Nice! I really hope other learn from Munich and follow
On Wed, Nov 20, 2013 at 8:13 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Interesting article from TechRepublic: > > http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-steve-ballmer-and-kicked-microsoft-out-of-the-city/?tag=nl.e098&s_cid=e098&ttag=e098&ftag=TRE126e25f > [1] > > HOW MUNICH REJECTED STEVE BALLMER AND KICKED MICROSOFT OUT OF THE > CITY > > By Nick Heath [2] > > Breaking up with Microsoft is hard to do. Just > ask Peter Hofmann, the man leading the City of Munich's project to ditch > Windows and Office in favour of open source alternatives. > > The project > took close to a decade to complete, has seen the city wrestle with legal > uncertainties and earned Munich a visit from Microsoft CEO Steve > Ballmer, whose pleas to the mayor of Germany's third largest city not to > switch fell on deaf ears. > > Munich says the move to open source has > saved it more than EUR10m, a claimcontested by Microsoft [3], yet > Hofmann says the point of making the switch was never about money, but > about freedom. > > "If you are only doing a migration because you think it > saves you money there's always somebody who tells you afterwards that > you didn't calculate it properly," he said. > > > "Our main goal was to > become independent." Peter Hoffman, project lead > > "That was the > experience of a lot of open source-based projects that have failed," > Hofmann noted. They were only cost-driven and when the organisation got > more money or somebody else said 'The costs are wrong' then the main > reason for doing it had broken away. That was never the main goal within > the City of Munich. Our main goal was to become independent." > > Munich > is used to forging its own path. The city runs its own schools and is > one of the few socialist, rather than conservative governments, in > Bavaria. > > Peter Hofmann speaks about Munich's open source migration at > the Linux Tag conference in Berlin. > Image: Stefan Krempl > > Becoming > independent meant Munich freeing itself from closed, proprietary > software, more specifically the Microsoft Windows NT operating system > and the Microsoft Office suite, and a host of other locked-down > technologies the city relied on in 2002. > > The decision to ditch > Microsoft was also born of necessity. In 2002 the council knew official > support for Windows NT, the OS used on 14,000 staff machines at the > council, would soon run out. The council ordered a study of the merits > of switching to XP and Office versus a GNU/Linux OS, OpenOffice and > other free software. > > As well as being tied to Windows upgrades, Munich > faced becoming more tightly locked into the Microsoft ecosystem with > each passing year, Hofmann said. > > "Windows has developed from a pure > PC-centred operating system, like Windows 3.11 was, to a whole > infrastructure. If you're staying with Microsoft you're getting more and > more overwhelmed to update and change your whole IT infrastructure [to > fit with Microsoft]," according to Hofmann, whether that be introducing > a Microsoft Active Directory system or running a key management server. > > > > "If you're staying with Microsoft you're getting more and more > overwhelmed to update and change your whole IT infrastructure." Peter > Hoffman > > Free software was ruled the better choice by Munich's ruling > body, principally because it would free the council from dependence on > any one vendor and future-proof the council's technology stack via open > protocols, interfaces and data formats. > > The prospect of such a high > profile loss, and other organisations following Munich's lead, spurred > Microsoft to mount a last ditch campaign to win the authority back. A > senior sales executive at the time told general managers in EMEA "under > NO circumstances lose against Linux [4]." Steve Ballmer himself took > time out of a skiing holiday to make a revised offer in March 2003, > followed two months later by Microsoft knocking millions of Euros off > the price of sticking with Windows and Office. > > The lobbying failed to > change Munich's mind, and in June 2004 the council gave the go-ahead to > begin the migration from NT and Office 97/2000 to a Linux-based OS, a > custom-version of OpenOffice, as well as a variety of free software, > such as the Mozilla Firefox browser, Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client > and the Gimp photo editing software. It became known as the LiMux > project, after the name for the custom Linux OS the council was rolling > out. > > MAKING SENSE OF THE IT ZOO > > Nine years is a long time for a > desktop migration by anyone's standards, but the LiMux project was > always going to be more than a simple transition. > > Microsoft CEO Steve > Ballmer came to Munich and made the case for sticking with Microsoft > software. > Image: James Martin/CNET > > Originally planned as a soft roll > out that would be complete by 2011, the project was extended when it > became clear that the migration to free software would be more > challenging than first thought. > > The complexity came down to the way IT > was managed at Munich: twenty two different units handling IT for > different parts of the council and each with differences in the Windows > clients and other software they used, varying patch levels and no common > directory, user, system or hardware management. > > "[The council] had 22 > different units with their own IT, with totally different kinds of > systems for the networking, operating and user directories. It was all a > big zoo," said Hofmann, adding there was no detailed overview of the > hardware each user relied upon or the software they needed to do their > job. > > Without a clear picture of its IT estate, Munich found it was > taking too long to deal with unexpected problems thrown up when rolling > out LiMux. > > "If you set up an old PC with the new system you'd start > recognising 'Whoops, that isn't there or there's hardware that needs to > be reconfigured' and at that stage that's clearly too late. You have to > know what's going on before you roll it out." "We p > > > migration and the > development of our LiMux client in parallel." Peter Hoffman > > > > Munich > chose to standardise p > capturing each department's infrastructure and > requirements and for testing and release management, at the cost of > adding several years to the project's completion date. > > "That took a > large amount of time to get over these heterogeneous systems," said > Hofmann. > > A single unit was put in charge of maintaining and supporting > the LiMux client, as well as implementing and providing common tools for > user and system management. > > The nature of the project had changed, > from a desktop migration to cleaning up much of Munich's IT > infrastructure and the way it was managed - a move in keeping with the > council's motto for the project: "Quality over time". > > In spite of the > delay in completing the project, Hofmann said the authority had always > planned to take its time. > > "We never planned to carry out a big bang > migration. From the start we planned a slow migration, carrying out the > migration and the development of our LiMux client in parallel." > > Munich > focused on The IT Evolution as the logo for its custom Linux platform. > > > The time taken to complete the project is one of many reasons that > Microsoft has attacked Munich's move to LiMux. Areport criticising the > project [5], produced by HP for Microsoft, claimed the Redmond software > giant could migrate 50 to 500 desktop PCs per day if upgrading to a > Microsoft OS and office, suite compared to the eight per day it said was > being achieved under the LiMux project. > > However, by Hofmann's > reckoning, that slow and steady migration is one of the reasons the > project has largely managed to stay within its budget with minimal > disruption. The project finished within budget in October 2013, with > more than 14,800 staff migrated to using Limux and more than 15,000 to > OpenOffice. > > RETOOLING FOR LINUX > > A myriad technical challenges emerged > as Munich tried to reconfigure an infrastructure littered with > proprietary formats and protocols to play nicely with LiMux and free > software. > > Large chunks of the software used by the council were built > using Microsoft technologies. For example, a sizeable proportion of > Microsoft Office macros were written in Microsoft's programming language > Visual Basic, while other departments were tied to Internet Explorer by > a dependence on ActiveX. This preponderance of lock-in interfaces was > described as "awful" in 2010 by then deputy head of the LiMux project > Florian Schiessl. > > This screenshot of LiMux shows the major > customization that Munich has done to Ubuntu. > > As would be expected, > the council has had to shell out a chunk of change on getting > applications to work on LiMux - a custom-build of the Ubuntu flavor of > Linux - some EUR774,000 as of last year. > > At the time the migration > started, the council used about 300 common office software programs, > such as web browsers and e-mail clients, and 170 specialised apps > tailored to different roles performed by the council. These specialised > apps ranged from large-scale IT systems down to macros and templates > linked to Microsoft Office. > > Understandably, migrating these apps to > run on the LiMux OS is one of the areas where choosing LiMux over > Windows cost Munich, with the work on migrating apps to LiMux costing > EUR200,000 more than porting them to a newer version of Windows. > > > Offsetting that is the estimated EUR6.8 million savings the council > says it had made as of last year from not having to licence a new > Microsoft OS and office suite. > > The lion's share of Munich's > applications, about 90 per cent, are accessible via LiMux. Most have > been ported, while others are running as web apps, inside virtualised > containers or via terminal servers. > > A small number of apps have proven > impossible to port, make accessible or switch away from - particularly > software whose use is mandated by the German government - and have to be > run directly on Windows machines. > > While the council has weaned itself > off the majority of Microsoft technologies, Munich still experiences > friction where it rubs against proprietary software in widespread use > elsewhere. "We thought from the start we would have other organ > > > y." > Peter Hoffman > > > > One of the main complaints from Munich staff using > LiMux and OpenOffice is a > ibilities with Microsoft Office. Documents, > spreadsheets and other files display some fonts, pictures and layouts > differently in OpenOffice than in Microsoft Office, and changes to some > documents are not properly logged. > > Munich hopes to ease some of these > problems by moving all its OpenOffice users to LibreOffice, a process > which will get underway at the end of this year. Munich has worked with > other users of LibreOffice, including authorities in the German city of > Freiburg and the Austrian capital Vienna, to pay for updates to > LibreOffice that should improve interoperability with Microsoft's office > suite. > > The complexity of moving from proprietary software after years > of being a Microsoft shop might explain why more organisations haven't > followed in Munich's footsteps, and why some, like the German > municipality of Freiburg, have given up on their own shift to open > source. Last year Freiburg scrapped plans to move to OpenOffice claiming > it would have cost up to EUR250 per seat to resolve interoperability > issues. > > "We thought from the start we would have other organisations > follow us but it's really not easy," said Hofmann. > > COST > > Hofmann's > warning against justifying the jump to free software on cost alone seems > well-grounded given how hotly Microsoft has contested costings for the > programme. > > Microsoft claims that, by its estimation, the LiMux project > would have cost considerably more than Munich has said. The HP report > for Microsoft put the project's price at EUR60.6m, far more than the > EUR17m Microsoft claimed it would have cost to shift to Windows XP and a > newer version of Microsoft Office. > > Munich stands by its assertion that > it has cost the council less to drop Microsoft than it would have to > have stuck with it, and says Microsoft's figures are based on bogus > assumptions. > > The final cost will be released at the end of 2013, but > in August 2013 Munich said it had cost EUR23m to shift to LiMux and > OpenOffice. Munich says this is far less than the estimated EUR34m it > said it would have cost to upgrade to Windows 7 and newer versions of > Microsoft Office. > > Where does the truth lie? Well Munich makes a good > case for why much of the work carried out during the LiMux project would > have been necessary if the council had decided to opt for a newer > version of Windows, and how it has saved money on top. > > By choosing to > swap to LiMux and OpenOffice Munich was able to keep using its old PCs > for longer, something that Hofmann said would not have been possible if > it had chosen some of the recent versions of Microsoft Office and > Windows 7. > > Extending the lifespan of its PCs in this way had saved the > council some EUR4.6m as of last year, according to its official figures. > > > And by Munich's reckoning, the same standardisation of the council's > tech infrastructure and administration would have eventually been > necessary whatever the OS and office suite chosen, said Hofmann. > > > Training thousands of the council's staff to use a new OS and software > is another area where Munich believes the council would have faced > equivalent costs for both Microsoft and LiMux - claiming it would have > set them back EUR1.69m regardless of the system. > > "If we would have > switched to Microsoft Office, the costs for the e-learning platform > would have been the same, and the new GUI for MS Office would have > required the same amount of training," said Hofmann. > > "[In fact] the > GUI in OpenOffice is much more like MS Office 2000 than the new MS > Office GUI." > > Similarly the EUR6.1m bill for personnel to oversee the > migration process would have remained the same regardless of whether the > council moved to LiMux or a future Windows OS, in Munich's estimation. > Currently up to 18 people work at any one time work on development and > maintenance tasks relating to the operating system and office software > for LiMux and Windows. > > FREEDOM TO WORK > > While many businesses might > balk at the thought of not having a support contract to pick up the > pieces when their OS and office software goes wrong, Munich feels far > from adrift, said Hofmann. > > Victory Gate is a symbol of the City of > Munich. Its Linux migration declared victory in October 2013. > Image: > iStockphoto/tzeiler > > A team of just 25 people at Munich develop, roll > out and provide final support for the Ubuntu-based LiMux client. A > larger number of people look after the everyday administration of the > city's PCs but far fewer than the 1,000 people cited in the Microsoft/HP > report as implementing the LiMux project. > > The authority doesn't have a > support deal for the LiMux client, but instead handles support itself > with the help of various free software communities, such as those > supporting Ubuntu, KDE, LibreOffice and OpenOffice. > > "We are using the > community way of support," said Hofmann. "We are finding it to be > effective, mostly." > > The model is allowing the council to help develop > the software it uses in order that it better suit its needs. > > "If > you're only a customer with a support contract, it doesn't give you the > ability to change how things are put into Ubuntu or LibreOffice," said > Hofmann. > > "That becomes more possible when you work with the > community." "We are using the community way of support." Peter Hoffman > > > The same staff > > > the last level of support, Hofmann said, adding the > authority prizes the fr > to work out how to resolve problems on its own. > > > "We had an issue with OpenOffice in the past and a support contract > wouldn't have helped us because nobody else has this sort of problem, so > we would have had the choice to live with it or forget about it," said > Hofmann. > > Instead Munich paid a company to resolve the issue for them, > and put the patch upstream. > > "The only downside is there's no-one to > blame when things do go wrong, but what's the advantage of that?" > Hofmann said. > > WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? > > Now that the migration to > LiMux is complete, Munich plans to continue developing LiMux (the next > version is due out in summer 2014) and continue to incorporate changes > made to the Ubuntu LTS release it's based upon. The authority will also > continue to identify opportunities to migrate other apps to run on the > LiMux client so it can further reduce its Microsoft footprint. > > > Picturesque Munich is regularly ranked as one of the world's most > liveable cities. > Image: iStockphoto/Björn Kindler > > Now that Munich is > on a path to freeing itself from proprietary ties, Hofmann says he sees > no compelling reason for the authority to ever go back. > > "We saw from > the start that if you're only relying on one contributor to supply your > operating system, your office system and your infrastructure, you're > stuck with it. You have to do what your contributor tells you to. If > they say 'There's no longer support for your office version', you have > to buy and implement a new one. You're no longer able to make those > kinds of decisions by yourself." > > He is hopeful that Munich will show > other large organisations that it is possible to make the jump to free > software and, while it is a difficult and time-consuming process, making > it happen doesn't mean shutting down your IT. > > "It's the best thing you > can do. I've been asked 'How come you say you're up and running when > Microsoft says you're already dead'," he said. > > Hofmann's response: "It > is possible to do an open source migration and still have the citizens > not left alone. We're far from being dead." > > Links: > ------ > [1] > > http://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-munich-rejected-steve-ballmer-and-kicked-microsoft-out-of-the-city/?tag=nl.e098&s_cid=e098&ttag=e098&ftag=TRE126e25f > [2] > http://www.techrepublic.com/search/?q=nick%20heath > [3] > > http://www.zdnet.com/no-microsoft-open-source-software-really-is-cheaper-insists-munich-7000010918/ > [4] > > http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-07-13-microsoft-linux-munich_x.htm > [5] > > http://www.scribd.com/doc/122167337/Studie-OSS-Strategie-der-Stadt-Munchen-v1-0-Zusammenfassung >
