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gewg_ writes:

The European Union's interoperability site reports:

The German town of Gummersbach, a city of about 50,000 in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, announced that this Summer it has completed its switch to Linux PCs, retiring a decade-old proprietary operating system no longer supported by the IT vendor. The migration has saved the town a five-figure sum, and Gummersbach expects a further reduction of IT costs: a combination of savings on proprietary [licenses] and lower hardware costs.

Using Linux has reduced the need for PC maintenance, freeing 1 full-time equivalent employee (FTE). The IT department now employs three persons.

In August, the city sent a statement to Pro Linux, a German Linux news site, announcing the completion of the migration project and detailing its current desktop PC policy. [October 7], the city made the same statement available to the Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR).

The administration now uses 300 thin client PCs, with desktop and applications [retrieved from] a SuSE Linux Terminal Server cluster of six servers. The desktop environment is MATE. The city staffers use the LibreOffice suite of office productivity tools and the Open-Xchange suite of email, instant messaging, calendaring, and online collaboration tools.

Some departments use Wollmux, an open source tool for managing forms and document templates developed by the German city of Munich.

The Linux desktops can access a number of business application that depend on a proprietary operating system, by using a combination of proprietary desktop virtualisation solutions. Gummersbach retains 25 PCs running a proprietary operating system, a requirement for applications used by the Civil Service desk, and for computer aided design software in use by the town.

[Update: Corrected spelling of Gummersbach and updated link thereto.]

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Munich still uses 41 proprietary apps that will only run under XP or 2000. The city has estimated it will cost $18M to replace them over a 4-year span.

Nick Heath at TechRepublic reports

Windows XP and 2000 are used by fewer than 1,500 of the more than 16,000 staff at the council, which relies on the aged Microsoft systems to run 41 applications.

[...] In order to stop using Windows XP and 2000, these 41 applications will either be migrated to a newer, supported operating system, replaced with more modern software, or phased out--as part of a four year project costing €16.6M ($18.03M).

[...] Munich carried on using XP and 2000 due to these 41 applications being used for crucial work in the city, from monitoring emissions for air pollution to flood protection.

To secure the OSes, Munich ran them on virtual machines and on standalone computers, as well as using what it calls "restrictive data interchange", quarantine systems, and additional protective measures.

The council has decided to stop using these older unsupported versions of Windows now as, not only are they a security risk, but according to a report [PDF, Deutsch] they have limited support for network and data security features the council wants to use.

[...] Often it can be the case that organisations can't update the application to run on a newer OS because the people with the necessary skills are gone or the company that originally wrote the software no longer exists.

[...] The project at Munich will be split into two phases: The first will assess the work needed and the second will carry it out. Work got underway at the end of [2015] and is expected to be complete by the end of September 2019.

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ writes:

Nick Heath reports via TechRepublic

Munich city council spent years migrating more than 15,000 staff to LiMux, a custom-version of Ubuntu and other open-source software--a move the city said had saved it more than €10M ($11M).

[...] After his election, the new mayor of Munich, Dieter Reiter, announced he would commission a report to evaluate how IT should be run at council in [the] future--including whether the authority should continue to run LiMux.

Now, an interim release of this report[PDF, Deutsch] by consultants Accenture has highlighted user dissatisfaction with outdated and unreliable software. However, when detailing the problems with desktop PCs, the draft report fails to specify whether it's Linux-based machines that are affected or the minority Windows PCs retained at Munich.

[...] Problems stem from the variety of PC clients being used, and the use of old operating systems, office software, browsers, and infrastructure, according to the report. The report cites evidence of these IT problems causing intermittent, rather than persistent problems for staff. When employees at Munich were surveyed last year, 85 percent said software problems interfered with their work at least once per month, with 55 percent blaming hardware problems. The council has previously stated the bulk of users had no issue with the move to LiMux, outside of a couple of councillors.

For my part, I wonder how objective the report will be. From Wikipedia:

Avanade Inc. was founded in 2000 as a joint venture between Accenture and
Microsoft

Additionally, Munich declared the conversion "complete" at 94 percent (though they have continued to inch forward away from non-open software). A major reason for starting the switch in the first place was because they had a mix of software that was unnecessarily difficult to manage.

Previous: Munich Reveals Preliminary Costs for a 'Return' to Windows

Original Submission

-- OriginalOwner_ informs us of a story:

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

takyon writes:

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

Original Submission

canopic jug writes:

A French Free Software organization, April, has announced that a German Documentary from the ARD, "The Microsoft Cyber Attack" has been released in English thanks to Deutsche Welle (DW). It is an informative and objective film about the inappropriate relations between a certain infamous corporation and the various public administrations. The documentary first aired on February 19^th, 2018 by the German public broadcaster (ARD).

In May 2017, hundreds of thousands of computers running Microsoft Windows operating systems were disabled by the WannaCry cyber attack. How could a single malware program simultaneously cripple companies, hospitals and even government intelligence services all around the globe? Microsoft Windows software programs proved to be their common Achilles heel. Companies and private individuals use software from Microsoft. Government and public administrations from Helsinki to Lisbon run it, too. That makes all of them vulnerable to attacks from hackers and spies. Microsoft Window's dominance also undermines European procurement legislation, impedes technological progress and costs Europe a bundle. Journalist Harald Schumann and his team of Investigate Europe researchers have spoken with insiders and administrators from all across the continent. The German government's former IT director, Martin Schallbruch, tells us how countries are becoming increasingly dependent on Microsoft. A legal expert from the Netherlands describes how the European Commission and governments are breaking European laws regulating public tenders. Hamburg's data protection commissioner, Johannes Caspar, warns that Microsoft Windows systems expose individuals' private data to the prying eyes of US intelligence services. Internal documents show that Germany's Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) suspects this, too. The European Parliament and the German parliament have responded by repeatedly demanding that government IT systems be converted to open source software. Their source codes can be accessed freely and copied at will, which would enable European security services to use, alter and monitor them. Italy's army is going open source, as have police in France, Lithuania, and in the cities of Rome and Barcelona. Why do most governments resist the alternatives, or fall back into Microsoft's clutches, as Munich city authorities did. The EU's Commissioner for the Digital Single Market, Andrus Ansip, and other key players have the answers.

The video itself, « The Microsoft Cyber Attack », is available at Youtube and is about 43 minutes long.

Original Submission

takyon writes:

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

Original Submission