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German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

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Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#101

Post by johannes1234321 »

dewey wrote: post #51
lrem wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe the root issue here is that Germany has more than one city.

Both times were Munich though.

6 years ago there was an election and the conservative party and the mayor went to Windows (after Microsoft moved German headquarters from a suburb to the city) This year we had a new election now Green party leads the city council and they want to go back to Linux.

Now Hamburg, where the Green party also won big, wants to change as well. Hamburg is even more significant since Hamburg not only is Germany's second largest city (Berlin first, Munich third) but also a state, which means it has more tasks than a "pure" municipal administration like Munich, while Munich administration sees pride in being "largest municipal administration" in Germany.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#102

Post by Wh1zz »

Wh1zz wrote: post #99
xrisk wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

See general state of development/corruption for all ex-soviet countries versus the rest of the developed world.

> See general state of development/corruption for all ex-soviet countries versus the rest of the developed world.

Also, rights and stuff

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#103

Post by munchbunny »

chrisseaton wrote: post #47
remir wrote: post #43

Windows, Office and Win Server (AD) make a combo that is quite difficult to replace. But if these cities are smart, they would pool their resources together to fund common tools. All the bits and pieces are already here. What is needed is a solid package that can be deployed and maintained easily, with user friendly GUI.

What is the big deal about AD? A directory of your employees? What's so important about that? (I don't work in corporate IT I genuinely don't know.)

AD isn't just a directory. It's basically a central database that's connected to lots of useful corporate IT management tools that come out of the box with Windows:

1. Remote management of company IT assets including individual users' computers.

2. Single source of truth for single sign-on.

3. Access control and remote configuration for network servers/resources.

If you dig further, there's even more stuff that connects into AD. For example, you can use it to set up and deploy internal certificate authorities for intranet apps.

If you're using Azure AD, you can extend single sign-on into non-Microsoft web apps. It includes an implementation of zero-trust networking.

The fact that it comes out of the box and is widely used is crucial, it means that as an IT professional you have less hassle with purchasing/configuring/deploying management software, and when you move between companies you already know the tools.

I think it's a good thing that governments are considering switching to Linux, but AD/AAD is a legitimately sticky product for IT management.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#104

Post by fock »

lrem wrote: post #41
BossingAround wrote: post #34

Again? I love Germany, but I honestly can't tell whether this is an old news brought back to life, or whether it's a new story at a glance. Deja vu anyone?

I believe the root issue here is that Germany has more than one city.

and now Microsoft has to move its german HQ again ...

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#105

Post by jariel »

badRNG wrote: post #11
axegon_ wrote: post #3

Iirc, the initiative in Munich was very impressive, with public servants being taught how to file bug reports and whatnot. This is great news imo. Less spending on proprietary software, more accountability, possibly job openings for consultants. Good job Germany! I wish more countries would follow.

Many countries are currently ditching Windows in favor of home grown distros due to distrust of Microsoft. Notable examples: Currently transitioning: - Astra Linux (Russia) https://www.zdnet.com/article/russian-military-moves-closer-... - Kylin Linux? (China) https://www.techradar.com/news/china-to-ditch-all-windows-pc... - South Korea https://www.zdnet.com/article/south-koreas-government-explor... Already transition…

Those are mostly countries for which the strategic advantage of not being dependant on Windows far outweighs the other aspects.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#106

Post by LeoPanthera »

iammyIP wrote: post #89
shadowtree wrote: post #13

Does Desktop OS matter anymore? So much is running in "browsers" now, even the SpaceX astronaut controls were Electron. The cloud provider is where it's at. AWS, Azure, GCloud ... and nothing from Europe.

Yes it matters. No, the cloud provider is not where it's at. No, the SpaceX Astronaut controls aren't electron.

2 out of 3.

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9243/what-computer...

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#107

Post by warkdarrior »

INTPenis wrote: post #81
heisenbit wrote: post #15

Much more important: Schools are moving to Office 365 in a rush in face of Covid-19. There are data protection concerns but a crisis can shift priorities so it seems.

Not just schools, what scares me is that healthcare is moving to the cloud. I know from an insider that one of the largest areas of Sweden, at least one, has been moving to office365. While conscious people inside the very same organisation have been trying to prevent the move of data into the hands of a foreign company. And at the same time large telcos with a lot of government clients have also moved to office365 b…

Lots of cloud services have in-country presence, so that they actually guarantee the local (in-country) storage of data. It is similar to how IBM offers/used to offer managed services -- they have the hardware and the software, it may be on prem or in a local data center, and they manage the application offering for you.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#108

Post by lanevorockz »

axegon_ wrote: post #3

Iirc, the initiative in Munich was very impressive, with public servants being taught how to file bug reports and whatnot. This is great news imo. Less spending on proprietary software, more accountability, possibly job openings for consultants. Good job Germany! I wish more countries would follow.

Worth looking at the story in detail but Munich was migrating to Linux back in 2000s. They went back to Windows when the new mayor signed a deal with Microsoft to get their European headquarters there and change the software from Linux to Windows.

Anyways, I worked in collaboration with Munich at the time and I believe it was a great project governments should embrace open source. We already pay taxes to them, so we should own the software as well.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#109

Post by corty »

brmgb wrote: post #84
artonge wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you explain the difference with openldap ? I have never used AD, and I am satisfied by openldap, I mean once I understood how to configure it...

> I mean once I understood how to configure it... AD is a misnomer. It's not simply a directory. It not only does what OpenLDAP does but also what Kerberos does. Openldap is aweful to configure by the way. The documentation is terrible, sometimes lacking important piece of information. I remember TLS being a pain to setup. Actually I think everything having to do with authentication (PAM, OpenLDAP, Kerberos, nss) on…

OpenLDAP is just a lego piece of an actual equivalent, you would need a schema and a ton of configuration to use it as a user and authz directory. A better equivalent to AD would be FreeIPA, which is 389ds (LDAP server, similar to OpenLDAP) plus Kerberos plus OS integration and admin tools. However, the config and install part that AD has would still be separate in something like puppet.

Re: German city wants to ditch Microsoft for Linux

#110

Post by axegon_ »

xrisk wrote: post #91
axegon_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, aware of those... But... I wouldn't really use most of the countries on your list to set an example for the rest of the world, if you know what I mean...

[flagged]

Some of us come from countries which have experienced communism first hand. Been there, done that, no thanks, keep me out of it next time. As a Polish(iirc, I could be wrong) saying goes, "Capitalism is a system on the edge of a tall cliff. Communism is one step ahead."
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