The Munich Linux project exceeds target!

[viking60]

The Munich Linux project LiMux has exceeded the annual target. 9000 Systems have been migrated and 8500 were planed, out of the 12000-15000 PC's used by Munich officials.

The city of Munich represents a nightmare for Microsoft. And kills all arguments from Steve Ballmer, about Linux being Communism and cancer.
This kind of marketing was undoubtedly designed to scare cities like Munich away from Linux, but the Bavarians were to smart to fall for it.
Munich sure is no Communist city, and it is in a healthy state.
Almost all copies of Microsoft Office have been uninstalled and been replaced with OpenOffice 3.2.1
During the project they have made a set of templates for OpenOffice called Wollmux.

The decisions to migrate to Linux stands since 2003 and there have been smaller problems that have been time consuming.
Sponsored FUD sites like this, made to watch Linux fail in Munich, have been proven wrong by the Munich project, and stopped "reporting" in 2010, because there were only the "wrong" news to report (success!).
There will be no prizes for guessing who made the problems as big as possible.

As a result Munich has a virus free secure way of serving the people. And other cities will surely follow.
The Munich experience has made Microsoft a warm believer in Open Source - so they claim. They say they have learned (from Linux - The Communist and Cancer system?).

Here a picture of the Munich officials during the lunch brake:

It is refreshing to see that human intelligence is outweighing aggressive marketing with wrongful content.
Smart people these Germans....

[rolf]

Often, I am encouraged by those developments in Munich:

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....

and

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. ®

Keep the good news coming!

[viking60]

That is sure to happen!
The people in Munich will discover for themselves the advantages of Linux. No heavy slander campaign against the competitions necessary.
Microsoft knows that Linux is better; that is why they have to spend billions on "marketing" campaigns. Every person that can spell Windows correctly in Munich get to win prices etc.
But they are biting on stones. The people of Munich get to discover Linux without (to much) Microsoft interference and that is deadly for Microsoft - and they know it!
So I will just lean back and wait for the next success to report
It is amazing that MS has been able to keep an OS down that is light-years ahead of them - for so long.
Edit:
This Munich user seems to agree:

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...

http://linux.slashdot.org/story/11/12/1 ... eds-target

[viking60]

Update:
Microsoft and HP have produced some figures to show that the Munich savings on open source are wrong - and that Munich would have saved more by using Windows.

The figures were conveniently handed over to the German Magazine Focus - and published.

So the Munich administration and others were naturally interested and wanted the figures too....and Microsoft refused to hand them out.

Now let me see if I have got this right so far:
Microsoft with the help of HP, has made a study that clearly shows that Windows is way cheaper than Linux...and they refuse to hand out the study

Does Microsoft not understand that this leaves them standing as pretty much liars in the public German eye? They must be desperate.

Who is going to believe anything they say, after this?
And surly there must be a law against this kind of "marketing" - If I have understood it correctly it is not allowed to lie in German "adds" either.
If that is the case then Microsoft must prove that the given information (to Focus) is correct or admit the errors of their ways -before they are punished

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