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InfoWorld wrote:
April 07, 2003
Microsoft's Ballmer fights Linux in Munich
Munich city government postpones software decision until end of May

None other than Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer paid a personal visit to Munich city mayor Christian Ude at the end of last month to drum up support for the company's operating system software, which faces growing competition from open-source Linux, according to a report in the German newspaper SüddeutscheZeitung, citing people familiar with the situation.

Munich, which is widely viewed as the IT capital of Germany, is considering a switch from Microsoft to Linux following a study that claims the city will save money and increase security with open-source software, the newspaper reported Friday.

Microsoft is worried that if a big German city like Munich falls into the Linux camp, others will follow, according to the report....

The Register wrote:
Microsoft down and out in Munich
Penguins overrun Bavaria
28th May 2003

Linux zealots all over Munich have strapped on their lederhosen and knocked back a few liters of beer after the open source operating system beat out Microsoft's Windows for a major city contract.

Munich will dump 14,000 PCs running Windows and install Linux instead in what is one of the biggest moves away from Redmond to date. The importance of the deal prompted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to make a last minute pitch and reportedly to undercut an offer from IBM and SuSE.

Ballmer's efforts failed.

The umpah band will play first in Lower Saxony where 11,000 police computers will change OSes next year. More computers will undergo "the change" in due course.

It's no surprise that Ballmer would be called in to defend Microsoft's turf in Deutschland. Despite heavy discounts when competing against Linux, Microsoft Germany has given up significant ground to open source software.

Both the federal and state governments in Germany have taken a close look at replacing propietary software with open code. The Federal Ministry of the Interior last year signed a deal with IBM to use Linux computers. The city of Schwabisch Hall in December also decided to repurpose a few hundred Microsoft PCs with Linux.

Media outlets have estimated that Microsoft bid close to $32 million for Munich's business, beating out IBM and SuSE's offer by a few million. Despite the lower offer and Ballmer's rhetoric, Munich Mayor Christian Ude rebuffed Microsoft.

"Mit diesem richtungsweisenden Grundsatzbeschluss sichert sich München nicht nur als erste deutsche Großstadt eine größere Herstellerunabhängigkeit ihrer IT-Infrastruktur, sondern setzt auch ein klares Zeichen für mehr Wettbewerb im Software-Markt," Ude said in a statement.

Roughly translated, this means Ude has championed the use of Linux as a way to cut back on Munich's dependence on a single IT vendor and a way to spur competition.

Bavarians have a way with words. ®

As a Munich user, I can tell you that:

The Finance Databases are always available (they previously had significant down-time).

Log-in takes seconds (not the tens of minutes that previously happened with the Windows systems) - the accumulated savings in work time are huge for log-in alone!

Applications load and run faster - again saving workers significant time.

E-mail always works (the Windows mail servers were frequently unavailable).

Security is enhanced, and there are no panicked messages sent around about this week's virus!

It's just MUCH better and lets us all get our work done more easily. The savings in time, user frustration and in software licences is massive. The staff requirements to maintain the system are fewer, better able people. We've just demonstrated our system to a numer of other cities, and many more are going to adopt it...

Currently, almost 87%, or 13,000 of 15,000 PCs, are migrated to LiMux