01.02.10
Munich Migrates to GNU/Linux, ODF and OpenOffice.org; Microsoft EDGI Still Lurking
Summary: The large-scale migration to LiMux goes pretty well; Microsoft increasingly attempts to derail such migrations
Thanks to open standards and Free software, Munich succeeds in its migration away from Microsoft. To Munich, it’s not a case of Apple versus Microsoft versus Google. Munich’s mayor has protested against OOXML and on they go with ODF. Check out this latest update from the ground:
ODF as standard, OpenOffice.org everywhere
LiMux has achieved one very important goal. The open standard Open Document Format (ODF) is now Munich’s primary used internal document exchange standard, beside of PDF for non-editable documents. Congratulations to all, who made this great success happen! Our standard office workplace consists now of OpenOffice.org (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw), Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird and many other sometimes needed apps like e.g. GIMP.
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The whole project will be adapted during the next months for the final big step, the client migration in general. Some improvements and optimizations in the project structure, to learn from the past and be ready for continuing the success story.
Pogson summarises parts of the above.
There is an end-of-2009 article by Floschi that shows the migration has overcome all the obstacles and made good progress:
* 2500 GNU/Linux clients spread over all 12 departments
* 20000 ODF templates produced and ODF is the standard format for documents
* FLOSS apps everywhere in use daily
ODF and OpenOffice.org are clearly a crucial part of this migration.
As we showed a few days ago [1, 2], Microsoft still engages in EDGI and other anti-competitive tactics (which it euphemistically calls “Compete”) to suppress any existing deployment of OpenOffice.org that’s successful. It is not the same as “competition” but rather undermining the competition with back room deals. Linux Today brought this up, leading to some interesting comments.
“It is not the same as “competition” but rather undermining the competition with back room deals.”“Wow. In their own words. MS is will try to engage the OSS community in order to destroy it,” says one person. Another says that “corporations realize linux is past the tipping point. There are areas in which it is deployed that MS products aren’t even considered, nor will they ever be. They won’t “market” their way into those areas, ever.” A more optimistic response says that “this must mean that GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.org are doing really well. I knew that all along…”
Microsoft is hiring people to subvert it from the inside, as usual.
Sun’s Simon Phipps writes about Glyn Moody’s analysis: “Fascinating insight gleaned from “Situations Vacant” shows just how much pain OpenOffice.org is really causing Microsoft, despite the effort their spokespeople make to dismiss it. The analysis is backed up by the statements they make about OpenOffice.org in their SEC filings.”
Shamar says that it’s “The perfect job for Miguel De Icaza,” adding: “Orr, I forgot. De Icaza is already working for M$.” Well, he joined Microsoft's CodePlex Foundation. █
Robotron 2084 said,
January 8, 2010 at 12:16 pm
This is post only showcases the positive news regarding the LiMux migration. However, like most government projects, not everything works as well as it was advertised when the ribbon was cut. Where is the other half of the story? Do we have a full understanding of the situation? Not here, we don’t.
For some proper balance and objectivity you should read about how well the LiMux migration isn’t going over at http://limuxwatch.blogspot.com/
2,500 clients sounds impressive, until you learn there are 14,000 machines in total. Only 17.8% converted to LiMux. How long has this project been going on? Only since May 28, 2003.
your_friend Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
You’re losing it. Having rid themselves of Microsoft Office formats and other legacy junk, the city has it made. They still have their legacy junk available through VMs, but I doubt they use it much by now. Already, their citizens don’t have to buy hundreds of dollars worth of software to work with their government. In the next few months it will be Microsoft free and their citizens will no longer be subsidizing an untrustworthy and poorly performing foreign company. The pilot was a success, as any gnu/linux user would have predicted. The time taken to make this move reflects the folly of using non free formats in the first place. Munich will be a shining example of inexpensive and reliable municipal IT the way the London Stock Exchange was a showcase of Microsoft failure and is now another example of free software effectiveness.