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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."
Isn't OpenOffice on Windows the same as OpenOffice on Linux? I see in the story at The Register that they have various office templates and scripts that they want to port to OpenOffice, yet why waste time removing Office from each machine, then installing OpenOffice, then getting all the scripts and templates to work, then having to recreate things when done again in the Linux environment? Why not just cut out the middle steps and go directly from Office on Windows, to OpenOffice on Linux?
People, am I missing something here, or would it not just be best to just go to Linux with openOffice functionality directly, and not even bother with this middle step? If you ask me, it sounds like something else here is amiss, as their reasoning seems flawed to me...
I can understand people being concerned about switching from a Microsoft Windows environment, using Office for their word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation tasks... yet as far as things go, Linux can do the same things with OpenOffice just as easily...
Also, Linux has a web browser, music player, everything that a company could need to do business with, and these days, with the majority of applications that companies needing built on web-based infrastructures, there really is very little reason to run Windows these days. Of course some companies still have applications that are Windows-only, but with time I can see more applications being able to function on Linux...
Another bonus of running Linux is the amount of spyware that will be cut down drastically, as windows is well known for how easy spyware can infect it and totally ruin a system image. If they would just hurry up and switch to Linux, so many problems would be solved...
Oh well, at least they can build cars right over in Germany...
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Who here, who as ever worked on a large scale project, has not experienced delays?
They rolled in a few months ago. Missed the boat a bit there I think.
makes sense to me.
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!"
Although the compatability between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice has definitely improved, it would be interesting to know how much trouble is had in this region. The switch to OpenOffice because it is free arguement does not take into account the amount of time spent trying to make old documents work. If it could be shown by a large organization that all is good many more may make the switch
:(){
Somewhere in Redmond, Ballmer is abusing a chair.
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.
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.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
I can't imagine waiting for Gentoo to compile on 30,000 PCs. ;)
He who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.
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.
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.
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.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Already did. The MS solution was cheaper at the time. Munich still decided on Linux. They want full control over their IT infrastructure in the future, right down the souce code level, something Microsoft can't offer.
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.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Let me try to remember what I heard on the speech of Florian Schießl at the LinuxTag 2005.
User resistance: people like to stay with what they know rather than being pushed to use something unfamiliar.
True. To convince the users they did a sort of "tournee" through all departments and showed them how Linux looks like. And they got some funny feedback like "I didn't expect to see a GUI".
Extensive use of MS Office only features such as VBA or features that work differently in Open Office.
True. One of the biggest problem is a custom installed VBA something installed by a "primadonna". Its a hard job to convince the people to change to something completely new.
Applications using Active-X or other COM controls that are not easily converted to WINE or similar.
I have no details on that, but it could be an issue as well.
Third party software products that are only supported under Windows.
According to Mr. Schießl they contacted all their software vendors who provide specific applications and asked them if a Linux port is available or if they can port it to Linux. The feedback to this action was very little so Munich needs to find new partners that are able to provide Linux apps as well.
What else?
Mr. Schießl pointed out that switching is not that easy since the service that the municipality is offering has to remain "online". People would get a lot annoyed if they couldn't register for a car number plate because the city is switching to Linux. So they have to develop a strategy that does the move, but transparent to the citizen that expects full availability of the services.
One other issue could be that since the Munich solution is based on Debian and Debian did the transition from Woody to Sarge recently that might affect the schedule as well. Maybe there are some dependencies on custom software that need to be adjusted to the new environment now. Even if I think that shouldn't be a big deal we need to keep it in mind.
Ok looks like you misunderstood what that means if you write a peice of software, patent that peice of software, and then decided to release the software under GPL you cant enforce the patent on people who create derivtive works based on your software... but you can still enforce your patent on people who make a product that that is the same as yours but isnt a derivative work of you GPL'd code.....
:)
for example you write a compression algorithim, patent it and release source code for it under GPL, People can make projects with your compression algo and as long as they release it under gpl its all good... but if some company wants to include you compression algo without making their code subject to the gpl they cant without infringing on you patent
in other words patented software released under the gpl is good
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I see in the story at The Register that they have various office templates and scripts that they want to port to OpenOffice, yet why waste time removing Office from each machine, then installing OpenOffice, then getting all the scripts and templates to work, then having to recreate things when done again in the Linux environment?
Probably because they'll install OpenOffice before removing MS Office, so they can continue to use their scripts and templates while they get them working in OpenOffice. It's a lot easier to write a new version of your templates if you can see how the old version works with software you have available.