I guess I’ve reported about the city of Munich/Germany’s switch to Linux already some time ago. And now it finally is a title story at Tech Republic.
So many Linux, that much WOW!
Most interesting aspects for me were the reasons for the switching project by the team leader. Astonishingly enough it was not at all about money …
According to Mr. Hofmann it was about gaining independence from a proprietary infrastructure. Why try to fit into an alien infrastructure and behave accordingly to their update intervalls and service regulations when you can make up your own rules?
The story about the nearly 10 years long adoptation to Linux makes a really amusing and enlightening read. Dunno when I first heard about Munich’s struggle to escape the American overlords, but it was a looong time ago. In the meantime I heard a lot of rumours, heard about near mutinous administrative workers and about the project being put on ice … only to learn now, all of a sudden, project LiMux is alive and kickin’!
It’s probably not for the worst that it took Hofmann and team so long to reset the infrastructure of a huge municipality. They did it thoroughly, taking their time, made sure everyting worked fine before they finally pulled the lever … and flushed Microsoft down the toilet of history.
Oh, but one point of criticism about Tech republic’s article. See this:
This is exactly the reason why American journos should be banned from political commentaries worldwide. As if it would be so complicated to make the distinction between socialism and social democracy Mr. Health just put a city with over a milion residents square in the socialist camp! 😮 They are after all Bavarians, the German equivalent of Texans, and as far removed from socialism as one can imagine. One view at the political system in Germany should tell him that the social democratic party of Germany SPD in most cities even refuses to talk with the Socialist party Die Linke. Together they could maybe even be the guv’ment but they are too stupid. Now the fukn SPD is junior-partner of their former sworn enemies, the right wingers of Angela Merkel’s CDU. That’s how we roll in Germany of 2016. Our politicians are nothing but a bunch of coldblooded career party soldiers, no matter what the basis thinks about their betrayal, no matter what the party once stood for. 😦 No wonder nobody but some pensioners votes anymore.
Anyhoo, huge congratz on your newly found freedom, Munich.
[…] FREEDOM!!! […]
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I think thats why Germany is such a strong economy..
Its not had a majority Govt for years, Khol I think, but i might be wrong(again)
Therefore nothing much happens, nothing gets f&%$ed up by capitalists(well not as much as USA.:)
And they plod on very nicely \, with no major upheavals..
Quite a good place to live if you can bear the OH so complicated bureaucracy
and the need for 3 stamps on a document, just to buy a TV..(ok over exaggerated but you get my drift:)
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Ya, that’s why Germany was voted as the best country in the world in some obscure internet poll or sumsuch. Aha, here:
https://orcaflotta.wordpress.com/2016/01/23/dont-wanna-brag/
Yes, it might be because no party has the absolute majority, which forces every election winning party into a coalition. And right now it’s even a totally perverted coalition: CDU and SPD. 😮 My god, these parties couldn’t be farther apart if the world was still in order. Sozis and conservatives didn’t even look at each other’s asses, they were arch enemies. And now they are like a happily newlywed couple. It’s unbearable. And all the lobbyists reign free and the industry leaders are destroying our constitution and 99% of the population gets poorer and poorer while the industry goes from strength to strength. If you ask me, I think it’s time for a good social upheavel, if not even a revolution. But as stupid as the masses are nowadays there is always the danger of the revolution not being a socialist one but a xenophobic, right wing fascist thing. Like in the Ukraine, the most hateful state in Europe.
The bureaucracy is a good thing tho, it keeps the country together like a good glue. In times of diminishing human values, when nobody knows anymore what is acceptable behaviour the people have at least the bureaucracy as a strong pillar to lean on.
And, yes, registering all your TVs and radios is a necessary evil, since in Germany we have quite strong public broadcasters, following the model as we learned it from the BBC. And these broadcasters need funding. It’s the same here in SA: You can’t even buy a second hand TV from a thrift store without your license. Fortunately we gave our last surviving TV to our cleaner lady since that thing was only collecting dust.
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And the germans have an almost pathological hatred of bitstreams, torrents and ANY form of unlicensed ANYTHING..
Most of you tube is blocked in Germany…Good or bad thing??? who knows:)))
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Naaw, they don’t hate it, 90% don’t know what these things are. Plus Germans are afraid of breaking the law and they are cowards. Believe me, if pirating was without risks everybody would do it. But they don’t have time for that stuff anyway since they always either work or are on vacation in exotic countries.
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[…] Totally fabricated rumours brought into circulation by no one else but a Microsoft partner. From what I hear about the Munich Linux project all is going hunky dory for Munich’s city administration. […]
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[…] it a positive signal from Germany’s 3rd largest city, to switch from Windows to a customized Ubuntu-based Linux environment? We remember, don’t we? And then the sudden and unfair, needless end of the project. […]
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[…] https://orcaflotta.blog/2016/02/24/freedom/ […]
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[…] said goodbye to Microsoft, then Hello yet Again and now bid them hopefully a final goodbye. […]
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