[clug] German City Council deployed Linux OS across their departments

Fri Jun 12 18:17:44 MDT 2015

On 13/06/15 01:29, da ro wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> As far as I can tell from what was made public, no official body in
> Munich ever advocated returning to Windows - that option was only
> brought up by one person, the second mayor (i.e. a second-in-command in
> the municipal executive), while non of the people actually responsible
> for it shared that stance and instead vocally opposed it.

I'm not sure about that. And as both Reiter and Schmid are politicians....

The original story about the plan to replace LiMux 'seems' to come from
a clickbait story in the German press by Florian Regensburger who is
Green Party supporter:-

http://translate.google.com.au/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.br.de/themen/ratgeber/inhalt/computer/limux-linux-muenchen-kritik-reiter-schmid100.html&prev=search

In a later interview he denies that he proposed going back to Windows:-

http://www.zdnet.com/article/munich-sheds-light-on-the-cost-of-dropping-linux-and-returning-to-windows/

[quote note the third paragraph in particular]
Reiter said going back to Microsoft would mean writing off about €14m of
work it had carried out to shift to Limux, OpenOffice and other free
software. Work on project implementation, support, training, modifying
systems, licensing of Limux-specific software, on setting up Limux and
migrating from Microsoft Office would have to be shelved, he said.

He also revealed that the move to Limux had saved the council about €11m
in licensing and hardware costs, as the Ubuntu-based Limux operating
system was less demanding than if it had upgraded to a newer version of
Windows.

In the response Reiter addressed reports that he had told Stadtbild
magazine that he was a Microsoft fan, saying his personal beliefs had no
bearing on the IT audit.

"Since my interview in Stadtbild in which I was portrayed as a Microsoft
fan, I have received much correspondence about whether our IT can
satisfactorily meet the needs of users at all times and whether it’s
powerful enough for a modern metropolitan authority.

"There are many aspects to this, one of which is the corresponding user
satisfaction. It's not about my personal taste, nor my individual
experiences with open source."
[/quote]

That article is based on this response by Schmit to the Green Party (in
German) is [6.]

Timeline is here (not sure how accurate it is):-
[7.]#History

> 
> The politician who did blame Linux for some of their issues, which
> seem to have been due to insufficient and badly maintained
> infrastructure, has personal ties to Microsoft, who moved a division of
> their German operations to Munich recently.

The above is what Reiter denies - but, he is a politician.
Note also that like the M$ claim that it would create 200 jobs in
Canberra after Telstra was forced to cancel it's Novell/SuSe contract -
it never happened (the M$ move to Munich is/was slated for 2016).

>From an article that seems to have actually involved some research:-
http://www.techrepublic.com/article/no-munich-isnt-about-to-ditch-free-software-and-move-back-to-windows/

[quote]
But is the council's move to open source about to be scrapped in favour
or returning to Microsoft?

No says the council, in spite of numerous reports to the contrary.
Suggestions the council has decided to back away from Linux are wrong,
according to council spokesman Stefan Hauf.

He said the council's recently elected mayor Dieter Reiter has instead
simply commissioned a report into the future IT system for the council.
[/quote]

> 
> The only report of the evaluation was not available for free to me
> right now
> (http://www.heise.de/artikel-archiv/ix/2015/02/019_Open-Source), but
> from the excerpt it seems to be that it didn't find that Linux was
> responsible for any of their real or puported issues.
> 
> Unfortunately, 'famous Linux migration project FAIL' is a headline that
> drives clicks more than 'Munich needs to admin their mail server
> better'.

Indeed. And neowin is one of the most unreliable pro-M$ sources of
"information" on the internet. There "story" is so full of fail and
plain wrong it's astonishing:-
http://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-deploying-linux-was-a-disaster-going-back-to-windows

"Supposedly" based on an even more unreliable article:-
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sueddeutsche.de%2Fmuenchen%2Fmuenchner-stadtverwaltung-von-microsoft-zu-linux-und-zurueck-1.2090611&edit-text=&act=url

Politics *and* business (sigh)
The politics is the Greens vs. the opposition. The Greens see commercial
conspiracies everywhere - so are quick to accuse Schmid and Reiter of
being ready to ditch LiMux. The opposition is quick to accuse anything
instituted by the Greens as a waste of money. A familiar politically
biased scenario augmented by copy/paste click-bait enhanced "reporting".

Most importantly the uptake of Linux in Germany is strong, Munich is not
the only large Linux deployment.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/its-not-just-munich-open-source-gains-new-ground-in-germany/

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?act=url&depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.it-muenchen-blog.de/&usg=ALkJrhgfjrLy697SLJQxjjrgYLe7RJ2uzw

What I particularly like, but can't source immediately is that the
Munich study found that although Linux had more vulnerabilities than
Windows - it have far less critical vulnerabilities. I'm presuming that
didn't factor in the fact that Linux comes with all applications -
whereas M$ comes with little (like comparing the health of *a* cow with
a *flock* of sheep).

> 
> 
> 
> Daniel
> 
> 
> On Fri, 12 Jun 2015 08:39:32 +1000
> George at Clug <Clug at goproject.info> wrote:
> 
>>     Hi,
> 
>> Some time ago a Microsoft news item reported; "German government has
>> decided to switch back to Windows after 10 years."  
>> http://microsoft-news.com/german-government-switching-back-to-windows-os-from-linux-after-10-years/
> 
<snipped>
> 
> 
> 
>> As regards the missing unified mail and calendar application
>> criticised by Schmid, it became clear that the relevant Kolab [10]
>> free software solution is currently being implemented. This only
>> started in early 2014 and is expected to be in use early in 2015. 

http://opensource.com/government/14/9/kolab-for-city-munich

> 
> 
> 
> 
>> Links:
>> ------
>> [1] http://www.bristolwireless.net/
>> [2]
>> http://www.bristolwireless.net/blog/category/international-it-news/
>> [3] http://www.bristolwireless.net/blog/category/open-source-news/
>> [4]
>> http://www.bristolwireless.net/blog/2014/10/16/munich-sticks-with-limux-and-free-software/
>> [5]
>> http://www.bristolwireless.net/blog/2014/10/16/munich-sticks-with-limux-and-free-software/#comments
>> [6] http://www.ris-muenchen.de/RII2/RII/DOK/ANTRAG/3456728.pdf
>> [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux
>> [8]
>> http://www.bristolwireless.net/blog/2013/02/14/munich-responds-to-fud-report-on-limux/
>> [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS
>> [10] http://kolab.org/
> 
> 
> 