So, no real reason? Or may be MS paid someone in charge? It doesn't make any sense really.
Funnily enough, after 2004, MS moved their German HQ to Münich.
Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
21–30 of 177 posts
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#22Does anyone have some examples of the practical problems they experience using Linux, which can't easily be solved in any other way than going to Windows? It just seems odd to me given my good experience switching my fairly computer illiterate parents over to Linux previously. To be fair they presently use Mac, but I found the Linux switch a great advantage initially as I ended up with much less tech support dealing…
I've moved places from 0% Linux to around 70% Linux, but the obstacles on the road to 100% in non-tech companies are tough:
- Office VBA: OpenOffice is good enough for people who just make docs and spreadsheets, but some of the more savvy folk (usually in finance and engineering) use MS Office VBA as a development platform. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it for them.
- Old stuff: Critical sensors, HVAC systems, fuel management systems, etc. that have proprietary windows-only clients. Some work well enough in Wine, others don't.
- 3rd-party support contracts: A lot of places rent their copiers, and even though those copiers have Linux print drivers, the support that is bundled into the contract is windows-only, so you're on your own with Linux.
- AD / Group Policy Deployment: Samba4 is closer, but without windows desktops on the client-end, it's still no substitute for the one-ring-to-control-them-all nature of a bunch of windows boxes under AD, and I'm not just talking SSO.
I think the key-problem with windows is that most users--even in a lot of AD-controlled corporate settings--are full administrators. If you can drop everyone down to limited-user status, it greatly improves things. Not to Linux levels, but still a lot better.
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#23Does anyone have some examples of the practical problems they experience using Linux, which can't easily be solved in any other way than going to Windows? It just seems odd to me given my good experience switching my fairly computer illiterate parents over to Linux previously. To be fair they presently use Mac, but I found the Linux switch a great advantage initially as I ended up with much less tech support dealing…
I've moved places from 0% Linux to around 70% Linux, but the obstacles on the road to 100% in non-tech companies are tough: - Office VBA: OpenOffice is good enough for people who just make docs and spreadsheets, but some of the more savvy folk (usually in finance and engineering) use MS Office VBA as a development platform. OpenOffice just doesn't cut it for them. - Old stuff: Critical sensors, HVAC systems, fuel man…
> Critical sensors, HVAC systems, fuel management systems, etc. that have proprietary windows-only clients. Some work well enough in Wine, others don't.
No joke. Around mid 2000's worked at a scientific lab part time. We still had Windows 3.1 machines in there because measurement equipment (sensors) had older DOS based drivers. So would run the experiments then had to use floppies to shuffle results around.
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#24Does anyone have some examples of the practical problems they experience using Linux, which can't easily be solved in any other way than going to Windows? It just seems odd to me given my good experience switching my fairly computer illiterate parents over to Linux previously. To be fair they presently use Mac, but I found the Linux switch a great advantage initially as I ended up with much less tech support dealing…
I have never had a good experience docking Linux laptops to a dock with multiple monitors attached. The behaviour changes from only lighting up one monitor to hard lockups on docking or suspending or something else, depending on kernel version and whim.
Randomly the keyboard attached to the dock doesn't initialize and I need to unplug and replug.
Unreliable docking is IMO an excellent reason not to use Linux on laptops. And most people use laptops these days because of work from home optionality.
This is with a mix of Dell and Lenovo laptops with Intel display chipsets, fwiw.
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#25I was afraid this would happen when I saw they made a custom distro called LiMux. Maybe it was good in the beginning, though I doubt it given the reports I heard, but by now it must be horribly outdated. (Going to the "project site" as linked by wikipedia, I just get a blank page.)
Additionally, almost no workers will be using anything other than Windows or OS X at home. Having to find explorer or the "add column" button in libreoffice will be annoying at first, so users probably need more help to get started.
It's a sad state of popular systems remaining popular... Personally I use Linux both for ideological and practical reasons, and I recommend it to other power users and computer-related professionals (software or security people), but for users... until there are real advantages, I'm not sure I should recommend it for fear of them going "everything is wrong" when really it's functionally equivalent and they just have to re-learn where stuff is (the cost of change..).
There are exceptions, old computers mainly, but generally I recommend users stick with what they want in the desktop space. I'll just keep making remarks about privacy and modifying scripts in my OS to change whatever I want. If that doesn't trigger anything, they don't want to anyway.
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft Office is better, for not very much more $ per desktop.
Better at what? Most users just write simple letters in Word and make simple lists in Excel. I am known as an Excel power user, and Excel is better at some things than calc, but not very much. Calc is better at exporting unicode CSV, which is big news for a developer. 365 starts at $99 a year, per user. That is quite a lot in my book when you have thousands of users
> Better at what?
Mostly, better at interoperating with Microsoft Office. LibreOffice works really well, but if you need perfect metric-compatibility, or macros, then it doesn't quite suffice. Likewise for Google Docs (and additionally, Google Slides lacks numerous features desirable for building good presentations).
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#27Hm.. "At the time the report was released, the FSFE questioned why Accenture was commissioned to co-author a report assessing the use of Microsoft software, when the consultancy runs a joint venture with Microsoft called Avanade, which helps businesses implement Microsoft technologies. For its part, Accenture said it has an "independent view of the technology landscape". "At the time Munich began the move to LiMux in…
Sigh. I really miss Pud of Fucked Company. He had such a pithy way of describing companies. For example, he'd write about Accenture, and parenthetically say "pronounced ass-enter", and that summarized the situation perfectly.
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#28Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#29Does anyone have some examples of the practical problems they experience using Linux, which can't easily be solved in any other way than going to Windows? It just seems odd to me given my good experience switching my fairly computer illiterate parents over to Linux previously. To be fair they presently use Mac, but I found the Linux switch a great advantage initially as I ended up with much less tech support dealing…
I have never had a good experience docking Linux laptops to a dock with multiple monitors attached. The behaviour changes from only lighting up one monitor to hard lockups on docking or suspending or something else, depending on kernel version and whim. Randomly the keyboard attached to the dock doesn't initialize and I need to unplug and replug. Unreliable docking is IMO an excellent reason not to use Linux on lapto…
ThinkPads too?
Re: Linux pioneer Munich poised to ditch open source and return to Windows
#30Note the report on which the recommendation was based was authored by a derivative of the Big5 firm which helped Enron. (Arthur Anderson -> Accenture) Technology consultants inventing expensive "customer need" projects is nothing new.
Let's hit the real point. When MS moved it's headquarters there, they hired a whole bunch of Munich voters.