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Details of Linux-in-Munich Deal Revealed
An anonymous reader writes "USA Today is running a piece about the lengths which Microsoft went to in order not to lose the government of Munich's account to a Linux-based proposal from SuSE. Interesting to see how these types of contracts are structured, and just what Microsoft is willing to give up to prevent losing to Linux."
Though Microsoft underbid IBM and SuSE by $11.9 million in Munich, city officials were concerned about the unpredictable long-run cost of Microsoft upgrades
Munich chose to spend a little more money now to save a LOT of money down the road. This was a big decision, and may have political ramifications in the short-term, but no doubt it was a wise one. Microsoft's strategy is to push an upgrade after X number of years by cancelling support for older products. With Linux, the city can upgrade what they need to, when they need to.
MS: "This is our best offer." ... Grr...
Munich: "Thanks, but we're going with Linux."
MS: "OK, take off another 8 million."
Munich: Wha... But you just said
When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
Yes, however they got a lot more for their money (in terms of software, support and local employment) and this was only after Microsoft gave large discounts.
I'm sure training and attrition will offset whatever benefits they could have realized by avoiding the "forced upgrades", which SuSe will most certainly start doing eventually when they come to their senses, just like RH did.
The effort to switch from SuSE Linux to Red Hat Linux, or to Mandrake, or to MunichCity Linux, is very very low. Not nil, but low. So, if SuSE or IBM did try and screw them, they could go elsewhere.
Despite that, I don't understand how upgrades are forced. You can still download very old, unsupported versions of Red Hat Linux. If you're referring to the "only 12 months of free errata" thing, then who cares? RHL is meant for developers and home users now, not servers or corporate desktops. I know people still running on RH 7.1, they aren't dead yet.
I think it's rather disingenuous to jump from that to "forced upgrades". If I could still buy Windows 98 then maybe you could also argue that Microsoft don't try and force upgrades, but you can't....
The vote was 50-30. Doesn't seem to me like an "overhelming" victory. Well, I guess it depends who you're rooting for.
I think it was meant in the sense of "overcame overwhelming odds" - ie Microsoft, Ballmer himself, offers very large discounts, you've got all the inertia and proprietary lockin there, and still Linux won out. Not in terms of vote numbers.
As much as I welcome that the city of Munich has decided to use Linux, I am really pissed that the ruling party in Munich, the SPD, is now running a poster campaign all over Munich with the slogan:
Mehr Linux, Mehr Freiheit, SPD
(More Linux, More Freedom, SPD)
Linux should not be misused by political parties to strengthen their chances for reelection.
Here's a screenshot of the poster.
the two most common factors that I've seen for switching to linux have very little to do with the prowess of linux. They are price and pure disgust of MS. I think anti-MS sentiment is one of Linuxes selling points. Often, when I help people convert their small business file-server to Linux, they make that choice namely because of frustrations with MS and Windows, not because of any particular prowess in Linux itself. They do, however, quickly see that Linux owns on the server end.
YOU SUCK BALLS!
To put the final nail in the coffin, SuSE/IBM ought to bring the project in under the accepted bid price. That would wake up a LOT of PHBs.
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Then one little city rebelled and MS instantly rewrote the licensing deal. How many other MS customers who swallowed the original deal will now feel extremely pissed off? Pissed off enough to demand the same kind of cuts when their contract is up for renewal?
That is the real story. That MS has caved in on its own demands when faced with a little bit of pressure.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
So Munich pays a German sw company more for software support instead of paying an American company less. Sounds like nationalism had some role in this. Certainly the US govt. support of MS has something to do with them being a US company.
Vote for Pedro
I have nothing whatsoever to back this up, but I wonder if things had been different had it been Red Hat vs. MS and not Suse? I know parent was trolling, but it does bring up something of a point.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
I didn't see this mentioned in the article or in the comments here, but I'd bet one of Munich's "strategic" considerations was the overhead in managing license compliance. Particularly with MS's concession to unbundle MS Word for some machines. Watch those savings go down the tubes when the MS lawyers come by and say, "So, can you prove you have installed only MS Word on X thousand machines?"
Assuring license compliance on desktops is a frickin' nightmare, and the lack of that overhead is a major advantage of open source software.
(And that's not even considering the ridiculousness of the Microsoft position that basically says, "We want your business so much we're going to let you NOT buy some of our software that you don't need! Yes, normally, we make everyone buy this whether they need it or not, but because we pride ourselves on being customer-driven, we will actually break our own rules and not sell you something you don't want!") Sheez. GMAB. (Give Me A Break)