Munich Delays Linux Conversion

It doesn't come easy writes "A short blurb over at The Register reports that Munich has decided to extend the pilot phase of their Linux migration project. One smart move mentioned: Many of their office workers will switch to OpenOffice on Windows first where it is comfortable, easing the transition."

Comments

Blarg - a non story

[Anonymous Crowhead]

Who here, who as ever worked on a large scale project, has not experienced delays?

Re:Open Office is Open Office... Or is it?

[stoanhart]

Proably because switching to OpenOffice will require enough people to relearn or do things they have always done differently. If they change the OS on them too, it is too much at once. Let them get used to OO first, then change the OS.

makes sense to me.

Nothing to see here

[strider44]

All that's happening is that they're waiting a little while for the workers to get comfortable with the office suites first. There's no hesitation about switching to Linux. Munich is a big city folks, you can't just say "We're going to change to Linux . . . wait for it . . . NOW!"

Re:Open Office is Open Office... Or is it?

[xploraiswakco]

Yes you are missing something, OpenOffice on both platforms is the same. The idea is the users will have a chance to get use to OpenOffice, before they have to get use to linux.

Which quite honestly is a bigger change than changing from M$ Office to OpenOffice.

The effect will be that they will be able to convert there templates and scripts while still using an OS they are comfortable with, then copy those Templates/scripts to there Linux setup once they are accustomed to OpenOffice.

You and I may have no problem changing OS'es just like that, but they are dealing with general users that wont be, and will simply be expecting there computers to just work.

Extending a pilot project is A Good Thing

[Nefarious Wheel]

...because extended pilot projects tend to expand into a full rollout when pulled by demand, when people see what they're missing and pull strings to have the pilot extended to them.

This is often a much more sure road to successful acceptance than big-bang rollout projects, where any issues tend to be magnified in that short window when the powers that be see themselves politically vulnerable to errors in execution and might pull the plug.

When going after user acceptance, a pull is better than a push; if users want the change, they're on your side and will work to show the change in the best light. When pushing the technology out to people who would rather have a bit of control over the process, you risk their ire if you tread on their schedules.

it isn't OpenOffice's fault

[yagu]

One point I see made constantly (wonder how many MS shills there are out there) is the concern and finger pointing at OpenOffice about ensuring smooth interoperability and compatibility with Office documents. This is frustrating.

First (but not foremost) in my opinion the sooner "compatibility with Microsoft" is dropped as the IT yardstick (really it is just a canard), the better. As posted in previous /. articles there are other and emerging standards. The other standards aren't necessarily better (since that's an esoteric discussion unto itself anyway), but I can think of one that in the long run if adopted hints at greater interoperability than seen in a long time.

Second (and foremost AFIC), I've posted on this point many times (hmmm, time to start keeping a list of links), there really isn't such a thing as Microsoft and Office interoperability and compatibility. It's time to push back and start pointing that out to the puff-piece MS standard bearers. How many times have you wasted valuable time at a meeting while attendees share paper copies of the pre-distributed incompatible (with their version of WORD) Word documents? If you don't remember, you're not trying.

It's just not OpenOffice's fault anymore, and it's time to start defending it. I know it's a long shot. I know it's a long haul. And I know I'm getting modded troll and flamebait.

Re:it isn't OpenOffice's fault

[Nefarious Wheel]

First (but not foremost) in my opinion the sooner "compatibility with Microsoft" is dropped as the IT yardstick (really it is just a canard)

Sorry, *ding* thank you for playing, join us in reality as soon as you're ready. In your own time, don't rush.

It isn't compatibility with Microsoft that's at issue, but compatibility with business systems that are bulwharked with rivers of existing code. VBA code stuffed inside the gentle spreadsheet and word doc. There are cubic miles of it in banks. This must be managed, and it's a massive change. Yes, they will be far better off from the experience, but there are up-front costs to convert that must be addressed and not to do so would be seen as grossly negligent. Bureaucrats (and yes, I speak fluent Bureaucrat) must be seen as covering all the bases before they make the change. MS standards (particularly document standards and those devilish EULA's) are ugly on so many levels, but nobody wants to push their existing business systems over a cliff to accomplish the change any quicker than they can.

It ain't ideology, it's survival.

Yes, people will bitch

[Stonent1]

I've been moving people away from 2000 Pro at work to XP Pro and a few have complained that "It's too different! I can't learn this" even with the classic windows theme installed. Some people will fuss for no good reason. My only motivation is all the 2000 systems are still joined to a NT4 domain that is being taken away. Then people bitched when we went from Office XP to Office 2003. If you force things upon people they'll adapt quickly, but if you give them too many options it could take years to get them moved over to something different.

Re:Open Office is Open Office... Or is it?

[Nefarious Wheel]

I am a little confused here... why the switch to OpenOffice on Windows first, then to Linux second? Is that not an extra step, that could be totally done away with?

Training, primarily, as well as care and feeding of the myriad process monkeys with their taproots in the flow.

Seriously, large organisations - including municipal governments - are notoriously risk-adverse. Not adverse to change, but adverse to unmanaged change. And if you're working with people who are extraordinarily process-minded (the nursing profession comes to mind) then you're not going to get the ball over the line without showing a step-by-step progress from point A to point B. Smaller steps will be seen as less-risky, and therefore better. Chaos in any bureaucracy is considered irreligeous.

Re:Open Office is Open Office... Or is it?

[einhverfr]

First, I am not at all surprised by this delay. Munich is undertaking something extremely massive. I figure it is going to take maybe 2-3 more years to make it happen. Undoubtedly this delay has happened because they have found that some of their internal apps/web apps/etc. don't work as well on Linux and they are working on porting them over. This is to be expected and is hardly the end of the world.

Secondly why migrate the apps first? Think about it. You want to make sure everything works. This usually means migrating in stages and slowly. The last thing you want to do is migrate everything all at once and then have to shut down everything for a month while you rebuild certain areas of your infrastructure. So you start with the easiest to replace areas (Mozilla/Firefox, OOo) and work down from there. You have some people on a pilot program using Linux and finding all the issues with it, and this makes it easier to migrate additional areas. Also moving everyone over to OOo as soon as possible makes a lot of sense because it helps the people on Linux use the same software as the people on Windows.

Ideally this pilot program would be done by those people with the least specific requirements and the fewest software tools they rely on. Once these users are stabilized, then you can expand the pilot to a larger group with slightly more complex needs. And so forth. I figure that a well orchistrated migration of a large organization will take at least 3-5 years to complete assuming all goes well.