Munich Finally Starts to Embrace Linux

sankyuu writes "After years of rumor and vacillation over fear of patents, the city of Munich has decided to trickle in its first 100 linux terminals. The floodgates are scheduled to fling open by 2008, when 80% of government PCs should be running Linux."

Comments

Mayor's PC among the first

[rainer_d]

It should be noted that Mayor Christian Ude's PC is slated to be among the first batch of systems to run the Debian-based Linux-desktop Munich will be using.

additional info

[Andreas Schaefer]

the standard configuration will be Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, KDE 3.5 and OpenOffice 2.
however, the main reason for the delays and the slow roll-out are that a lot of custom applications had to be ported and for some existing client/server apps interfaces had to be created from scratch.

cheers from Munich,
Andreas

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Rhine...

[boule75]

... some more (French, sorry) 400,000 PCs are to swith to Open Office in 2007 in the oublic sector, folowing a successfull move in the Gendarmerie (rural police, 90,000 PCs). - A summary here or in the official French annouce.

Some Open Source headways in Europe, indeed, can clearly be seen in EU site.

Quite heartening indeed! Maybe the big conservative companies will finaly notice this trend. I am sure Microsoft did.

Re:Just curious

[rainer_d]

> Why Debian?

See here:

http://www.muenchen.de/Rathaus/dir/limux/english/1 47197/index.html

OK?

Re:holy not cost effective, batman!

[TeknoHog]

Even if the costs are same, it's better for Europeans for the money to stay in local economy, than to be flushed away to Redmond. But I'm probably just forgetting all the jobs that will be created by Vista ;)

Re:Behind the scenes...

[pimpimpim]

I checked this news out yesterday, and read on the german project website that they already used linux on their servers since 1995. The idea to change came when it was apparent that windows NT would be stopped and new MS software would require them to start a contract forcing them to renew this contract constantly. Then, if I remember correctly, the major tested if his wife could manage to work on openoffice, which turned out pretty nicely.

With the major and of course a majority in the city council backing this, they started a very gradual and careful way to change, with a halt since 2004 because they needed a risk analysis in the case that software patents would be installed EU-wide. The cost risk turned out to be pretty small, as for every patent there can be a workaround eventually, linux is based on code that is already known since the 60s, and some other reasons. In the mean time they made sure they had automated software install systems working, and other practical issues resolved. The big news now is that they will actually start with the first linux machines for office employees. First ones will be for office work that requires interchangeable software (word processor, etc), then more complicated office work will follow.

Re:The headline is mis-leading!

[Chaffar]

From my understanding (reading other posts in the thread) it's KDE 3.5 on Debian. Why they didn't go with Ubuntu+Gnome, I don't know.

Because KDE is a (mostly)German project, whereas GNOME is distinctly American. According to Wikipedia: German non-profit organization (KDE e.V.) owns the trademark on "KDE", and KDE conferences often take place in Germany.