Slashdot Mirror
OpenOffice Gets a Toe-Hold in The Netherlands
ChristW writes "Several sources in The Netherlands report that the city of Groningen will invest 160.000 euros yearly to switch its 3650 computers to OpenOffice. They are saving 330.000 euros per year by making this switch. The other 170.000 euros will be saved up to use for new Microsoft Office licences if it becomes necessary to renew them. The city plans to renew software every 5 years, as opposed to Microsoft, who 'forces' an upgrade cycle of 3 years. Switching from Windows to Linux is not seen as an option at this point in time, so those licenses will be renewed."
I've always found OpenOffice to be a fairly good alternative to the Microsoft Office Suite. The biggest problem I've run into with it is the fact that OO 1 cannot open documents that were saved in OO 2 format. This was originally an issue here at my university because they took quite a while to migrate to OO 2. All the documents I tried transfering one day to print off in the labs had to be converted back to a format that would open on OO 1, which was a PITA to run on several dozen documents.
As for compatability with Office Documents, I've had some problems when the documents have strange formatting, but it seems to only occur when you try to print out the documents.
Dutch people care very little about buzzwords and corporate promises.
If something is cheaper and does the same thing our cultural cheapness kicks in and ditches the old crap.
perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
Corporate site licenses expire and need to be renewed.
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
Yes, it's called "Software Assurance." It is not possible to get upgrade pricing with Microsoft open licensing. You are either required to purchase SA with your licenses, or buy future licenses at full price. This keeps you locked in. Sometimes you save money if the next version comes out before your SA expires and your company decides it wants the new features. Sometimes you don't save money if you decide that you don't need the next version, or there's a lovely four year gap between versions and your SA is only good for 2 years.
It works because if you *could* have saved a lot of money but chose not to, then you're going to look like a serious idiot. If you don't save money but pretty much break even, you stay off the CFO's radar. So you might as well purchase SA, with the one serious drawback being that you're stuck with MS Office because you've not only paid for it, but you've prepaid for the next version. Bonk.
This doesn't affect individual users. It also doesn't affect companies that are quite content using very old versions of MS Office.
The municipality of Groningen is going to be the first major municipality in the Netherlands to use OpenOffice. This way 330.000 euros will be saved on licencing costs. The council of Groningen agreed yesterdayevening to let the contract with Microsoft for Microsoft Office expire.
The contract with Microsoft for the operatingsystem Windows will be renewed. Groningen counts about 181.000 inhabitants and the municipality itself has about 3650 pc's internally. In Groningen people started investigating the possibilities of using Open Standards and Open Source Software after requests from the council. The reason of this investigation was that they wanted to break the monopoly of large software suppliers and that they didn't want to depend on them for changes to their software.
No switch to Linux
OpenOffice will be installed under Windows in Groningen. From the investigation it became clear that a total switch to an Open platform like Linux currently isn't a viable choice. The municipality does say to strive that workstations in Groningen will run as much software as possible that runs on both Windows and Linux. At a later point in time the switch to Linux would then be easier.
Because they want to avoid the risk of having to ask for general municipality funds if the switch backfires and they want to switch back to Microsoft Office, a large portion (170.000 euros) of the funds will be saved in a "Microsoftlicences" account.
The remainder of the funds (78.450 euros) will be used to form a migrationteam that will start with the preperations of switching to operating-system independent workstations.
This sig is intentionally left blank
Sure. The Telegraaf article:
Groningen migrates to OpenOffice
The Groningen city council is the first large city council to start making use of OpenOffice. In this way, a savings of 330,000 Euro are expected that would otherwise be used to pay license costs. The councillers decided yesterday evening that the contract with Microsoft for the Microsoft Office software suite that has expired in the last month would not be extended.
The contract with Microsoft for the operating system Windows will however be extended. The city Groningen has around 181,000 citizens, and the city council runs around 3650 PCs. A few years ago, [the city council] began a study to determine the feasibility of using Open Standards and Open Source Software. The reason for this study was to break through the monopoly of the large software providers, and that [people wanted programs to become less dependant on that] (?).
Still no migration to Linux
OpenOffice will be installed on Windows in Groningen. The results of the study showed that a complete migration to another open platform such as Linux is not yet possible. The council has recommended that work-places in Groningen should make as much use of software that will run on both Windows and Linux. This would make the migration to Linux easier at a later stage.
Money bags
A large part of the money saved from using OpenOffice will be held in reserve for possible purchases of Microsoft licenses. This is to avoid the risk that the general accounts of the city council will be needed to be used for purchasing licenses for those to refuse to budge from Microsoft Office. The amount of money held in reserve is likely to be around the 170,000 mark.
Another 78,450 Euro will be used to finance a migration team that will prepare for the migration to an operating-system independant workplace.
A related link: OpenOffice's response
--
Given enough personal experience, all stereotypes are shallow.