rather small memory range, it uses the entire momory as cache, and removes everything you had there in favor of the crappy files you just copied to your crappy USB drive...
Even if you use the retarded parameters you can tune, so that the cache in some artificial way is constrained to 5 megs, it will still blast that 5 megs across the entire memory, so every binary, library or random other crap will likely have to be read from harddrive again, when you have downloaded or copyed a large file...
As workstation, and not server, user, with long uptimes, this is irritating as hell...
Yes, I have read about nocache, but dont care...
From the fucking nocache man page:
DESCRIPTION
The `nocache` tool TRIES to minimize the effect an application has on
the Linux file system cache........
WTF tries? garbage...
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:58PM
what a bizzare rambling incoherent post
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday February 18 2017, @09:19PM
Wait, wait, wait????
You're saying that windows does memory better?
You're saying that Ms didn't have to pay big bucks for this all to happen in Munich?!?!? HAHAHA!
Windows sucks. The only thing making MS money is the office hold outs: they are the kid who has to pay other kids to play with him.
Give it up: without Linux, and to some extent Apple, windows would still be BSODing. WinXP service pack 3 would have been a pay for thing instead of free, and it would still be complete crap. If it isn't still complete crap, thank a Linux user.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 4, Insightful) by zugedneb on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:38AM
What I am saying is that Linux is pulled in many directions by people who have no sense of "fitness for purpose" and even less concept of something being "mission critical".
Because of some strange religion, the developers involved with Linux seem not to see the benefits of a centralised orgnisation dictating, hmm, lets call it directions, and setting bar for quality.
There is simply no bar for quality, when it comes to linux distributions, at least.
Since I am at least moderately sane, for me to contribute, I want to have expected directions and expected quality my work should meet.
In this way I know who I am dealing with, and that if I meet these standards, my work will prevail and get respect.
And if not, than it is because the other programmer was better than me, and that is fine, since i am not Divine.
Other problem is the fact that if I contribute, to say KDE, that is I write code on my spare time for free, I expect some respect for my work and my time.
If it gets replaced for random reason by the managers of the project, I will not return.
I guess that many good coders did not return, when their contribution got replaced for random reasons.
Both gnome3 and kde4 are the most well known examples of throwing out old, mature system, and replacing it with random shit that nobody asked for.
The only parts of linux that has some quality are those that are written by people who have to know more than programming.
ffmpeg, vlc, gcc, the kernel, blender, gimp, drivers... Projects like these need some serious maths or hardware knowledge, and the people working on them are not morons.
The rest is unmaintainable shit. Especially the "window managers", and they are the first thing a users sees and must learn to use.
Unless you use some retro stuff like Mate, or xfce or trinity, they are worthless.
Random crashes, random stuff changed, random things not working or stop working for equally random reason... And it takes years to get them stable... And then, they are thrown out, and new random shit takes over...
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 19 2017, @02:47AM
Unless you use some retro stuff like Mate, or xfce or trinity, they are worthless.
Random crashes, random stuff changed, random things not working or stop working for equally random reason... And it takes years to get them stable... And then, they are thrown out, and new random shit takes over.
That's exactly why experienced Linux users use so-called retro stuff. That's the stuff the didn't get replaced and thrown out, and as been around loong enough for the bugs to have left.
It's why U don't use the latest Gnome or Kde or their ilk. And why they avoid Windows, too. with its hard-to-avoid incompatible upgrades.
I'm quite happy with Xfce on Devuan.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday February 19 2017, @03:23AM
You may like BSD.
It is considered a bug if a change does not include documentation.
(Score: 1) by zugedneb on Sunday February 19 2017, @03:40AM
I got stuck with linux for "romantic" reasons =)
Was used to ntfs and ext2(3), but when I learned that xfs comes from SGI, i wanted a piece of the cookie, and reinstalled on it.
It was some Vectorlinux version in 2004ish...
For me, at least, the harddrive sounded differently: the clicks were softer, end the louder clicks no so frequent - i concluded that the filesystem layout and head movement is better optimized.
The system felt faster and also, it had defragmentation. Never had problems with it.
There seemd to be, if memory serves, some ambition "very" long ago to make xfs bootable on bsd, but it never happened... Now even the read support is gone in freebsd.
Anyways, will look into it in the future...
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday February 19 2017, @04:18AM
I am trying XFS on my new cryptocurrency node. (Linux based -- thanks to a recommendation in the recent poll)
Moving my day-to-day computer and backup server (offline! -- sneakernet) to FreeBSD. That way I can try ZFS (and a somewhat planned system -- and avoid systemd).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @09:48AM
Ribbon.
End of argument.
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday February 20 2017, @08:37AM
It's funny that you should say this. Go research what drives the Large Hadron Collider - and it isn't Microsoft's offering. Have a look at the top super computers and count how many of them are running a version of Windows. Look at phones - how did the Windows software fare in that market? Linux is more than adequate at doing all of these things and proves it by just getting one with it...
I believe that the problems that you raise are more of 'users' expecting one size to fit all when they are choosing an OS. It is simply not true. If you want a general purpose desktop OS go ahead and choose one. They will work well and meet your requirements. Don't, however, choose a bleeding edge distro and expect it to be as fully integrated as perhaps it could be. They are using new technologies and ideas and the more traditional packages will neither look as though they belong nor will they take advantages of the new concepts and features. Furthermore, why is there a rush to upgrade each time a distro is released - often every 6 months or so? The older releases will usually be supported for several years and many LTS releases have support for 5 years.
I do agree, however, on some of your views regarding software writers and the way they are rewarded or recognised. But the reward usually isn't the reason that people contribute. And if those managing a software project find something better to replace the code that which you have submitted, I would hope that they change to the better software. Do not update for update's sake - but if there is a genuine improvement to be had then lets all benefit from it.
I have stuck with the more traditional desktops. I dislike eye-candy and desktop bling. I want a desktop that lets me get on with doing what I want to do, and stays out of my way at all other times. I don't need a display that shows me the temperatures of each component, or shows me how many bits or bytes I have used, or even the weather outside. Now, perhaps that is as a result of my age - I come from a time when you had to wait to get time on a mainframe computer - and I am quite content with the basic tools that allow me to do my job/hobby in an efficient manner. But it has been very easy for me to select a desktop that meets my requirements and doesn't waste time doing a thousand and one other pointless tasks whilst I am waiting for the task that I do want to finish.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday February 18 2017, @03:30PM
[...] the [Linux] system is a mishmash of half-baked software, written either by hobbyists [...], incompetents [...] or just morons [...]
Say what you will about Windows, but not much of it is written by hobbyists.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_01/gatesletter.html [digibarn.com]
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Saturday February 18 2017, @03:35PM
*Windows, OTOH, is not written by hobbyists.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @09:06PM
I'm not quite sure where you were going with that comment/link.
I will link to this:
Who writes Linux: Corporate America [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [computerworld.com]
I can't image that the numbers have gone -down- since then.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by snmygos on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:25PM
I have a long list of grievances about the interface of Windows 10. One of them is that configuration is distributed in many places and hard to find while all setups are easy to find in a tree, on Linux Mint.
Windows has its avantages, such compatibility with devices, but many drawbacks. Munich will regret Linux the day they will be victim of a virus and lose all the data.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:01PM
If they lose all of their data, it won't be because of whatever OS they happen to choose. It'll be because they don't keep sensible backups. Just like with anyone else.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:31PM
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.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Saturday February 18 2017, @02:32PM
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
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]
In the comments there, oiaohm (a really smart dude, despite his dyslexia) said
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]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @03:54PM
Oh nevermind why! This he said she said is so much more important...
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:13PM
From the fine article: More recently, Microsoft last year moved its German company headquarters to Munich
(Score: 2) by Bot on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:20PM
It is difficult to say, we need more info.
1. has LiMux switched to systemd?
2. have the lobbying expenses from german MS branch gone up recently? oh wait I think they went up from the day of the first public utterance of linux by the city council, MS has dedicated alarm lines for that.
anyway, good luck Munich, because by the time you have switched back, windows will use a linux kernel and systemd.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by compro01 on Saturday February 18 2017, @07:08PM
1. It doesn't appear so. The current version of LiMux (5.0) is based on Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu didn't start using systemd until 15.04.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:32PM
Read the original submission.
https://soylentnews.org/submit.pl?op=viewsub&subid=18618 [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @10:38PM
Systemd
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @01:46PM
what do you expect from government? all they are is incompetent thieves who can't get honest work. the surprise it that they ever tried to do the right thing in the first place. It should be mandatory that stolen tax money can only be used for FOSS. how is it even legal to steal money from people and give it to slaveware peddlers?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 18 2017, @03:41PM
Agreed. Especially the Shit-eating German Krauts ruining their once-great nation with Islamic savages and other human detritus.
What Germany needs is a Hitler who will not be afraid to purge the trash from Europe.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:11PM
Don't you ever get bored of yourself?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:31PM
The true trash of humanity are those who think in this fashion. The Orange One has made this kind of thinking hip and cool again and that's what's going to ruin this world, not Islamic Terrorists or the blue team or Clinton spawn or Moral Decay (TM). You obviously know of the last time the world fought this kind of thinking, since you seem to idolize the side that lost.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by zugedneb on Saturday February 18 2017, @07:38PM
tell u what, though...
there are 2 kinds of people who have formed history:
1. brutal madman, matbe like Hitler, who at least acted on honest belief
2. other who fought for the freedom of "people", but did not actually know the retard faggots whose freedoms they advocated...
u are type 3:
3. semi-witty quasimature idiot, who generally has contributed nothing, except small-scale stability in a local community.
It is not that I underestimate the value of stability in a small community, but there is a time and a place.
Do not criticize giants...
Worth to note, that in times of need, it is not the blood of people like you that is spilled.
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: -1, Troll) by zugedneb on Saturday February 18 2017, @07:51PM
...that both the freedom and safety of u semi-witty quasimature idiots are provided by the toil of others.
The truth of this is proven by your own introspection: look into urself, and asc urself if u understand rage and loyality.
No, u dont, and u had no use for those; that aspect, or whip, of evolution landed on the back of others.
So shut the fuck up, and pay some respect to the storms raging far above your head.
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @08:13PM
Too hard to type on a touch screen eh?
That was just a typo filled spewing of hatred towards someone who dares have a differing opinion from yours. And I'm happy about staying firmly out of history's spotlight, thank you very much. But by all means continue trolling, its really helping and your name will not be remembered either. The Orange One will definitely be remembered over the rabid rabble waddling along behind him, but I highly doubt it will be good memories.
(Score: 1) by zugedneb on Saturday February 18 2017, @08:28PM
Nah, the reason for typo is that my desk is full with stuff, and cant reach the keyboard in a comfy way...
Still, the thing is this: the reason for wars through history of both animals and humans has been overopulation with respect to resources. Things in modern time are of course more shady, but never the less...
The dirty work had to be done, either to take or defend.
The type of persons needed to carry out the dirty work are a bit, hmm, different.
And, as such, they see the world in a different light.
And you are probably not one of "them"...
The dirty ones, so to speak.
Now, u see, the dirty ones are not very good with dualities, and they do not post politically correct shit on forums...
They tend to state more or less brutal stuff, that they may or may not need to put in action in a near future...
Alas, these brutal stuff has definitely had a need to be carried out in the past...
So, wtf is your point, and what is it that you do not understand?
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 2, Troll) by mcgrew on Saturday February 18 2017, @07:55PM
tell u what, though...
Learn the language, kid.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by zugedneb on Saturday February 18 2017, @08:03PM
At least, my education and mastery of the language surpasses that of your former president, mister Bush.
If you want to contribute, come with an argument, u faggot...
old saying: "a troll is a window into the soul of humanity" + also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday February 20 2017, @07:58PM
My argument, in case you're too blind to see it, is substituting the letter U for the word "you" makes you look like a mentally retarded twelve year old. And it would be hard to be dumber than Bush, but the current president seems to have managed to.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday February 19 2017, @06:22AM
"Do not criticize giants?" Do you realize you just said "might makes right" in different terms? Piss off, you sociopathic oxygen thief.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:32PM
Troll much, fucktard? Why don't you go play on reddit and let the adults talk here.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:29PM
What Germany needs is a Hitler [...]
You'll soon discover that Windows 10 is familiar [...]
--
https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msmea/en_IE/cat/Windows/categoryID.70043700 [microsoftstore.com]
A whole new era of power, performance and productivity. Windows 10 gives you all the features you know [...]
-- http://www.dell.com/windows10 [dell.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @08:27PM
His real name is Milo and trolling forums with hateful shit is the only thing that gets him off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:42PM
You should be first to be purged.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by opinionated_science on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:13PM
I did it, anyone could, with sufficient effort...
Thing is, for public systems it should be flat out *illegal* to pay for closed source software, without justification for every single exception.
We pay our taxes, they make Micro$oft richer. With virtualization we can completely emulate any combination of Windoze applications *if* needed.
If all public governments put funding into the FOSS community, the tools would converge much quicker.
Oh, and this is all FUD. There are many consultants whose job is to sell $PRODUCT....
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @10:43PM
Thing is, for public systems it should be flat out *illegal* to pay for closed source software, without justification for every single exception.
It should be flat out illegal period. Proprietary software denies the users their freedoms and makes them completely dependent upon the company that develops the software; governments shouldn't be dependent upon corporations. Furthermore, since proprietary software denies the users their freedoms, they can't educate themselves about how it works and make positive changes to it that benefit the community; the government should promote education, so this rules out proprietary software entirely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:52AM
If you want people to take you seriously stop saying 'Windoze'. It makes you look like you are 12 and have the reasoning of the same.
There are many reasons to use either eco-system. 'just cause I dont like M$' is not one of them.
If all public governments put funding into the FOSS community, the tools would converge much quicker.
Most city/muni govs have *very* basic sorts of computer needs. Spreadsheets, documents, printers, etc. They usually do not need anything fancy. You are not going to get cutting edge funding with that user base. You are going to get crony capitalism. Govs have show to be the worst stewards of our future. They are one leader/tax crises away from all those cool projects going byebye.
There are many consultants whose job is to sell $PRODUCT
You think that is only windows software? There are many who make a living dropping in building a opensource mecca then ghosting away when the shit hits the fan.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rich on Saturday February 18 2017, @04:59PM
The municipal administration is happy with their Linux-based workstations:
http://www.schwaebischhall.de/buergerstadt/rathaus/linux/migration.html [schwaebischhall.de] (in German)
So, a Linux-based infrastructure is nothing that can't be done, but entirely within the abilities of a well run IT department.
The Munich issue seems to mostly revolve about politics and pork, and maybe a bit of incompetence in the wrong places, and I wouldn't even rule out that certain factions were involved in disruption strategies. It will be interesting to see if bad things happen when they try to re-entrench the other system. The gears might happen to grind to a halt and slide into widespread chaos on the first big patch day after the rollout is done. To much delight of people interested in the comfy mayor chair...
On the cost side, as I read it, the whole migration has cost about roughly as much as the license cost saved so far. The return will probably be much more expensive, because a set of all-new computers will be needed for W10, the accompanying license cost, and the plan to hire (expensive!) external consultants to get the work done.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @07:39PM
The municipal administration is happy with their Linux-based workstations
Yes, a supermajority is contented with what they have.
After a decade of use, the "new" stuff is in muscle memory and it seems second-nature to use it to get things done.
It's not that different than having switched to another version of Windoze/upgraded Windoze-compatible apps years ago.
The Munich issue seems to mostly revolve about politics and pork
The politics is pretty obvious.
This is a cadre attempting to leave its mark on things and undoing the accomplishments of the old guard.
It's the final thing that I mentioned in the original summary. (Worth a read.)
If there is actual graft involved and that is revealed, this will get VERY interesting.
It seems to be the OPPOSITE of pork to me.
The FOSS system kept support and money for that local.
By comparison, M$'s stuff has a very poor fiscal multiplier effect; they will instead be exporting cash.
It will be interesting to see if bad things happen when they try to re-entrench the other system.
Indeed. With M$ having had several releases since Munich stopped giving them cash, many who are now used to the FOSS OS will find Redmond's latest stuff jarring.
I mentioned in TOS how the city fathers handed out Ubuntu disks when eXPee was reaching EoL.
Rather than buying new hardware, the very practical citizens of Munich simply switched to the zero-cost solution.
Windoze use there is a small minority.
patch day
With folks now used to the ease of Linux updates, one wonders what the reaction will be to a return to the brokenness of MICROS~1's update paradigm.
On the cost side [they avoided] a set of all-new computers
When the dust has settled, how taxpayers/voters react to this unnecessary waste of money will be the big story.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:58AM
It seems to be the OPPOSITE of pork to me.
The FOSS system kept support and money for that local.
Correct. Let's call it "maybe benefits for individuals". I picked the wrong word here. Pork would be if a representative from Nuremburg lobbied for SuSE ;)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:23PM
The motivation for this is, I'm sure, the same as it always is: the city is making a great show of evaluating Windows so it can get a better deal on Linux licences. The better the show, the better the discount, but the chance they'll actually switch is nil.