Linux wins big over Microsoft in Munich (USA Today) [LWN.net]

Linux wins big over Microsoft in Munich (USA Today)

Posted Jul 15, 2003 10:06 UTC (Tue) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814)
Parent article: Linux wins big over Microsoft in Munich (USA Today)

First, it's really cool that they have decided to use open source software!

I have a comment though:
Quote: "Microsoft's philosophy is to change our software every five years," Strobl says. "With open-source, it is possible for us to make our own decision as to when to change our software."

That is not really true. The reason they needed to upgrade was because MS didn't support Win NT anymore. Win NT is *old* and I believe MS actually has offered support for it, far longer than most (if not all) Linux distributions are supported. Of course, with Linux, you have a choice since you have the source and so on, but still...

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Linux wins big over Microsoft in Munich (USA Today)

Posted Jul 15, 2003 15:51 UTC (Tue) by veelo (guest, #4694) [Link]

"Win NT is *old* and I believe MS actually has offered support for it, far longer
than most (if not all) Linux distributions are supported."

This is not a fair comparison, because "changing software" can be a pain and
expensive (e.g., from NT to XP) but done in a blink, painless and at virtually no
cost if you use a proper distribution (e.g., upgrading from one Debian release to an
other). In fact, the latter is considered standard system maintenance by many, and
though is has the same effect to Microsoft minds, it can not really be called
"changing software". I think that is what Strobl ment.

Linux wins big over Microsoft in Munich (USA Today)

Posted Jul 15, 2003 19:08 UTC (Tue) by pointwood (subscriber, #2814) [Link]

I think you misunderstand me.

1. I don't believe they will be using Debian, they will most likely use Suse.

2. They will want to have a support contract. Hard to get that if they use Debian, AFAIK.

3. It's not about whether it's a pain to upgrade or not, it's about whether they can decide themselves *when* to upgrade. They were forced to upgrade because NT wasn't supported anymore. Same thing happens to Suse...and Debian for that matter.

Linux wins big over Microsoft in Munich (USA Today)

Posted Jul 16, 2003 9:07 UTC (Wed) by angdraug (subscriber, #7487) [Link]

The difference with Linux is that when SuSE or Debian drop support for an old version, the City will be able to support it themselves (maybe that is why local university is involved), or find any third party to do that as long as necessary. The consideration that the City can switch to another support vendor anytime also forces SuSE and IBM into a more fair bargaining position from the very beginning. With Microsoft, there is no other place to go, and they are widely known to abuse that position.