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LiMux Project Has Saved Munich €10m So Far

Posted by Unknown on from the freedom-hating-socialists dept.

Mojo66 writes "After project savings had been estimated to amount to at least €4 million in March, more precise figures are now in: Over €10 million (approximately £8 million or $12.8 million) has been saved by the city of Munich, thanks to its development and use of the city's own Linux platform. The calculation compares the current overall cost of the LiMux migration with that of two technologically equivalent Windows scenarios: Windows with Microsoft Office and Windows with OpenOffice. Reportedly, savings amount to over €10 million. The study is based on around 11,000 migrated workplaces within Munich's city administration as well as 15,000 desktops that are equipped with an open source office suite. The comparison with Windows assumes that Windows systems must be on the same technological level; this would, for example, mean that they would have been upgraded to Windows 7 at the end of 2011. Overall, the project says that Windows and Microsoft Office would have cost just over €34 million, while Windows with Open Office would have cost about €30 million. The LiMux scenario, on the other hand, has reportedly cost less than €23 million. A detailed report (in German) is available."

53 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. hope it's true by turbidostato · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope the numbers hold water because that would make a great research case (all info has been public from the begining)

    1. Re:hope it's true by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Informative

      Is Munich full of Jews or something?

      Note that in Israel, people use more than 90% Windows and negligible amount of Linux. Given that there's probably no place with a higher percentage of Jews than Israel, clearly Windows is the favourite operating system of Jews. Not that it matters.

      And don't forget to pay your $699 licensing fee, you cocksmoking teabaggers!

      "Teabaggers" refers to Tea Party movement members. Those are the far right wing of the US. Given that even the US left wing is right wing from European view, but Munich is governed by Social Democrats, i.e. left wing from European view, I'd say they are as far from being Teabaggers as they can be (OK, not really; "Die Linke" would be even more left-wing, as the name already tells: It is German for "The Left"). You are so completely off, that's not even funny. Could you not at least have taken the "communist" stereotype?

      But maybe it's just that you lack miR-941 :-)

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    2. Re:hope it's true by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I see several possibilities here.

      1: AC is just retarded.
      2: AC is a Microsoft troll
      3: AC is a racist bitch who needed only the flimsiest excuse to slam Jews.
      4: AC is a software salesman in Munich who lost a lot of money to LiMux
      5: AC is simply so small minded that he doesn't understand what ten million Euros are worth

      Anyway, moving past AC's tantrum, I wonder if the full saving are being reported? What does it cost for anti-virus protection, in an organization that size? Kaspersky, or Symantec, or whoever, doesn't just give away their software to big cities, do they? Other malware protections, like Spybot S&D have to be purchased, unless they are for personal home use. Not to mention that it takes a lot of IT time to cleanse and restore systems that have been FUBAR'd by malware.

      The report seems to just skirt around that little issue. It's possible that they are assuming that all of the updated/upgraded Windows computers would have been running Microsoft's own Security Essentials, instead of a third party application.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    3. Re:hope it's true by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If they're true Microsoft will whatever it takes to either silence them or make theirs cheaper. Personally I think their lower pricing for Windows 8 should be considered along the lines of dumping already.

    4. Re:hope it's true by hawguy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They report has 15,000 Windows upgrades costing 4.2 Million Euros, or 280 Euros each. That is $362 for each office suite. I can find 1 copy of Office Pro for $179, and 3 copies for $350.

      Here's the link: http://www.softwareking.com/office-2010-pro.html

      Something smells fishy.

      Does your figure include Windows + MS office + windows server & CALs (AD, WSUS, SCCM, etc) + whatever else you need to run an all-MS network? You're not going to install 15,000 desktops by buying 15,000 discount install disks online.

    5. Re:hope it's true by allcoolnameswheretak · · Score: 2

      +1 Trollslayer

    6. Re:hope it's true by dbIII · · Score: 2

      The compliance tracking costs alone would not have been trivial for that many MS systems.

    7. Re:hope it's true by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Microsoft's own estimate for software costs on an enterprise desktop is $301/PC annually, plus $126 deployment costs. Who are we to argue with the people who get the cash?

    8. Re:hope it's true by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Personally I think their lower pricing for Windows 8 should be considered along the lines of dumping already.

      The marginal cost of an operating system is zero. Competition is pushing OS prices down to that point. That's the way capitalism is supposed to work, and hasn't for the past few decades.

      Lower prices are a good thing.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    9. Re:hope it's true by dadioflex · · Score: 4, Informative

      The compliance tracking costs alone would not have been trivial for that many MS systems.

      Most people won't understand what you mean. Basically once your business is on Microsoft's radar they will assume you are using a complete suite of Microsoft products and if you aren't licensed for what they think you are probably using they'll send you a letter asking to prove what licenses you do hold. This costs money, be it your own time or as usually happens some IT contractors time. In the EU/UK the whole thing is pretty shady, but if you don't comply you risk having it escalated to legal threats. Before you say it, having a day in court is not what most businesses want, particularly small businesses where every hand is essential and where that day in court represents legal fees and lost revenue. You're not going to get that back.

      I've avoided using MS products for years. Some stuff I can't avoid. I have no financials/stock control software with local support that runs on anything but MS server software. You can run everything on the server and side-step Windows licenses on the desktop, but pay about the same for the CAL, or whatever they call it now. I hope what Munich is doing catches on. If you're a home user or a mega-corporation you have the choice to by-pass Microsoft and use open source software. Both these markets are served. If you're an SME you're using Microsoft.

    10. Re:hope it's true by jimicus · · Score: 2

      That's the academic edition, the license precludes commercial use. Had you continued scrolling, you'd have found retail editions which are rather dearer.

      The retail editions listed say 3 installs but IIRC that's 3 installs per user, not 3 separate users each with their own PC.

  2. Hard to ask this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...without sounding like a shill, but I'm really curious if the end result works just as well. If all your people are are trained on Windows and Office, switching to Linux and OpenOffice will have an associated cost in terms of retraining and reduced productivity while people become proficient in the new software, right? I don't read German, so I have no idea if those numbers are included in the final cost. And I think it's great that they are showing that home grown Linux can be cheaper (for their needs). I'm just wondering what the *real* cost is in the short term.

    1. Re:Hard to ask this... by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Look at it this way, can it be worse than Microsoft's switch to a ribbon interface? (And now brace for tiles...)

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    2. Re:Hard to ask this... by sjames · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Given the changes MS keeps making in it's UI, the retraining costs and productivity losses happen either way. There is a better chance that Linux w/ OOffice won't cause those costs to recur with each release.

    3. Re:Hard to ask this... by cgenman · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They're quickly becoming about the same. Linux and OpenOffice on the desktop are still bad, but getting better. Gnome, etc are all pretty trivial to use until you get to things like adding printers, and Open Office is basically Word 2000. Similarly, Windows / Word is fine, but getting worse. Adding networked printers in Windows seems to keep getting harder, and Word keeps adding more and more junk until it's useless. On top of this Google Docs is more than adequate for most tasks, and the multi-user live-document-editing is an amazingly useful feature. That gives 2 solid Windows alternatives.

      People don't really need training. The systems are about the same, and the parts that one would need to train for have become so far away from the normal user's abilities that there really isn't a point to training anyone other than your IT people. And your IT people shouldn't have a problem with any of this.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    4. Re:Hard to ask this... by Zemran · · Score: 2

      We are now several years down this road and their people are now far more trained with Limux and OpenOffice (why?) that with MS and Office. The long term benefits are already being felt.

      --
      I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
    5. Re:Hard to ask this... by sjames · · Score: 2

      There is a perfectly good option to stay with the Gnome2 interface. In fact, there are two forks of Gnome explicitly to stay with the 2.x interface.

    6. Re:Hard to ask this... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The report seems to address that added cost for switching to systems the people were unfamiliar with. And, as already has been mentioned - people who stayed with Microsoft products have had their own training expenses!

      Remember too, that the report addresses relatively short-term savings. Over the course of the next decade, the saving will increase dramatically. The people are going to need less and less training and retraining as time goes on. IT expenses will decrease, probably dramatically, for that reason. Retraining for upgrades will probably remain. You can only estimate those costs if you have a crystal ball or something to predict how Linux and Windows updates/upgrades are going to work out in the years ahead. But - there will be NO LICENSING fees associated with any of those upgrade.

      And, if you scroll up to my earlier post, you'll have to consider the savings in virus infections and recovery, as well as the costs involved with leaking protected data, liability, etc. No, Linux isn't the end-all and be-all in computer security, but it's track record is superior to Windows, which should translate into tremendous savings.

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    7. Re:Hard to ask this... by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Open Office and Linux isn't *that* different for what the average person does with a computer. Most people can't remember where things are in Office and have to search or ask. So it doesn't matter if they're asking for Office or open office.

    8. Re:Hard to ask this... by Mathinker · · Score: 3, Interesting

      > until you get to things like adding printers

      Interesting. I never thought that the CUPS admin interface was very daunting. All very "in the browser" GUI-ish.

      Getting networked scanning working under Linux (saned) isn't for the command-line challenged. But considering that Microsoft doesn't even provide a competing standard for networked scanners, the situation under Windows cannot be any better.

    9. Re:Hard to ask this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There have been a few interviews with the limux people, and the scope of what they're doing is a little more than just stick linux+openoffice on the desktop and be done. It includes user training too, among such things as close liason with the users and giving them the tools they need, getting-toes-wet opportunities and smooth changeovers. I suspect we haven't seen the end of the savings yet.

      Disclaimer: Not affiliated. Tried to but didn't get hired, which is a bit of a pity.

    10. Re:Hard to ask this... by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Would you care to share with us which 20,000 seat Norwegian Openoffice deployment that was? I hear the Norwegian national broadcasting orporation NRK is moving to Openoffice.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    11. Re:Hard to ask this... by u38cg · · Score: 2

      I find the hostility to the ribbon genuinely mystifying. Excel is (for better or worse) my primary tool, day in, day out, and the ribbon is far more pleasant to use than its predecessor. The quirks of Excel are a far bigger problem than where to click on things.

      --
      [FUCK BETA]
  3. Re:Cancelled by Dupple · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think you're thinking of Freiburg

    http://news.techworld.com/operating-systems/3411884/openoffice-dumped-as-freiburg-plots-return-to-microsoft/

    It was on /. but I can't seem to find the story

    --
    Watch those corners
  4. Stupid to ask it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since you can't have been Proficient in Windows 7 until it was released in 2011, staying on Windows would have cost you in terms of retraining and reduced productivity while people become proficient in the new software, right?

    And yes the figures are included in the costs.

    The REAL cost in the short term is -10mil. In the long term: priceless.

    1. Re:Stupid to ask it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ordinary users do not use betas. DIAF, troll.

  5. Re:Linux may be cheaper by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But an incompetent Linux admin can cause far worse damage than an incompetent windows one.

    I'm not sure that this is right. Certainly it depends on how you measure damage. In my opinion an incompetent linux admin will likely not have a functioning system whereas an incompetent windows admin is more likely to have an insecure system leaking information.

  6. meanwhile... by miknix · · Score: 4, Funny

    meanwhile somewhere in redmoon, a chair flies through the air.

  7. Re:Linux may be cheaper by gstoddart · · Score: 2

    But an incompetent Linux admin can cause far worse damage than an incompetent windows one.

    What are you talking about?

    An incompetent admin on any system can lead to a total outage and a lack of access to your data and software. If your admin re-formats the drives or otherwise renders your system unusable, no matter the platform, you're still dead in the water.

    In what way can a Linux admin break a machine more than a Windows admin can?

    I've seen the results of incompetent admins in multiple contexts -- and no matter the underlying platform, they can still screw stuff up to the point of being costly and time consuming to fix.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  8. Libreoffice is the challenger by Seeteufel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It is a smart decision to invest into Libreoffice. The Libreoffice Development Conference this year took place at the German ministry of business and technology. Behind the scenes several European governments consider to cut costs with huge Libreoffice migrations. Add to that Libreoffice is a European foundation while Openoffice.org is hold back by Americans. The likely solution to the competitive pressure would be that Microsoft goes open source with its own Office suite. The Chinese demonstrated the Europeans with their Kingsoft Office suite how to do it, how to break free from the Microsoft dependency.

  9. Warren Buffett was Right by BoRegardless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    He couldn't understand the long term viability of a software only business!

  10. Re:Cancelled by ilguido · · Score: 4, Informative

    Freiburg != Munich

  11. Re:Stupid to ask this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1) No you couldn't. Companies don't roll out to everyone in their company beta releases of windows.
    2) Linux can be made to look like classic windows with themes. For the typical office worker, this would have been more than sufficient.
    3) Switching to Office 2010 is required because the docx standard isn't supported in 2003. Keeping on Windows doesn't require not switching to OpenOffice. And Open Office opens different versions of Office documents more easily than Office 2010 or 2003. No need to install any compatability pack.

    So, basically, you have to make shit up to make it appear that maybe they didn't need to retrain. Of course, if they didn't upgrade ANY software, they wouldn't have to retrain.

    Then again, they would retrain their staff else why did they train their staff for WinXP? Or why would they train their staff on Linux and OO.o if they don't on Windows?

    Basically, you're turning round and round and round making assertions MERELY so you can pretend that Windows is cheaper.

    Why?

  12. Re:Stupid to ask this by marcello_dl · · Score: 2

    1. training for public beta means loss of productivity, worker has to switch from a desktop to another; moreover one is unstable, and the other is a public beta :D
    Lots of stuff under windows needs new drivers when win version is bumped up...

    2. are there xp official themes from MS? or are they coming from serious software houses that can give support? Because, installing binaries from random little software house which can break at any moment is a worse scenario than getting used to the new system.

    3. iirc office 03 crashed more often with 7 and couldn't run under 64 bits. After some time it is fixed but workers would have had to deal with the problems.

    All three points have a linux alternative coming up as very reasonable. Besides, the whole matter is incomplete: those who use a lot of FOSS know the advantage of controlling a lot more what goes into your pc.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  13. How do the numbers scale ? by Alain+Williams · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is nice because it tells us that with a large migration to a Linux based desktop saves about 1/3. What does this tell us about the migrations that will follow or are not so big ? Different factors pull in different directions.

    * Munich is big enough to demand that correspondents use file formats that they can support - this is more than about LibreOffice

    * The cost software rewrites (special bespoke stuff) could be amortised over many users

    * The overall project costs (design, IT staff retraining, ...) could be amortised over many users

    * They are pioneers - those who follow should be able to use their blueprint, avoid the mistakes that Munich made

    * They were probably getting large volume license discounts on propietary s/ware, more than smaller organisations would have got, so they saved less

    What do you think ? What do you say when a customer asks how much they will save ?

  14. Re:Cancelled by Zemran · · Score: 4, Funny

    Freiburg found that Microsoft would pay them well not to be a free burg any longer...

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  15. Re:Linux may be cheaper by fwarren · · Score: 2

    Whereas when you replace him with a compentent Linux admin, the new admin can probably clean up the files in /etc and get the systems going again. Even a good Windows admin can have a problem with trying to clean up strange behaviours with the mystery meat that is the windows registry. That means the windows guy is going to have to do forinsic work on what's on the box, what's its supposed to do, try an capture progam settings from programs that wont run and then reinstall the OS, reinstall the software and then configure it properply.

    vi + /etc over regedit any day of the week.

    --
    vi + /etc over regedit any day of the week.
  16. Re:What does it include? by Zemran · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I introduced my mother to Linux she was surprised how easy it was as she had heard all the scare mongering. You turn it on and get a desktop, like with Windows. You have a menu like with Windows. You click on items and the programmes start, like with Windows. Do I need to go on or do you all get the idea that she thought it was just like Windows except the really big bad difference... click once instead of twice, which she really liked. I went away and a couple of years later she was using Gimp which I had not shown her. She said she preferred Photoshop on the Mac which they had at art school. So eventually she bought a Mac and learnt another system. If a 70 year old great-granny can get through all that and not see what the fuss is about, I think it is time we starting sacking people who cannot.

    --
    I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
  17. The training costs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Looking at the report, the savings come from not having to buy software licenses (~ €6 million) and hardware upgrades (~ €4 million). They have an additional €16 million in the budget with is applied equally to the all Microsoft, LibreOffice on Microsoft and LiMux cases. That money goes to support, customization, trainings and that kind of thing. The allocated budget for each item is exactly the same in all cases.

    I think there's an interesting message there: "staying with Microsoft saves you training money" is simply a myth.

  18. Re:Stupid to ask this by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2

    The report made no such claim. The report specifically states that they made the report as realistic and as fair as possible by assuming that the city would have reached the same degree of modernization, had they stayed with Microsoft products.

    See, they aren't running ten year old kernels, or six year old office suites. They are running the latest and the greatest of Linux offerings, in today's real world. Fully updated, upgraded, and patched for stability and security.

    I'm a bit curious what desktop environments they are running - maybe I'll go do some searches!

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  19. Re:Stupid to ask this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have personally found many issues with working on 2003 and 2010. Specifically Accses. 2010 wants to convert and save as the 2010 format which makes 2003 clients unable to see those changesm, basically requiring 2 levels of databases or matching office versions. I have actually been converting some of our business databases to PHP / SQL to avoid the M$ update hell.

  20. LiMux documentation on Youtube by phrank · · Score: 2

    As a munich resident i follow news coverage of the LiMux project from the beginning. About two years ago there was a documentation on TV (in german): LiMux - Freie Software für München
    I am not sure, but I think, that guy with pink hair is a Debian maintainer. Probably, such projects succeed or fail with the competence of a few individuals, if they get the required backing. Also this weekend, a Debian bug squashing party is held in Munich.

  21. Re:Stupid to ask this by rbprbp · · Score: 2

    Because hardware eventually dies, and it will become increasingly difficult to find XP-compatible hardware.

    --
    They're there in their room. You're on your own.
  22. Linux Can't Bribe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ..and of course It Can't Kick Back. The severest deficiency of all in the world of business and government.

  23. Re:Stupid to ask this by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm a bit curious what desktop environments they are running - maybe I'll go do some searches!

    You don't need to search very far. (Ubuntu with KDE.)

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  24. Re:Cancelled by unixisc · · Score: 2

    Munich is in Bavaria. Freiberg is in Baden-Württemberg

  25. Re:First hand experience by chilvence · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a point that I think is very under-represented. I imagine a vast majority of the work people do on computers is really indifferent to the operating system being used. Most people do actual real life(tm) work, that is simply supported by a computer, where it serves the function of a glorified typewriter for purposes of simple communication. Mac, windows, linux, who cares?

    The only trouble is that the people that actually are dependent on a particular system seem to be the ones that shout the loudest, sowing the seeds of uncertainty in people that would not really be that affected by a change. People are prone to waiting to see how other people fare before they jump in to anything themselves, and so no one actually changes, and Microsoft win again at charging people for something that the other guys are giving away for free!

    It makes about as much sense to me as jerks who drink bottled water, but then that's another rant...(hint: you have been able to boil your own since the invention of that thing called fire)

  26. Informative? Never heard of Jay or silent Bob? by dbIII · · Score: 2

    "Teabaggers" refers to Tea Party movement members.

    Only if you've never seen one of several of the Kevin Smith movies where the recurring character Jay uses the "you cocksmoking teabaggers" line quoted above. You can google what it means if you like. Many of the people in the astroturfed weirdness that was the "tea party" that had started to call themselves "teabaggers" did that and decided they don't want to be called it anymore.

  27. Re:Cancelled by dadioflex · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Open Source software programs like Open or Libre Office and Google Docs in particular deal with Microsoft's proprietary data formats better than Microsoft does. Good luck getting your five year old Office installation to read the latest version from MS. Meanwhile Google et al can cope with it fine. Perhaps not perfectly, but fine. The lesson here isn't that using non-MS software gives a less than perfect experience, it's that using MS software encourages a less than perfect experience. 99% of users demand little or nothing more than MS was offering in the 90s, but they're forced to upgrade because otherwise they can't read the files they're getting from that work colleague with the new PC.

  28. Re:I will never understand slashdot linux lovers by shaitand · · Score: 2

    You are making some incorrect assumptions. We love linux because we love working with linux.

    You mention Red Hat. Red Hat makes millions on Linux but they also spend boatloads of cash employing people to work on Linux and we all benefit from that work.

    The reality though is that vast vast majority of developers do not work for software companies. Developers at major software companies represent only a small portion of paid developers. Most developers work in-house or work on in-house projects as contractors. We use a great deal of open software at the company I work for on our in-house solution. The majority of the time we are indeed simply leeching and we of course avoid having to change those solutions any time possible because we don't want to maintain changes to a wheel we avoided reinventing. But sometimes we fix bugs, find security holes, or simply need a feature enough to justify and we ALWAYS contribute that back. In fact, we'd beg the main project to absorb the contributions to avoid having to maintain them separately.

    Good development also means abstracting components of a system. Often that means separate pieces that really don't directly relate to the core logic that represents that value in your in-house solution. If you can tidy a piece like that and open it and get others to use it, you are golden since lots of people will do what we are doing above. If people don't adopt it you aren't out anything.

    As for Linux specifically. If you are working on in-house solutions and custom processes the Linux world is much much easier to script and develop than the Windows world. You are right that Linux helps employ admins but I fail to see how employing admins is inferior to employing developers? Linux admins typically have some level of development skills and command salaries comparable to that of most developers due to their advanced skill set and increased capacity relative to windows admins.

  29. What 1M Euros from each city could do! by mattr · · Score: 2

    Unless I am mistaken (tl;dr) each city in Germany seems to be considering gnu/linux separately and much effort is probably being duplicated in the evaluation, training and customization phases. I am curious:
    1) Wouldn't savings continue into the future with no need to buy Windows 2015, etc when supported version life ends?
    2) Couldn't the second city in Germany use what Munich learned, compare Munich's consideration process to their own situation and save a lot of effort?
    3) I don't know what kind of customization is involved, but wouldn't it be the same for say Stuttgart or Koeln?
    4) If 1 million Euros of the saved money from each city is put into hiring open source developers to improve the system, that would be a massive boon to the open source world and open source software in general. Is anybody thinking about this? Specifically:
    5) What are the chances / how would one go about in establishing a way for all municipal/state governments in Germany or EU for that matter, to pool their funds and make the necessary improvements such as oh I don't know, how about:
    - LibreOffice enhancements like fixing pasting of outlines from TextEdit into LibreOffice, making outlines import correctly from LO into MS Word, making templates for Draw for both government and small/medium/large companies, making templates for Calc, Write and Impress, making database templates that work with it all, gathering, organizing and fixing every glaring compatibility issue regarding MS Office interoperability, etc. It isn't rocket science and 50M Euros with some responsible project managers could stomp out all the distracting issues.
    - Multilingual video series on merits of free software, TCO, installation, training, submitting bug reports and enhancement requests, writing software.
    - Make a global clearing house for software/services wish list, and how to resolve issues on various distros site, so the wheel doesn't get reinvented all the time.
    - Make a global support and development job site that helps local developers

  30. Re:Cancelled by sapphire+wyvern · · Score: 2

    Let's see. Five year old MS Office... this is 2012, so that would be Office 2007 (+/- one year), yeah?

    Which uses the same file formats as Office 2010. I haven't heard of any major file format changes for the upcoming Office 2013, (maybe I've missed a story? I don't really pay close attention). And there is a set of free plugins you can download for editing the docx, xlsx etc file types in Office 2003, which is even older.

    Of course, the feature compatibility isn't ever 100% complete between Office versions (otherwise, what would be the point of a new version anyway...), but I generally find that as long as you aren't relying on any new features in a document, it'll be largely fine in older versions of MS Office. But perfect backwards compatibility isn't required is it? You've already established that your personal baseline for adequate performance is

    Perhaps not perfectly, but fine.

    and that

    99% of users demand little or nothing more than MS was offering in the 90s

    Implying that someone using Office 2003 or 2007 (five years old!) is completely unable to use files generated in the latest version(s) of Office is pretty disingenuous. At least you weren't modded (dis)Informative.

  31. Re:What does it include? by Kam+Solusar · · Score: 2

    I'd like to see what that includes on the labour side. I've seen proposals before showing massive savings in software purchases but it didn't account for anything else such as expert labour, training for the staff and the headaches and inefiencies that come with changing users world.

    RTFA: "Costs that are not related to the operating system, such as staff and training costs, were identically listed at around €22 million (£17 million) in all three scenarios. Overall, the project says that Windows and Microsoft Office would have cost just over €34 million (£27 million), while Windows with Open Office would have cost about €30 million (£24 million). The LiMux scenario, on the other hand, has reportedly cost less than €23 million (£18 million)."

    --
    The Angels have the Phone Box