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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."
Who here, who as ever worked on a large scale project, has not experienced delays?
makes sense to me.
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.
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
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own" - Adam Savage