Re: [tlug] City of Munich switches from Linux to Windows

[Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com>]

On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 11:04 PM, Jens John <lists@example.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 26, 2017 at 10:16:45AM +0100, Christian Horn wrote:
>> - One of the technical comments which are around are that the pro-
>>   ject tried to much, in creating an own debian based distro.
>
> I cannot fathom why anybody thought this was a viable idea. RHEL and SEL
> exist for a reason; the overhead of developing and maintaining custom
> distro derivates, especially on a base as diverse as Debian where some
> packages or subsystems are of wildly varying quality (Lua support in the
> current Stable release is especially bad) and lack an enterprise QA
> process is staggering.


For what it's worth, there are now English language articles
describing the issue:

* http://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-champion-munich-will-switch-to-windows-10-in-50m-rollout/
* https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/24/munich_will_spend_about_50_million_euros_on_windows_migration/

The second link implies that 1/3 of the 30,000 users are already using
Windows (i.e., presumably that means they never switched off of
Windows during the last 15 years).  I guess if you have two sides
fighting it out, it's only a matter of time for one side to "win".  If
they receive documents from other cities in Microsoft Office format,
then you can't blame them for keeping some Windows systems.

Also, I'd be curious what the high schools and universities in Munich
and beyond use?  Does anyone know?  It's a common for Microsoft to
offer academic licenses to students.  It's great for students, but it
also means when they enter the workforce, they might be more familiar
with one system.

IMHO, if you're going to switch, you need to switch everything...and
that's hard to achieve.

Ray