Munich completes move to linux

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: Dave Cramer <davecramer-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>

| http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/LinuxTag-LiMux-firmly-established-in-Munich-1867920.html

That article didn't seem to be a ringing endorsement of the project.  This 
could quite easily be just the way it was reported.  But there doesn't 
seem to be a slogan-sized argument in favour of the project.

On top of that, it seems to have taken 10 years since "the basic 
instruction [was] given by Munich's City Council."  I don't know how a 
political initiative can survive that long with the time horizons of 
politicians being so short.

    Hofmann said that the project has, so far, released a total of
    four new versions of the LiMux core software. In future, "we will
    switch to the next Ubuntu and LibreOffice",

That sounds like a retrenchment.  In fact, how much control does
Munich retain if it uses those packages?  Does that matter?

What were the goals and were they achieved?

What unexpected outcomes arose during the project?  Good or bad.

    He explained that the project therefore upholds its own comparative
    calculations which demonstrate that more than €10 million
    has been saved by using Linux.

That's not a lot of saving in a somewhat risky project that took 10
years.  Expressed as a percentage, it is significant.  The main cost
(staff and training costs) were listed as €22 million for
any of the three approaches).  Didn't we (City of Toronto) pay $85
million (plus the cost of 10,000 Oracle license) to MFP in the
Computer leasing scandal (more than a decade ago)?  Toronto has about
twice the population of Munich.