Munich completes Linux migration after ten years

After a ten-year migration process, the city of Munich has officially completed the switch to a desktop environment based on Linux. The open source operating system now runs on 14,000 of the German city’s 15,000 desktop systems.

In 2003, the Munich board started toying with the idea of ​​moving away from Windows NT and opting for the open source operating system Linux. Initially there was some doubt and resistance among users and administrators, but the migration was continued step by step. Munich even developed its own Ubuntu-based Linux distribution called Limux. OpenOffice was chosen for most office tasks.

Munich has now completed the process. In addition, 14,000 of the 15,000 systems in 51 offices are equipped with Linux. That’s 2000 systems more than originally planned reports the EU. In total, more than 10 million euros in licensing costs would have been saved. The next step that the city council wants to take is the switch from OpenOffice to LibreOffice, the fork of OpenOffice.