4 ms·

The city of Munich switches to Open Source Software

90 points by Morgawr 13y ago

dave809 13y ago
Awesome news, I always wonder how the users react to these kind of switches. They switched everyone to open office, firefox and thunderbird while on Windows and then gradually switched to LiMux. It seems like they tried to make the DE very similar to windows NT to ease the transition[0]. [0] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LiMux.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LiMux.jpg
- mkesper 13y ago
  That screenshot is from 2004 as you can see in the bottom right corner. KDE3.5 isn't maintained anymore so I guess the infos in the wiki are partially out of date.
neil_s 13y ago
WIll be interesting to see how this fares long-term. The article doesn't mention why a custom distro was needed rather than one of the standards, and the running cost of now patching their own OS every time a linux bug or vulnerability is found.
- mknittig 13y ago
  It's ISO certified and AFAIK it's just Ubuntu (previously Debian) with some bells and whistles.
- drill_sarge 13y ago
  It's no custom distro. It's Ubuntu 10.10 LTS. Only thing which they added was WollMux: http://www.wollmux.net/wiki/Hauptseite http://www.wollmux.net/wiki/Hauptseite Also they switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice
  - mkesper 13y ago
    English description of WollMux: http://code.google.com/p/wollmux/ http://code.google.com/p/wollmux/ In short: OpenOffice.org plugin with enhanced template, form, and autotext functionality.
  - skriticos2 13y ago
    Since when was 10.10 an LTS release? 10.04 was an LTS release and 12.04 was an LTS release. All in between were intermediate releases. 10.10 is an 18 month support release, which long passed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases#Version_timeline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases#Version... 10.04 and 12.04 are the only ones with current support.
    - drill_sarge 13y ago
      sorry, meant 10.04
- mkesper 13y ago
  10 years is no short timespan to survive in politically influenced arena.
wxm 13y ago
Great to see this project being completed after almost ten years. Several similar projects in Germany have failed (e.g. the parliament's attempt to converting to Linux) or Wienux in Vienna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wienux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wienux). IMO, a major reason for the success of LiMux was the gradual change with extensive training and that the included developing custom templates and generators for Open Office etc. For a timeline on the project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux
pary 13y ago
some more detailed info, and lot of comments http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-steve-ballmer-and-kicked-microsoft-out-of-the-city/ http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-stev...
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  A lot of comments but they done seem to be of high quality.

90 points by Morgawr 13y ago

Awesome news, I always wonder how the users react to these kind of switches. They switched everyone to open office, firefox and thunderbird while on Windows and then gradually switched to LiMux. It seems like they tried to make the DE very similar to windows NT to ease the transition[0]. [0] http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LiMux.jpg http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LiMux.jpg

mkesper 13y ago
That screenshot is from 2004 as you can see in the bottom right corner. KDE3.5 isn't maintained anymore so I guess the infos in the wiki are partially out of date.

neil_s 13y ago

WIll be interesting to see how this fares long-term. The article doesn't mention why a custom distro was needed rather than one of the standards, and the running cost of now patching their own OS every time a linux bug or vulnerability is found.

mknittig 13y ago
It's ISO certified and AFAIK it's just Ubuntu (previously Debian) with some bells and whistles.
drill_sarge 13y ago
It's no custom distro. It's Ubuntu 10.10 LTS. Only thing which they added was WollMux: http://www.wollmux.net/wiki/Hauptseite http://www.wollmux.net/wiki/Hauptseite Also they switched from OpenOffice to LibreOffice
- mkesper 13y ago
  English description of WollMux: http://code.google.com/p/wollmux/ http://code.google.com/p/wollmux/ In short: OpenOffice.org plugin with enhanced template, form, and autotext functionality.
- skriticos2 13y ago
  Since when was 10.10 an LTS release? 10.04 was an LTS release and 12.04 was an LTS release. All in between were intermediate releases. 10.10 is an 18 month support release, which long passed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases#Version_timeline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubuntu_releases#Version... 10.04 and 12.04 are the only ones with current support.
  - drill_sarge 13y ago
    sorry, meant 10.04
mkesper 13y ago
10 years is no short timespan to survive in politically influenced arena.

wxm 13y ago

Great to see this project being completed after almost ten years. Several similar projects in Germany have failed (e.g. the parliament's attempt to converting to Linux) or Wienux in Vienna (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wienux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wienux). IMO, a major reason for the success of LiMux was the gradual change with extensive training and that the included developing custom templates and generators for Open Office etc. For a timeline on the project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux

pary 13y ago

some more detailed info, and lot of comments http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-steve-ballmer-and-kicked-microsoft-out-of-the-city/ http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-stev...

MichaelApproved 13y ago
A lot of comments but they done seem to be of high quality.