Lower Saxony KDE Migration

An anonymous reader writes "ZDNet reports on a recent German Linux migration by the tax authority in Lower Saxony which has made the decision to migrate an impressive 12,000 desktops to SuSE Linux using KDE. The project, which is now in process converting 300 desktops daily, moves systems from Solaris x86 version 8, which the organisation has been running since 2002. The migrations are reported as going well thus far. KDE's Kiosk desktop customisation, source code access and licensing costs were cited as key reasons for the decision. Congratulations to all involved, and best of luck going forward with this effort!"

Comments

Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pretty easy to migrate from Solaris.

If we start hearing about big Win32 -> *nix migrations, THEN maybe we can say kill -9 to billy boy...

But more importantly, it's telling that we're not hearing about good, honest, honorable American migrations. We know all about Germans and the so-called "sport" they are hosting for the so-called "world"... and in any case, we know Linux isn't as reliable as Windows yet...

Re:Hmmm

[mccalli]

It's pretty easy to migrate from Solaris.

This one is more interesting than most however. Normally you here about that on the server side. It's interesting that the organisation is choosing to retain Unix-based desktops rather than go Win32. Interesting also that they've not moved to Solaris 10.

Cheers, Ian

I was sure they'd use Gnome...

[demongeek]

Isn't it the naming convention that all programs starting with a G are Gnome based? Well, it ain't Kermany...

Re:I was sure they'd use Gnome...

[MarkByers]

From TFA:

'the development of KDE was part funded by the German government.'

That might have had something to do with it too.

This part of story brings tears to my eyes...

[layer3switch]

"Freely accessible sources, no license costs as well as optimum support of current hardware."

I thought, I'd never live long enough to see the day someone will ever say this... Look away, it's just some dust in my eyes...

Re:This part of story brings tears to my eyes...

[Kjella]

"Freely accessible sources, no license costs as well as optimum support of current hardware."

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but I realized that sentence could be read in two ways:

optimum support for the hardware we're currently using
optimum support for hardware in mainstream use

Since he's focused on his own project, I would say a conservative opinion is that they happen to have a well supported standard configuration. That's great but not really anything exceptional.

Re:Linux on the desktop

[delire]

Do you really think, that with the formidable task of a 12000 PC migration, they considered the world of operating systems to be comprised of only Linux and Solaris? Futhermore while Windows is an obvious option, have you ever heard of OSX being used, on any comparable scale, by any international government?

Re:Linux on the desktop

[delire]

errm:

s/international government/government internationally/

Re:just a reminder

[p80]

Gaim, IM Beagle, content indexer and search tool Galeon, Web Browser GARNOME, build utility for the GNOME Desktop GB, GNOME Basic GConf, GNOME Configuration Daemon GDM, GNOME Display Manager gdome2, GNOME DOM Engine Getix, XML editor gedit, Text Editor GNOME Fax, Faxing Software Gimp, Graphics package Glade, Interface Builder gnocl, Tcl binding GNOME DB, Generic database Interface GNOME Games, fun for your desktop GNOME-GCJ, Java bindings GNOME Useability Project GNOME Meeting, Video conferencing Software GNOME Network, Client Network-oriented Tools Gnome Python, Python Bindings GNOME Print, GNOME printing library GNOME System Tools, System Configuration GNOME Power Manager, System Configuration GNOME VFS, Filesystem Abstraction library GNU, GNU for which GNOME is sub-project Gnucash, Personal Finance Manager Gnumeric, Spreadsheet GOB, GNOME Object Builder Gossip, GNOME Jabber chat client Guppi, Charting application GStreamer, Multimedia Architecture GTK+, Graphical Toolkit Library GTK-Doc, API documentation tool gtkmm, C++ bindings GtkHTML 2, HTML rendering library GtkPerl, Perl Bindings Gtranslator, translation file editor Guikachu, resource editor for PalmOS applications GtkMathView, widget for MathML rendering, editing, interaction Gwget, Download Manager

cool but not that surprising

[p80]

For those that don't know about KDE, it was started by a German guy and most KDE users and devs live in Germany (though it's now popular in other countries too), also Suse was German and used KDE as its main desktop. So lots of people are pushing KDE there just like they did at Munich and now in Lower Saxony.
I will be surprised when some country in Asia or America that is not known for its KDE community decides to switch to KDE.
That being said, it's of course great that did it in Germany.

SuSE vs. x86 Sol

[packetmon]

While I haven't used SuSE since 1998 or so, its nice to see they're coming along. One thing I take note of is the mention of "licensing costs were cited as key reasons for the decision.". I think there are many here who will take a "it's free!" approach to that statement, and that is not necessarily the case. Sure there are tons of free programs available, but most are forgetting the SuSE/Novell issue where SuSE isn't entirely as free as say CentOS, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, etc., there are some minor caveats, OpenExchange, etc. As for replacing x86Sol, I've never taken x86Sol seriously. If you ask me it was unstable, riddled with hardware issues, and had more security issues then Solaris on a Sparc.

I'd thought of installing SuSE using OpenExchange because of the cost factor when I worked at a smaller company but I found I could do just as good using an alternative so I ended up installing CentOS webservers, proxy servers, Solaris 10 for mail and LDAP on a v280, and ended up configuring a nicely equipped intranet for under 5k. I wound up going open source for most tools, e.g. DotProject replaced MS Project server and saved about 4k. SugarCRM replaced SuradoCRM at about 8k. CentOS replaced MS Windows SMB 2003 for about another 4k. I saved the company a lot of money but ended up to my neck in work. Was pretty neat to get things going, and I had originally wanted to use SuSE before they started selling seats for OpenExchange. Its always nice though to see the distros moving up... Right now, I'm back into the telco/communications (VoIP arena to be exact) and I was lucky enough to be in a Linux shop with flexibility to use what we feel gets the job done right... Not what magazines and researchers often sponsored by MS point to as "the perfect solution"

Re:speaking of KDE

[rRaminrodt]

I'm using Konq right now and it looks ok. The only problem I see is on the section bar where the text becomes garbled. If I highlight the text the problem goes away until the page is reloaded.

There aren't any real usability problems with the new layout. At least none since they moved the article links. :-)

http://fs.nile.homelinux.net:8000/~john/goofed_up_ slashdot1.png shows the error.

Re:speaking of KDE

[jbssm]

What are you talking about ? It works perfectly fine in my Safari browser since day one.

Re:Linux on the desktop

[cool_arrow]

There is, however, evidence that these folks are migrating from one solid OS to another solid OS. Perhaps they're planning on getting some work done.

Re:Linux on the desktop

[killjoe]

If they didn't move to Linux they would have moved to windows or Mac (well windows actually). So in a way that's 12000 desktops that MS lost.

And since when is deployment of 12000 desktops not evidence that linux is ready for the desktop? It's on the deskops right?

Very strange...

[aphaenogaster]

I find it very odd that solaris 10 was not used instead (considering what life must be like for 12,000 solaris 8 users). Since they say old hardware is a primary concern, and since lisencing is both 'free' (in different ways), I have to believe the SUSE choice might be driven mostly by the old hardware. You need 512 mb ram to even install 10 x86 graphically.

I see a couple of things happening though...

1. KDE is not a stable desktop. Yes Yes stop turning red, I mean it is not stable like CDE is stable. This could lead to frustration among 12,000 users that were used to probably the most stable OS (sol 8 is a rock), using an insanely boring and stable desktop (CDE).

2. Now that these people will be able to do all the cool things you can do with a modern unix and KDE, the IT people are going to go crazy

and have to hire more people and work mucho overtime.

It's all over

[Optikschmoptik]

Here at University of Goettingen, the majority of public terminals use KDE and SuSE, probably for the same reasons mentioned in the article. I didn't notice this until I visited my girlfriend at the library and noticed the computer, last seen running WinNT, was using linux. She's not at all into computers. She complains about me tinkering with SuSE on my laptop all the time. At the library we had an exchange something like this:

"Did you notice you've been using linux all this time?"

"no."

"Well, that's KDE running on SuSE. When did they switch?"

"I don't know. They switched what now? Who's Katie?"

I asked her colleagues in the English department if they knew when the switch took place. No one noticed it. SD loves to have debates about whether *nix is ready to replace windows for the everyday user. Ok, so maybe joe schmo or the proverbial English-major girlfriend (or boyfriend) wouldn't be able to install Ubuntu or SuSE, but if it's there, they can use it. There's a lot of money to be saved on public terminals for general use.

OS X is not ready for the desktop

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried to install OS X recently on my Thinkpad and it failed to detect any of the hardware. OS X is simply not ready for the desktop.

Re:Linux on the desktop

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks to me like 12000 data entry drones unix terminals are moving to linux. Doesn't say much for solaris and/or the taxmans original planning if they started the planning for the migration off of solaris after deploying it just two years earlier. Must be nice to be able to run a shop like that.

Re:Linux on the desktop

[killjoe]

In most corporations users don't need to (actually are prevented from) installing software and games. They mostly run some office software, email, browser and some internally written app (usually in java). Linux is perfectly fine for that.

Next best thing to do...

[schmu_20mol]

... would be if they started porting their, already free of charge, income tax return software to linux (elster).

Re:I think KDE is evil

[osi79]

> I hate KDE because it uses QT. A tool that enforces your resulting work to be
> free doesnot really feel likes a free tool.

You are not forced at all to release your KDE software under GPL. Feel free to purchase a Qt license from Trolltech, and you can release your software under whatever license you want.

News from Germany

[tehcyder]

Good to see that Slashdot has realised there's something interesting happening in Germany at the moment...Oh wait.