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The City of Munich Might Stick With Linux (fsfe.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the waffling-on-Windows? dept.

Munich's "LiMux" project brought FOSS software to their city's IT administration -- until a vote last month on whether to abandon Linux and return to Windows. "Since this decision was reached, the majority of media have reported that a final call was made to halt LiMux and switch back to Microsoft software," reports the Free Software Foundation Europe. "This is, however, not an accurate representation of the outcome of the city council meeting." An anonymous reader quotes their report: The opposing parties were overruled, but the decision was amended such that the strategy document must specify which LiMux-applications will no longer be needed, the extent in which prior investments must be written off, and a rough calculation of the overall costs of the desired unification... [Only then will the city council make their final decision...] We succeeded thus far in forcing the mayor Dieter Reiter to postpone the final decision, and this was possible through the unwavering pressure created by joint efforts between The Document Foundation, KDE, OSBA, and the FSFE together with all the individuals who wrote to city council members and took the issue to the media.

Although the mandate is highly suggestive in that it suggests that the existing vendor-neutral approach is to be replaced with a proprietary solution, it leaves the door open... The new mandate buys us some time. And we will keep going.
Some politicians said they'd never received this much input from the public before, and the Free Software Foundation Europe says the city's issues were caused "from organizational problems, including lack of clear structures and responsibilities," which should not be attributed to the Linux operating system. "LiMux as such is still one of the best examples of how to create a vendor-neutral administration based on Free Software."

13 of 117 comments (clear)

  1. Global Politics by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's somewhat disturbing to me that they received pressure from so many groups around the world, who are really just hoping to promote OSS, not help the city of Munich run better.

    On the other hand, they have a lobbyist from Microsoft who definitely isn't trying to help the city of Munich run better, so I guess it's fair. Must be overwhelming to be an administrator in Munich, though.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    1. Re: Global Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I presume you mean "they should do this for free". Why would they do this? Open source is about being open not about being cheap.

    2. Re:Global Politics by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Interesting

      if they did that then the City would not be contemplating the switch back.

      Unless....the reason for switching is because Microsoft bribed them in some way.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:Global Politics by Kjella · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unless....the reason for switching is because Microsoft bribed them in some way.

      At the core is probably some TCO studies and they're not exactly indisputable facts. The licensing is just one tiny bit of it, then you try to estimate the productivity, maintenance and administration, difficulty of getting software and staff to operate it, training costs of users and so on. There's a lot of room for bias, particularly when it comes to omitting costs you would have with a different solution but won't be apparent until you get there. Also known as "the grass is greener on the other side", when you jump the fence you'll find the other side has its own set of disadvantages.

      I'm sure Microsoft has made the pitch that Munich is actually losing money on their Linux adventure. And if you're not good at cutting through corporate BS and flawed assumptions - which most people aren't - it's not surprising that some policy makers believe them. Not to mention it probably involves a low-ball offer from Microsoft, which might actually be profitable in the short term until you're hooked on regular upgrade costs, software maintenance and so on in the future. But politicians often do things that look good in this election cycle. You don't have to imagine cloak-and-dagger operations.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    4. Re:Global Politics by execthis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One thing that bothers me about the press coverage of this is that there's no discussion about why there was a call to stop using LiMux. I would like to know why - was it certain apps that underperformed? Certain features that didn't exist? What? Discussing this without describing actual details is worse than meaningless. People can suggest all kinds of things, but until anyone actually knows what the issues were, it's a moot point.

    5. Re:Global Politics by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 2

      Indeed it is!
      I mean if local groups hat tried to 'enlighten' the city council, but the FSFE?
      If M$ had be caught doing that we had an uproar ....

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    6. Re:Global Politics by Junta · · Score: 2

      Actually, it's not just about that. A good example is active directory.

      On the open source side, if you can set up a decent directory service at all, you are pretty well equipped to handle very complex deployments as well as simple ones. You appreciate the power, transparency, and relative straightforwardness in dealing with complex needs. However, getting even a simple configuration going can be daunting to a newcomer. The newcomer experience is most often ignored in open source projects, since the target audience tends to be in the same ballpark as people able to write the software (at least in the best open source projects).

      On the active directory side, it is dead simple to set up a simple configuration. So people getting started have an easier time. Now as your needs advance in complexity, you enter a hellish world of awkwardness in active directory and you'd be better off with the open source stack, but you started with AD and you are stuck with AD.

      Commercial software tends to be easier to get started with and also working in common evaluation contexts. Open source tends to fare better when complexity increases and people are able to self-support and mold the overall project in an agreeable way.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    7. Re:Global Politics by Barsteward · · Score: 2

      From the report
      "In 2014, Dieter Reiter was elected new mayor of Munich. He had referred to himself as "Microsoft fan" even before he took office. He prides himself with having played a major part in the decision to move the Microsoft Germany headquarters to downtown Munich. He started to question the LiMux strategy as soon as his term started, and asked Accenture, a Microsoft partner in the same building as Microsoft, to analyse Munich's IT infrastructure. The report can be found here (German). It's noteworthy that in their report, the analysts identify primarily organisational issues at the root of the problems troubling LiMux uptake, rather than technical challenges."

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    8. Re: Global Politics by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      Not so fast there, pardner. You said,

      That is nonsense. A properly set up Linux system is perfect for Grandma. She clicks on the Firefox icon and it's exactly like on Windows, minus the Windows headaches!!!

      But the parent said,

      You have to either lock it so that the user doesn't have access to critical components or expect users to do bad things that will break their systems and will ultimately abandon the software.

      So in reality you are providing evidence that supports just what the AC said, yet you are claiming it demonstrates the opposite.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  2. Trolls... Crickets... by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

    Interesting how the MSFT trolls didn't show up to this article as they usually do. Microsoft... same old same old. Paid out all that payola and what... sheesh. Buncha pesky citizens got in the way.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  3. New headquarters of Microsoft in Germany... by mattMad · · Score: 3, Informative

    Guess where Microsoft just opened their new German headquarters? Right: In Munich... (To be fair: They had their headquarters nearby Munich already before - but now they lured them right into the city)

  4. Re:I bet they're disappointed by ilguido · · Score: 2

    Nope. Microsoft began to build a new HQ in Munich in 2013 and it was completed in 2016. The old HQ was in Unterschleißheim, which is a small town near to Munich, under a different city council.

  5. Re: So let's dig deeper.... by dunkelfalke · · Score: 2

    Why do you assume that just because you personally prefer linux, everyone else either does as well or is unwilling to learn? I personally develop for linux at work, but use windows at home mpst of the time even though i obviously know my way around linux. I simply prefer windows workflows, windows ui and windows font rendering.

    --
    "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap