Well, this is fairly big. It was a few years back that the city of Munich made a high-profile switch, and pulled away from Microsoft software, in favor of Linux for deployment on its computers.
But now, it appears that there are plans to reverse their switch to the free platform — in favor of Windows 10 by the year 2020.
That migration had cost the city over $32 million dollars and some 15,000 PCs were converted in the capital of Bavaria made the transition to an industry desktop distribution called LiMux. But now the Munich City Authority Administrative and Personnel Committee wants to reorganize the city’s IT setup.
And this has thrown Microsoft’s latest OS into the mix.
As reported, there may be a happy medium here for local administrators here, one that includes both Linux and Windows 10.
In the words of councilor Anne Hübner:
“Much of the server structure will remain as it is today. LibreOffice can also continue to be used, but we’ll allow our employees to use Microsoft products if they so wish.
I don’t think this whole LiMux-Microsoft thing should be debated on high ideologically driven emotions. In the future, whatever product fits our interests best, will be used. It will take some time to determine what’s best and what’s best may also change over time, as the digital industry and user requirements are changing fast.”
Fair enough.
However, the debate is currently raging, and apparently has caused a rift between the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Dieter Reiter of this party was elected mayor of the city in 2014.
If the city does make the decision to deploy Windows 10, the choice could prove to be quite costly. We’ll probably find out in the coming weeks which route they choose.
source:windows10update
