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The City of Munich abandons Linux for Microsoft Windows

John Obeto

Munich abandons Linux?

Seriously?

Stop the presses!

MUNICH ABANDONS LINUX!!!

Ain’t that something?

Or, as Flo would say, “Ain’t that ssssspeciallllllll?”

Isn’t it?

For years, we have been fed a lot of soup about how Linux was the way, how the “Linux Desktop“ was going to supplant Windows.

Right!

In my blog post, The Linux Desktop, posted on April 16, 2007, I scoffed at not only the idea of a Linux desktop, but of the several rags and glossies attempting to foist that abominable OS on the desktop.

Which, without a doubt, it was, and is, ill-suited for.

Yet, the madness continued, with several countries, especially those in the former Western Europe, seizing the opportunity caused by the troubles Microsoft had with the EU’s antitrust authorities as an opportunity to attempt to develop desktop and server operating system alternatives to Windows.

Yes, they liked Linux, because a) the creator was European, and b) it wasn’t American, despite UNIX being largely open source as well, and without a doubt vastly superior to ALL forms of Linux!

People, their efforts were to naught.

For a while, nary a day went by when the tech news wouldn’t have at least an article of some governmental agency in Europe jumping on the Linux bandwagon.

The largest of these was the city of Munich, in Germany.

In 2003 or thereabouts, the city of Munich – hereinafter to be referred to as simply ‘Munich’ – was a pioneer in Linux.

After being schneidered by local yum-yums into it, the city moved en masse to Linux, abandoning Microsoft Windows in a wholesale fashion. They became both the flagship, and the poster city for this nonsensical move.

Supposedly, it was to save money. However, it was the horde of open source yobs wanting to establish Silly Valley Europe that were prompting governments to act stupidly. And profiting quite handsomely from these Linux installations, thank you!

Again, I was beyond skeptical.

I could see that these efforts to create  local European open source operating systems were doomed to fail. And to do so spectacularly!

However, this obviousness escaped the powers-that-be, well steeped as they were in their ardor for the creation of a local hero OS.

In my September 22, 2007 blog post titled, The Linux Flameout: 7 Reasons, where I expatiated on an article I had read on InformationWeek.com.

To me, the most important reasons for the flameout were a) numerous incompatible distros of Linux, and b) porting issues and expenses.

Basically, that Linux was, and is, a forking mess, a very witty play on the fact that Linux had forked into so many distros

Still, no one seemed to care. Especially Munich.

A few years later however, the Swiss canton of Solothurn, another municipal Linux pioneer, having used it since 2001, decided that that they had had enough, and like Roberto Durán after that pummeling by Marvelous Marvin Hagler, screamed “No MAS”, and yanked out their Linux installs for Windows.

I asked the question, “Who’s Next?”, in my blog post Swiss Canton of Solothurn Rejects Linux, published September 22, 2010.

I then moved on, trying not to beat the issue to death. Don't tell anyone smile

Fast forward to today…

I just read that Munich, long heralded as the touchstone for both municipal and large-scale installs, will/is/might be moving back to Windows, because, get this: the savings from using free-to-acquire Linux haven’t materialized.

After 12+ years!

Well, welcome back, Kotter!

To crown it all, the second reason for this pending switch is something you and I know: users hate the efft out of it.

That second reason is no joke!

Seriously, outside of open source adherents, fans, and admins, no one – NO ONE! – likes any of the Linux UIs.

No one.

Now, unless Microsoft steps in to make the transition less financially biting, the poor people of Munich will pay the price of a transition to Windows, which is an upgrade to the abominable version – any version, actually – of Linux, that they have been using.

This financial cost will come atop the years of using a below-standard OS foisted upon them by open source clowns who wanted sold them on the free cost of the software while hiding the fact that the true costs associated with using Linux are hidden in those support contracts.

The Bottom Line
Don’t be fooled.

There is NO magic bullet.

Everything costs money.

Whenever a Linux fanboi tries to sell you their stuff, ask them where their margins are. Ask them why they are peddling it. Ask them how much their profits will be. And most of all, make sure you know what the support contracts cost.

You will find out that all in all, a Microsoft stack including Software Assurance, costs less per user than the supposedly-free Linux.

Again, don’t be fooled.

From my Wayback Posts

© 2002 – 2017, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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