Open Source Cities Followup — Munich Yea, Vienna Nay

We're catching up on two stories of municipal engagement with open source software: Munich (which decided to go OS in 2003) and Vienna (2005). E5Rebel brings us news that Munich has stayed the course. But bkingaut informs that Vienna has decided to migrate back to Windows (Google translation) — to Vista no less. The migration of 720 computers used in kindergartens will cost the city about €8M. The given reason for all this is a language test application for the kids that only works with MS IE and won't be made compatible (by the producer) with Firefox until 2009.

Comments

Re:Why not switch test software?

[mhall119]

he questions are usually copyrighted so you need someone to write a new set of questions, get them certified by the education department, get the app written, the app certified by the education department and so on. Yes, if only the school system had a mass of people qualified to write educational questions, willing to work long hours for bad pay while dealing with children all day long. If only.