Replacing the current almost ten thousand open source desktops by a proprietary system would increase costs by some 25 %, the Mayor shows in his response to questions from a city councilor. More specifically, a switch back to proprietary desktops would force the city to not only renew software licences but also to replace 7 500 of the current 9 600 Linux desktops in order to meet the proprietary system's hardware requirements.
“The current Linux desktop in Munich (Limux) costs the city €11.7 million”, writes the Mayor in Council Bulletin number 54, published on 19 March. “To offer a desktop similar to the LiMux desktops, on the basis of a proprietary system, would cost at least €15.52 million”, Ude adds. He continues by saying:” And that would not yet include the costs for the renewal of the licences of the proprietary software, which would add another €2.8 million every three to four years.The Linux based PCs are also far less troublesome”, Ude points out. “Since 2006 the number of malfunctions reported to the helpdesk decreased from 70 to 46 per month in the same period that the number of Linux desktops increased from 1 500 to 9 500” he concludes.
Many IT news publications reported on Munich's open source desktop costs and performance figures. Among other they said that Munich now has 10 000 PCs running Limux. The city's IT Department expects the migration to be complete in late 2012, when 12 000 PCs or 80 % of the total number, will be running Linux. They also report that Munich’s desktop is based on Ubuntu Linux and KDE. All PCs in Munich use open source office suites, web browsers, email clients and image manipulation tools.
Moreover, in the blog maintained by the Munich IT Department, the Limux team quotes one of the comments made in a news item by a German IT news site: "Even if Linux will cost more money, it's still a success! The idea is to use open source software, to be independent of IT vendors and to use open formats. That way everybody wins, because of the improved transparency, open access for all to public data, including the availability as free software this requires."
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