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City of Vienna Chooses Linux
Bill Kendrick writes "Back in January, ZDNet reported that the city of Vienna, Austria was looking to move at least a portion of its desktops to Linux. Well, it looks like it happened (in German; use the fish). Their official distro is based on Debian with KDE, and is called WEINUX." Update: 07/06 12:49 GMT by T : Several readers wrote to correct the spelling here: the correct name of the distro is "WIENUX."
ahem...
Large corporations usually dont lose nights of sleep when the `pro` segment of their customers, the ones who know well enough to ask for better, decide to switch to solutions that require more effort and/or knowledge.
Large corporations sell to people who know no better, and cant be bothered too. Smaller, more boutiqued, and/or specialized firms or user groups tend to cater to the everyday Joe Slob who just wants the simple music downloads and fastest pr0n access box for cheap, especially when if anything goes wrong they have other people to call up and yell at.
Seriously, nobody ever researched all the possible pros and cons of different architectures, and decided `hey, you know what? Im gonna design my mission-critical, or high-performance application on the one operating system rated to have the most extensive vulnerabilities, which cause billions of dollars of loss a year, cause well im feeling kinda lucky today.`
Know some admins I wouldnt piss on if their servers were on fire who use linux... badly, but most of the good admins i know who use windows do so because they have no choice. Seriously, EVERY pro app in engineering, accounting, and most of the other things people use in real life has an up-to-date version on windows, not so much for linux or even apple, and MSs beautiful `bundling? what bundling, its innovation` crap means any of those apps that needs a network framework needs a complete active directory or even windows PDC to work properly. Its hard to keep kids off crack when the schools serve it with lunch.
My greater fear is that over the last few years, linux has been getting better and better at being completely invisible. You can set up a linux openldap and samba system well enough that no one can tell the difference. Half the transparent gateways nowadays run some brand of linux, along with those new insta-nas boxes. Its not a bad thing for linux, but its kinda bad for linux on the desktop, because it makes the desktop part of linux the least neccessary. Windows demands a MS framework to run, linux is so nice you could slave it to a crazy, naked popcorn machine and it would work happily without a squeak.
Its not that linux has a disadvantage, MS just plays their (unfair, and greedy)advantage a lot harder on everybody else, and in the OS wars homecourt advantage is everything, ask OS/2. Bundling does hurt, just not the way youd think.
The first rule of USENET is you do not talk about USENET.
"the basic user only needs email, internet & office products which all can be operated easily from KDE, they don't really need to know powerful desktop functions."
Ok, normally I hate these types of introductions (and my issue with them is somewhat accurate even now - "I like the thing but I hate it"), but I use Linux in my professional life, will push for it everywhere I will ever work, and use it for many things in my private life. I really do not like windows, but unfortuantly for some uses relying on WINE and such isn't an option.
Saying that - this attitude is *exactly* what kills Linux on the desktop. Would you ever use or recommend something and say "It has only what you need, no easily used powerful desktop functions"? Everyone *should* realise why that is a NOT a winning strategy. While I even very much agree with that statement (hell, I even used BeOS for many a year for average desktop functions, great for that and "multimedia" stuff) - perception is what is important here, not so much reality. Saying what is said above kills Linux in a corperate environment (what if some key corperate venture somewhere in sometime in someplace *needs* those functions - windows has them and you are screwed)
Ultimatly the choice is going to have to made by someone or some people - will Linux move into the desktop as a force. I think that Linux (or some other open-source variant) will someday totally rule the server - it is not that far now, but untill software developers decide to write software they care nothing about (like most jobs) and make software they don't even want to use (like most jobs) it will never reach the desktop as is. Maybe someone like Apple will pick up the underlying tools and write a kilelr UI on top of it - but then you have done what I said above.
But then, I'm not really complaining about the state of affairs per-se - I have not sit down and wrote such a mosnter and I have no intention to do so. If I'm going to write software for free I will do something that interests me. I'm more complaining about that attitude - it does WAY more harm than good - better to focus on what we do well than what we do wrong (as an archery coach once told me - never focus on bad shots, you only learn how to make more bad one. focus on the good ones and go from there).
As to the poster I'm replying too - I really don't mean this as harsh it it seems (I agree with you).
------- Sorry about the spelling, I suffer from two problems. Dyslexia makes it difficult to spell well, lazy makes it
Im just coming from the economical side, I work as a technician in public schools and the money that the Government spends on software licences for M$ products is huge.
90% of all my problems are troubleshooting desktop problems with WinXP and also problems with Word, Excell & Outlook. I am not saying that by using Linux these problems will disapear, but it will be cheaper to support these Programs because less is being spent on software licencing.
Its simple economics the only difference between a Linux system & Windows system for users who only need to use the basics is price, why spend X amount of dollars on one thing when you can get the same result much cheaper.
I do believe in choice, but I don't see the logic in going to the expense of something because its believed to be easier, I am not completley Pro linux, but in a government environment where Tax payers are paying for everything, the best value alternative seems much more appealing.
I'm not so sure about that... Even if, for example, DELL started offering Linux as an alternative, most people would probably stick with what they know, MS Windows. Sure, the market share of Linux would increase, but I don't think it would be widely used by your average consumer. For that to happen, one of the big OEMs would probably have to really push Linux, make sure it becomes an important factor in their marketing... (just imagine DELL offering Linux PCs, with Windows XP available as an alternative for an additional $200... this would probably work better than the other way around).
I don't think many slashdotters really realise the significance of Wien, and so the importance of this move. I don't blame them, Wien is part of the German speaking world, and so the local importance of the city and its habits is really only appreciated by German speakers like myself and not the general readership. Let me just say - this is very significant indeed.
Historically, Wien has always been to the german speaking world what Carthage was to the Greeks - the centre of learning and the export of culture and ideas. Although its importance waned somewhat in the early 20th century, the Cold War and events since has cemented its position as the premier exporter of German business innovation.
So, instead of reading Wien in the summary above, in a few years you can read it as "Germany and Austria". My bet is, such is the influence of Wien, that a successful Linuks experiment will "trickle down" into emulation by a whole host of cities throughout the german speaking world. Linus deserves a pat on the back for his bargaining prowess.
Meine Schwester ist sehr, sehr reizvoll - Nietzsche
I work in the Toronto District School Board. Due to corrupt, incompetent bureaucrats and bad administrative decisions, millions are spent on M$ junk, despite a few perfectly functioning linux labs by competent computer teachers. Administrators ignore or even actively attempt to shutdown linux labs, due to M$ threats/kickbacks, etc. That is why there is so little linux in Toronto schools for example. If you are a Canadian taxpayer, you should be demanding transparency and accountability about how computer dollars, especially M$ licensing costs are spent, in schools. It's really quite appalling how M$ and corrupt, incompetent administrators are wasting tax dollars, etc. "Go ahead, tax me, I'm Canadian...:-))"
The people from the town know about it and hate it (some of the family servants are still alive, and the woman wasn't actually very nice at all). Go there and sing it in the nastier parts of town and see how long it takes to get your head kicked in. Like yankee doodle in texas, so I hear.
I am trolling