Slashdot Mirror
LiMux Project Has Saved Munich €10m So Far
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."
I hope the numbers hold water because that would make a great research case (all info has been public from the begining)
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
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.
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.
meanwhile somewhere in redmoon, a chair flies through the air.
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.
He couldn't understand the long term viability of a software only business!
Freiburg != Munich
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?
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 ?
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.