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MS Won't Release Study Disputing Munich's Linux-Switch Savings
itwbennett writes "As previously reported on Slashdot, in November of last year, the city of Munich reported savings of over €10 million from its switch to Linux. Microsoft subsequently commissioned a study (conducted by HP) that found that, in fact, 'Munich would have saved €43.7 million if it had stuck with Microsoft.' Now, Microsoft has said it won't release the study, saying that '[it] was commissioned by Microsoft to HP Consulting for internal purposes only.'"
Switch from Microsoft to Microsoft and save $43.7 million?
I can understand "switch from stupid choice of products to better choices of products" though. And I don't find it unlikely that they had a lot of stupid choices there.
Another interesting option is if the switch to Linux saves money and then switching to Microsoft saves even more and then you can just continue switching, imagine the savings! Personally I have a hard time imagine you save money by switching back and forth though =P
I commissioned my own study that says Microsoft is full of shit. I'm not releasing the study itself or the details of our methodology. But trust me on this, it's true.
Went something like this:
Dear Bill/Steve,
We have spent 6 months evaluating Linux in the Munich offices and have found the following issues:
1) IE is not installed so many of compatibility webpages you wanted us to evaluate did not work correctly.
2) The accounts which were created in Active Directory to allow for LDAP logins in Linux have a schema different from the documentation you provided and did not work correctly.
3) The Excel spreadsheets saved in the Open Document Format were not compatible with LibreOffice's Open Document Format and did not display all sheets corrrecly. Apparently the format is different than what was specificed in the standard you provided.
4) The Macro virus attached to the Excel spreadsheet *did* execute correctly and damaged one of the exported NTFS filesystems on the SAMBA server.
In closing, for the 6 months of screwing around trying to get your proprietary solutions to play nicely via the advertised specifications we've found none of them worked as advertised (except for fore-mentioned virus) and are billing you €40.7 million for our lead times and €3.7 million to cover anger management therapy for our support personnel.
Yours truly,
Meg W.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Newsflash: sponsored study shows results that favor sponsor. Truly shocking.
----- obSig
MSFT's internal study predicted that Munich would have saved so much because everyone would have been too busy dancing with their tablets to perform any governance or spend any money.
So were they just trying to make themselves feel better?
Romulan Senator Vreenak said it best:
It's a faaaaake!
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
There are plenty of non-strange Linux people around.
Personally, I consider myself quite charming.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
"Now is the time on Surface when we dance!"
That's how much they would have saved in discounts. It would have cost them a hell of a lot more, but the savings were there.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Munich: The first 6 digits of PI are 3.14159
MS: No, it's 123456. Honest, we've done a study and all.
Munich: Oh, great, can you show us?
MS: No, it's for internal purposes only. But trust us, it's 123456 allright.
Write boring code, not shiny code!