Floschi’s Blog

or: Why does Munich’s switch take some time?

First: This column is my personal opinion and not necessarily the one of the Municipality of Munich.

Short answer:

There is not just a technical switch from proprietary to open standards and free software, but also a general improvement and reorganization of Munich’s IT. A reorganization to centralized IT services for our linux client. Nowadays we’re doing much more than planned in 2003, to gain an efficient and sustainable IT structure, based on open standards and free software. That’s a long-term strategic objective, not just related to free software.

Long answer:

Munich’s IT diversity

Munich’s IT history is very heterogenous. Munich’s IT as faced by LiMux in 2003 consisted of 21 independent IT units, every single one responsible for its IT operation. Different grown – and locally quite optimized – processes, tools and specific trained staff. 51 IT operating locations (small and big datacenters), about 1.000 IT staff for 33.000 employees. The technical diversity is a small mirror of the world’s different IT solutions. No common directory, no common user, system or hardware management. Different tools for software distribution and system management. More than 300 apps, many of them redundant, e.g. using Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Fusion etc. for HTML-editing. 21 different Windows clients, different patch levels, different security concepts. This was Munich’s IT situation when LiMux started.

Realizing “digital waste exit challenges”

We did a miscalculation in the beginning, yes. We were naive. LiMux tried to offer a single linux client which fits into every different environment inside the IT units. Theoretically possible, but this would have meant to strengthen diversity and to ignore the opportunity to learn from the past. Why should every IT employee reinvent the wheel again and again, let’s cooperate!

Our adjusted goal is to do technical stuff once and benefit 21 times in the future. A linux client maintained and supported by one unit, also providing common tools for user and system management. A client fitting into a standardized IT backend infrastructure, especially directory and file service.

That’s not a matter of free vs. proprietary software, that’s a matter of efficient and economic IT organization.

We realized that in 2007, when the first departments began to use our linux client as planned before. But in other units the migration stagnated. In many cases, their technical backend structure hampered or even declined cooperation. You know that there a bugs in a big company’s proprietary DHCP implementation answering requests very strange? And other proprietary tools which could not coexist with any other software management solution, because they are not configurable?

The lack of open standards for interoperability and the domination of lock-in interfaces was awful. Really awful. You don’t realize these efforts by just depending on one single vendor, being happy with his software and tools. You know Simon Phipps “the biggest enemy of freedom are happy slaves“? I remember this statement very often when thinking about the past. A lot of digital waste we once produced we now had to get rid of. Gartner calls this “exit costs”, I think about “digital waste exit challenges”.

Change of strategy: pilots and broader IT reorganization

So we changed our strategy from 2008 onwards. At first a pilot phase EVERYWHERE, to gain information about the degree of diversity. Every unit had to establish at least 50 desktops or 10 percent of their PCs with the LiMux Basisclient. Together with its common infrastructure, allowing but not neccessarily enforcing standardization. The second step for us should be to learn, to learn, to learn and optimize. Then to finish the rollout knowing the best practises and lessons learned.

In parallel the City Council decided on a extensive reorganization project for the whole IT in process and hierarchy matter. Not directly related to LiMux, but with many points of contact, especially whenever we’re talking about technical solutions. This is ongoing and helpful for LiMux, looking to IT improvements in a broader view than just the technics.

Yes, we can! Successfull pilot phase finished in 2009

Since the end of 2009 we have proven that our LiMux Basisclient (linux client) is able to be fully integrated into this heterogenous environments. We successfully finished the pilot rollouts. In total 3,000 linux clients throughout the city; an enourmous number of linux clients. Remember, the goal was to establish pilot projects of 10% (1,500) of our desktops. We run 3,000, twice as much. First step done.

By the successful switch to the open standard “Open Document Format” (using OpenOffice.org on all desktops) we cut off the plenty lock-ins from one (business) app to one single office suite, only available for – you got it! – one single operating system. Now we are free to chose whatever we want! I blogged about this in my 2009 review.

Nowadays we are doing the planning for optimization. We know we can do the migration, so we want to be more efficient than in the proprietary world before. Let’s learn and build a better IT. Then the next years will be the rollout years in Munich.

LiMux has a long-term agenda

Yes, LiMux has a long-term agenda. We could have switched to linux clients in just a few months, giving the order to all 21 IT units to set up a linux client until end of 2008. No further specifications, no standardization and no consolidation. I’m pretty sure they would have done this excellent and then I would have published great news in 2007 or 2008 “LiMux done, Munich completely on free software”. But if we would have done this we would have ignored this big opportunity for Munich’s IT as a whole. Quality over time! Not related to free software, but neccessary for cleaning up our IT.

We never ever will be happy slaves again

I won’t excuse me for being clever and adjusting the way to achieve better goals. Digital sustainability is a long-term effort and not only a matter of Linux vs Windows. It’s not a matter for or against Microsoft. There are many vendors trying to lock you in. We learned it and do our homework. We never ever will be happy slaves again. You, too?

I hope clarifying our approach helps to understand that LiMux is more than just a technical question. We are doing our homework and invest in the future of IT openness. Successful, as proven by our ODF switch and the many linux clients we’re using every day.

Cheers,

Florian

Next weekend it’s time for FOSDEM10 in Brussels. I’ll take part and give a short lightningtalk on saturday noon.

If you want to meet me feel free to contact me here (via comment), at identi.ca, twitter or at the beer event on Friday night.

Cu in Brussels!

Last week Mitchell Baker made a short stopover at LiMux headquarters during her visit to Munich. She’s the chairperson of Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation. We invited her to have a cup of coffee with us and she agreed. Fine

Mitchell welcomed that Munich is using Firefox and Thunderbird for all of its 15,000 desktops for years now. A great achievement. The discussion was about the success of Firefox, the reasons why Thunderbird is behind the browser in popularity and the future of enterprise calendaring. During the coffee meeting the Linux-Magazin conducted a video interview, within Mitchell talks about many other topics.

After about one hour Mitchell left the relaxing coffee break to continue her Germany tour with the next stop, the Open Source Treffen München.

Mitchell Baker (Mozilla) and Karl-Heinz Schneider (CIO Munich)

Again one more year is over now and yes, it’s time to look back what has happened in 2009 in and around the LiMux project. That’s my personal look back, not neccessarily the one of the City of Munich.

There are again some rumors about LiMux’ dead here in Munich. I don’t want to comment on the origin of them, but to the responsible company: This doesn’t work out. LiMux is more alive than ever and the story goes on very well. Sure

To encounter the many rumors and anti-lobbying activities, I’m running my personal comments in this blog. And in 2009, I started an own category “LiMux questions” with the first article “Why did Munich choose free software“. Feel free to ask questions to me.

ODF as standard, OpenOffice.org everywhere

LiMux has achieved one very important goal. The open standard Open Document Format (ODF) is now Munich’s primary used internal document exchange standard, beside of PDF for non-editable documents. Congratulations to all, who made this great success happen! Our standard office workplace consists now of OpenOffice.org (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw), Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird and many other sometimes needed apps like e.g. GIMP.

This achievement is not just replacing one office software by another. Well, every workplace is migrated to OpenOffice.org, but it was an almighty effort to be able to do this switch, to get rid of many vendor lock-ins created in the past. Over 20,000 templates have been consolidated and migrated, either to templates, macros or web apps. Most of them use our self developed free software WollMux to assist our employees in the administration’s template jungle. A number of business apps had to be adapted to use ODF instead of vendor locked-in Microsoft mechanisms.

SAP is one of them, one of the apps penetrating many of our business processes, the same like in other big companies/administrations. We did some self customizations to enable the communication with OpenOffice.org. And of course, we shared our experiences (at Linuxtag, thx to Uwe Hähle). We want to publish our customizations, but at the moment the SAP company is examining the legal aspect for some months now. We’ll see, if 2010 might be a break-through.

LiMux Basisclient pilots ready

Another achievement in 2009 was the establishment of linux client pilot areas inside every of our 12 departments. This was, beside the OpenOffice.org migration, the fundamental step to increase the drive for our client migration in general during the upcoming years. Yes, these are only small areas (together with our completely migrated departmetns round about 2,500 clients), but to get them up and running is important to be able to get a closer look into the IT infrastructures, the needed business apps and their interfaces inside of every single department (which invented the wheel for its own in the past). And of course, to train the IT staff step-by-step for this technical change.

LiMux’ Community Engagement

We try to be part of as many as possible events to actively share our experiences and to show: YES, Munich can! If interested, I try to put them into LiMux’ google calendar. We also started our inofficial twitter feeds or identi.ca dents. And I upload some of our talks at planetlimux.

Important for me was the winning of the German DebConf 2011 bid, so I hope to win the global bid in March 2010 and to welcome the Debian community in Munich in 2011.

We’re also part of the Open Source Meeting, a new event created by OpenOffice.org and Mozilla in Munich, which will take place every month from 2011 and targets interested beginners and professional free software enthusiasts as well. @Florian and Carsten: good job, go on!

Of course, I have to mention our WollMux. This year we started the WollMux Roadshow together with DBI company and the Linux Solutions Group (LiSoG), including events in Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg. It’s like a promotion tour for OpenOffice.org as basis, WollMux for template management and Munich as the one bringing both together. Every event got well criticisms and we’re planning to go on next year.

Improving ODF as leading open standard was the goal of the first ODFplugfest in The Hague. I took part to get an impression of things moving in this (former) battlefield and I was amazed about the team work done there.

We’re committed to give others back our experiences after 2 years of office migration and we took part in the first OpenOffice.org congress of Economy and Administration in Wiesbaden, and we also joined the OOoCon in Orvieto later this year.

LiMux – the upcoming future

The whole project will be adapted during the next months for the final big step, the client migration in general. Some improvements and optimizations in the project structure, to learn from the past and be ready for continuing the success story.

For me there is a big change, a good one in my opinion. From 2010 on I will be responsible for just one topic: Munich’s external IT communication and relationships, especially in the field of open standards and free software. Yes, I worked on this topic also during the last years, but from now, it’s the only one I can improve in a more general view, not only with LiMux as focus. Interesting times ahead for me

And now finally…

I’d like to thank all of my team members, all of our partners, thanks to everyone giving us feedback and helping us by writing free software!

Thank you all and see you next year!

Florian

Wow. I’m back from an evening event for employees beeing absent from duty, which took place in our old city hall. Of course, topics like successful come-back, possibilities of home-work and so on were much more important for the visitors, but for me it was quite impressive that many questions asked at our LiMux booth were “how can I become familiar with OpenOffice.org or Linux at home, before starting to work again”.

There were nearly no fears about the “new” desktop software the employees would have to use after their return; they are actively willing to use free software at home, like they will do at their offices in Munich.

That’s a great achievement, on the one hand side of our project including the manifold training offerings, the communication strategy and the strong support by our management. But it’s also an earning of the many free software communities and developers, improving the look and feel and the handling of “their” software during the last years.

Would you have expected, that common people with nearly no IT background are talking about free software as a real choice? That these people want to use free software at home? Not just due to the fact that they can save license fees, but because they want to use the software their employer have chosen for reasons they also agree, like independence and freedom.

That’s imho a huge progress, but also a reminder for us not to become carelessly in the future. It’s worth working on this item

Good night.

Congratulations to Munich’s Debian local team!

Yesterday there was a hard but fair fight on which location will represent Germany in the global bid process for Debconf 11 in the next months. The choice was between two excellent locations: Berlin and Munich.

And in the end the winner was the proposal of: Munich.

The next step is now to get more in detail and prepare for the next round, the global bid. Other interested regions are Thailand and Bosnia.

If you are interested in joining the local team please feel free to contact the mailing list. At the moment we meet 18h every monday in the city center at our LiMux office.

If you’re interested to talk to us:

LiMux @ Kieler Linux Tage (Oct 2nd)

Florian Maier, lead of our Basisclient dev team, will give the keynote on Oct 2nd, 10:30am for the event Kieler Linux Tage in Kiel, the capital of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany’s north. Contact him via twitter: marsmensch.

LiMux @ Open World Forum in Paris (Oct 1st & 2nd)

I will attend the Open World Forum on Oct 1st and 2nd in Paris and I’ll be participant at the roundtable discussion about “Successful implementations around Europe” on Oct 2nd, 9 to 11 am. Afterwards I’ll visit the IDABC Community event. Contact me e.g. via identi.ca: floschi.

Feel free to meet us.

The next roadshow event on September 24th is a very special one. The WollMux is a guest of SUN Microsystems in Hamburg, the OpenOffice.org development headquarter.

The event is co-organized by the Linux Solutuions Group (LiSoG), SUN Microsystems, OpenOffice.org Deutschland e.V. and DBI company, the experts supporting Munich’s OpenOffice.org migration.

For more information have a look at these sites and please register if you’re interested to join:

• Information provided by LiSoG
• Information provided by SUN

See you in Hamburg on Thursday!

First: This column is my personal opinion and not necessarily the one of the Municipality of Munich.

OK, let’s start my FAQs with this simple question:

Why did the Municipality of Munich chose to use free software?

Short answer:

This was a political decision for independence, freedom of choice and a free market. The decision based on facts.

Long answer:

1. EOL for MS WinNT4

Microsoft company announced the end of life/support for Microsoft Windows NT4, which was widely used on the administration’s desktops. So the Municipality, like every other public authority, had to examine the next step.

2. Examining alternatives is a legal requirement

The City Council asked the administration the show alternatives. This was a demand of the german law. It’s unlawful to chose one solution or provider without examining alternatives. The administration decided to take this question serious and prepared a preliminary study together with an external consulting company.

This study examined three main factors of five different alternatives (ranging from proprietary software for operating system and office suite to free software for both, including some mixtures of both). The study answered the questions about

• Is it technical possible to use the alternative?
• How much does it cost to introduce the alternative?
• What are the strategic advantages and disadvantages of the alternative?

3. Let the politicians decide

Finally, the result was a draw of two examined alternatives. A draw in total, that means not in every detail aspect. The perfect situation to balance pros and cons, to discuss them and to focus on the things the coucil wants to stress. Great.

One of the two equal alternatives was based completely on proprietary software. This alternative had lower overall costs in the short term, but chosing this would have meant to tighten the dependencies on this proprietary software vendor. So the lower short term costs faced high long term costs. And from the strategic point of view, other products of the same vendor should have been introduced to ensure security and operation of the desktops.

The other equal alternative was based on free software. Of course, changing the architecture meant higher costs to invest in the beginning. But it was clear, that this was the only possible solution if we want to escape from the vendor lock-in.

The administration presented this draw to the members of the City Council in 2003.

4. Political decision for independence, freedom of choice and a free market

On May 26th in 2003, the City Council decided by majority of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens for the long term strategy of the administration’s desktops. The main objectives to chose this alternative were

• Increase the independence from software and hardware vendors, consultants, external timelines
  This means to get the opportunity of choices.
• Reduce the hurdles for small and medium sized companies to take part in the software market
  More competition means higher quality for lower prices for all of us. Monopolies hamper this.
• Reduce the IT costs in the long term by deciding on our own.
  Of course an investment has to be made to get rid of the vendor lock-in, the so called exit costs (Gartner). But after the change, we all benefit from the opportunities of choices.

There were two decisions. The first one knows everyone:

• Free software and open standards for the desktop operating system and the office suite.

The second isn’t known as much as the first one, but also a very important one:

• Business (legacy) applications should be procured platform open in the future.

This long term goal means learning from the past and reducing the vendor lock-in again by applications which doesn’t take care of the operating system and office suite the user uses. Communicate with open standards and don’t force the user to a specific operating system or office suite.

5. Successful verification of the decision

The City Council decided and asked the administration to examine this alternative more in detail, before spending any money. This was the detailed conception phase in 2003 and 2004. Together with another IT and consulting company the administration re-examined the chosen free software way. And the result was quite the same. So the Council decided in 2004 to start the migration and authorized the money for the two times independently estimated costs.

My personal conclusion

This shows clearly that Munich’s decision is based on facts. Facts that have been revised by two independent consulting companies, by the administration, by the office for administrative audit, by the audit court of Bavaria.

So it’s not a kamikaze mission by some crazy free software enthusiasts, as blamed to me many times (e.g. by limuxwatch, imho the Microsoft paid anti lobbyist blog). But of course, it was a political decision which had to be made in 2003 and I admire the members of the 2003 City Council for this courageous decision against all lobbying attacks. It was the right decision during a time, when many other public administrations didn’t event think about alternatives, which was completely illegal, but common these old days.

I will continue this “LiMux question” column everytime when there’s some time left. Please feel free to send me your question.

Florian

Hi everybody!

There are so many questions asked to me during my talks and most of them are the same topics. So I decided to start a column here to answer them in a unsteady way, when there’s some time left to me.

At the moment I plan to answer:

• Why Munich chose free software
• Why it takes such a long time

Please feel free to ask me questions you’re interested in. I won’t guarante to anwer them quickly, but I won’t ignore constructive-minded questions.

All will be released in the category “LiMux questions“.

Yours,

Florian