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How Munich rejected Steve Ballmer and kicked Microsoft out of the
city<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
<b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/loehwz6">http://tinyurl.com/loehwz6</a> <br>
</b><br>
Munich says the move to open source has saved it more than €10m, a
claim <a
href="http://www.zdnet.com/no-microsoft-open-source-software-really-is-cheaper-insists-munich-7000010918/">contested
by Microsoft</a>, yet Hofmann says the point of making the switch
was never about money, but about freedom.<br>
<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
"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."<br>
<br>
<br>
<[Much more article, with Munich photographs, on the web
page]> <b><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://tinyurl.com/loehwz6">http://tinyurl.com/loehwz6</a> </b><br>
<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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."
<p>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.</p>
<p>"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.</p>
<p>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."</p>
<br>
Ken<br>
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