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Munich's IT Lead: 'No Compelling Reason' To Switch Back To Windows From Linux (techrepublic.com)
"The man who runs Munich's central IT says there is no practical reason for the city to write off millions of euros and years of work to ditch its Linux-based OS for Windows," reports TechRepublic. Long-time Slashdot reader Qbertino summarizes a German-language article:
Karl-Heinz Schneider, lead of Munich's local system house company IT@M, goes on to claim, "We do not see pressing technical reasons to switch to MS and MS Office... The council [in their recent plans] didn't even follow the analysts' suggestion to stick with using LibreOffice." Furthermore, Schneider stated that "System failures that angered citizens in recent years never were related to the LiMux project, but due to new bureaucratic procedures..." and apparently decisions by unqualified personnel at the administrative level, as Munich's administration itself states.
Windows paid off the right people to switch back.
That said, open source software is great until you have to use it. OpenOffice, GIMP, KiCad...all needlessly convoluted.
If you don't know how it works.
He is trying to cover his own ass and deflect blame for failure.
No more compelling reason than that. What a piece of garbage.
Only crack the nuts that crack. You don't put the ones that don't crack in the sack.
Zey voss just followink orders.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Um, it cost that much to switch to Linux? This can't be encouraging to other cities / governments. Exactly how was the money and time spent? Inquiring minds want to know!
...omphaloskepsis often...
Whenever I read stories like this, ie. Windows vs. Linux vs. OSX vs. it seems to always be from the perspective of the implementers or those looking to make a point about whether it can be done. Why not offer choice? Why the constant insistence that users must have the flavour of the day foisted upon them?
There is complexity in running an estate with multiple OS on offer but the truth is, any sysadmins capable of running a *nix infrastructure and operation should find supporting and mainlining other OS estates relatively straightforward.
In my personal life I make good use of all 3 mainstream OS and at work I have a choice which is made available all users too.
And with modern browsers offering productivity suites through web based platforms and file storage and infrastructure delivered via consolidated IaaS / AWS / Azure / Google Compute / NEOther why does anyone even care about the opinions techies have in regards to their own preferences.
Use what's right for you and let the technology work with your choice to ensure interoperability, security and information management. That's where the techies should focus.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
We'll be willing to sign a long term Windows/Office/SQL Server licensing deal for X Euros, if you make an investment of (1.2 * X) Euros in our wonderful collaboration together.
How could they omit software licensing and infrstructure costs in the estimate? That is not a trivial amount of money by a long shot.
Well thank God Munich woke up! Believe it or not, I still like Windows. They do support certain applications that I can't get on Linux. (Its possible that I am simply not good enough yet to get them to work since I'm new at it.) But one thing Windows has to realize.. I - am - the - customer. Not the other way around!! I'm not your slave, and there are other operating systems around. Windows, you are replaceable! If I were you, I'd go back to giving the customer choices, flexibility, and privacy.
Hieroglyphics died out as a language, yet Microsoft chose it as their interface! LibreOffice is more production, Microsoft might be too stubborn to fix that awful ribbon, but that's how it is.
Just wait until you discover emoji.
AutoFilter in Calc (Data->AutoFilter) has some of these features. It does not however do the named range auto bits, or make the table pretty, if you want this you have to do it manually(Data->Define Range & Format -> AutoFormat Styles ). Depending on your use case this will either be an irritation or a non issue, having not used Exell in a while I don't know what you are expecting though.
Obvious solution: switch to ReactOS. Or, if that seems too time consuming, just install Gentoo.
This is a glaring example of corruption at work. Microsoft bribes the council into shoveling millions back into Microsoft. I wish I could say something like, "how are these clowns not being thrown out of office?!" However, this is standard operating procedure in corrupt governments around the world.
Usually that job is to _advise_, but not to _undermine_ his bosses. Advising is something you do internally, not publicly.
Look, I get he cares about this. But if his bosses tell him to make sure application or OS get installed, it's his job to make it so - and not to bitch about it in public. If he doesn't like his job, I'm sure there are plenty of other people who will do it without complaints.
MS made a deal with Munich's mayors office to move its german headquarters to Munich. Wonder what the other side of that deal was...
switch to Amiga OS .
1. IT Lead originally failed to understand the needs of the users of such system.
2. IT Lead implements alternative to MS software that doesn't meet the needs of the users
3. Users say "this doesn't do what we want, lets go back to how it was"
4. IT Lead blames shift back to MS software on the users; "System fails [were] due to new bureaucratic procedure"
Ie, IT Lead implemented something the users didn't need or want and is blaming the users for that.
It might be an unpopular opinion on a tech site; but people are people and sometimes, tech people get things wrong too. It's very possible the IT lead here just did a bad job.
"needlessly convoluted" == "not what I'm used to on Windows with it's single-window model".
GIMP is, for people new to such higher-tier (ie beyond MS Paint-type) graphics manipulation programs, EASIER to learn. Right click brings up a menu that is pretty much what you need to do in the image window. And if you have two monitors, it's VERY easy to place the tools off on the second monitor where they won't get in the way of the image.
GIMP came from UNIX land where window mangers did what the name said. Adobe's products came from Windows where the "windows manager" was not the window manager but the task manager. And so each task was intended to have its own single window so the "window" task manager could manage that task.
It is the fucking laziness that people have, brought on by general corporate subliminal brainwashing propaganda!
Open source projects like Linux and LibreOffice do not have heavy-handed, highly engineered social marketing to brainwash folks into their products.
They just have great, solid, supported products built truly By The People, For The People.
Yet, most humans are TOO fucking lazy to engage their brains of their OWN fruition and make the small effort to learn these easy products, andwould rather just keep plodding along with the rest of the (lemmings)!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
And that is how it should be.
Because businesses will come and go (even Microsoft), but the truly innovative and useful things are sustainable.
It is like the monk walking with his teacher, and they see a rabbit being chased by a fox.
The student says "That poor rabbit will get eaten".
The teacher asks "Why do you think so?"
"Because the fox is much faster, stronger, and more cunning".
The teacher says "But the rabbit will elude him".
"Why is that teacher?"
"Because the fox is running for his dinner, but the rabbit is running for his life"
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
"We do not see pressing technical reasons to switch to MS and MS Office"
Technical is never the reason that people switch to Windows. It's always politics and shady backroom deals.