Freiburg migration to open source - intended to fail?

PrzemoF

Interesting article...

"We recently saw the news that the German city of Freiburg had decided to end its open source migration and instead switch to using Microsoft products again. The rationale provided seemed curious to me - after all, at the same time the German city of Munich announced total savings amounting to €10 million from its own successful and ongoing migration."

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/12/intended-to-fail/index.htm

Johnboy1951

PrzemoF wrote: »

Interesting article...

"We recently saw the news that the German city of Freiburg had decided to end its open source migration and instead switch to using Microsoft products again. The rationale provided seemed curious to me - after all, at the same time the German city of Munich announced total savings amounting to €10 million from its own successful and ongoing migration."

http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/12/intended-to-fail/index.htm

Yep .... had a brief look at that report some time ago and came to the same conclusion.

croo

I remember about 10 years back one of the large UK councils announced they were going open source and there was a big fuss made. In the end it didn't switch and claimed it was cheaper to stay with MS.

It was speculated in the online media, at the time, that the talk of FOSS was a bargaining strategy and it got its MS licenses for practically zero - MS were so desparate to stop what might, if successful, become a trend.

There might be a great MS deal on the table to switch back!

Way back I was in an OSS IRC channel talking about the Adempiere ERP project. I chatted to a guy from Nigeria who was interested but was sure that FOSS wouldn't catch on there. Mainly because of the FREE part. Like many he understood it as "Free as in Beer" and while it often is it must not be. But to him this would make it impossible because the kicks backs are based on the price. If the price is zero then there are no kick backs... so, he maintained, people would still choose proprietary as it would offer the best return (kick-back) to those doing the selection. I imagine it's the same in many other countries too.

I saw yesterday the whitehouse has gone OSS
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/drupal-moves-into-the-white-house/
Recently, a friend was asking about a brochure website for his small business and I pointed him to drupal and did a small demo for it downloading some themes and changing the look and feel, creating and updating some articles (content). He'd come across the whitehouse news and was very impressed... that will probably carry more weight than my demo :rolleyes:


PS. I just noticed that PrzemoF posted re the whitehouse already
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056825377

PrzemoF

Good old FUD is coming back. There is nothing left up the sleeve that they are using old tricks again?

Microsoft won't release study that challenged success of Munich's Linux migration

Johnboy1951

PrzemoF wrote: »

Good old FUD is coming back. There is nothing left up the sleeve that they are using old tricks again?

Microsoft won't release study that challenged success of Munich's Linux migration

Is there no legal mechanism to force MS to publish the basis for their claims ..... or alternatively to withdraw those claims?

croo

Looks like an individual from HP sent it to the local media and HP/MS would probably claim the report was actually "leaked" and not intended for public consumption - if they did not officially publish it then, I would guess, they're not expected to defend the contents.

Johnboy1951

croo wrote: »

Looks like an individual from HP sent it to the local media and HP/MS would probably claim the report was actually "leaked" and not intended for public consumption - if they did not officially publish it then, I would guess, they're not expected to defend the contents.

It was not so much the contents I was referring to, but the MS claims which they say are based on the contents.

It does seem odd to me that a corporation can make commercial claims about their products, based on some hidden report, and not be forced to 'put up or shut up'.

croo

Perhaps I misunderstood. I thought they were making the commercial claims in a private report.. that was not officially released. Of course it might probably have "leaked" with a wink & and nod for the precise purpose it has been put to (i.e. FUD) but my point was in law they might not have to prove their contention (that their solution is cheaper) because they can claim it's a private report that was made public without their consent.

Johnboy1951

As I understood it MS claimed their solution was cheaper based on their private report ....... which they refuse to release.

I am probably misinterpreting ..... but if that is the case, I wondered if they could be forced to release the basis for their claim .. or .. withdraw the claim.

oscarBravo

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

As I understood it MS claimed their solution was cheaper based on their private report ....... which they refuse to release.

I am probably misinterpreting ..... but if that is the case, I wondered if they could be forced to release the basis for their claim .. or .. withdraw the claim.

Forced by whom, though, and on what grounds? Even if they're misrepresenting the report, that's not illegal. Dishonest, but not illegal.

Rucking_Fetard

Looking like Munich is gonna switch back.

http://www.geek.com/microsoft/10-years-later-munich-may-dump-linux-for-windows-1602234/

Johnboy1951

Rucking_Fetard wrote: »

Looking like Munich is gonna switch back.

http://www.geek.com/microsoft/10-years-later-munich-may-dump-linux-for-windows-1602234/

A comment under the article

German local authorities get a slice of the
turnover of companies based in their areas. By an amazing coincidence, Microsoft are moving their HQ to Munich in 2016. Extinguishing linux is the payback. However it must be dressed as a Linux failure to avoid embarrassment for the politicians and further MS's cause. Whether there is a crisis in Munich or the project was a success we shall never know.

Grudaire

Yeah the whole microsoft moving their HQ there is a real suspicious move...

Shows that it's definitely worth moving to Linux as Microsoft are more than willing to.. negotiate! :pac:

PrzemoF

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Lobby-Denies-the-State-of-Chile-Access-to-Free-Software-455598.shtml

"Fresh on the heels of the entire Munich and Linux debacle, another story involving Microsoft and free software has popped up across the world, in Chile. A prolific magazine from the South American country says that the powerful Microsoft lobby managed to turn around a law that would allow the authorities to use free software."

Grudaire

Jaysus.. That's a pretty fecked up law that they passed... tax breaks for paying for proprietary software!?

While I like that Bill Gates is a major philanthropist, I have to say that the money came from a pretty unethical corporation... :-(

croo

Grudaire wrote: »

That's a pretty fecked up law that they passed

we shouldn't be too judgmental however as it was Ireland that introduced the near banning of open source by way of introducing Software Patents in the EU. Near banning because while Software patents are unenforceable today, the EPO still hands them out so if the law is ever changed then overnight the most basic software ideas (such as a shopping cart) will be patented and require licensing.

Anyway, we luckily escaped but only (from memory without doing a lot of googling to remind myself) because Denmark vetoed it - and only because, according to the rumours I read, MS threaten to shut its offices there if they didn't get its way!

Grudaire

Not judgemental in the slightest croo, it just seems a bizarre thing to give tax breaks for.

Aye, we have a habit of electing some far from ideal politicians as well:-(

croo

Grudaire wrote: »

Not judgemental in the slightest croo, it just seems a bizarre thing to give tax breaks for.

All said in fun with a large tongue in cheek.

PrzemoF

"Munich city council says a review of its IT has not been triggered by staff dissatisfaction after moving from Windows to Linux on the desktop, in spite of reports to the contrary. "

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/no-munich-isnt-about-to-ditch-free-software-and-move-back-to-windows/

Manach

To borrow from Lawerence Lessig, always factor into consideration how industry lobbying effects IT matters - with an example of this from Slashdot:
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/14/08/21/1751235/microsoft-lobby-denies-the-state-of-chile-access-to-free-software