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libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

blog.hartwork.org

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Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#31

Post by vasco »

ayanb wrote: post #24
wxw wrote: post #2

https://opensource.muenchen.de/sabbatical.html > The Open Source Sabbatical is intended to provide professionally qualified software developers with the opportunity to work on an open source project for a limited period of time in order to improve it. > This sabbatical is not only open to employees of the City of Munich, but also to external software developers. So cool. Congrats to Sebastian!

Thanks for highlighting. I just realized this is open to developers who aren't city employees, which is unique. A city can pay a vendor for a deliverable, but paying an outside individual to improve something the city doesn't own is interesting (to say the least)

Smells of favoritism and corruption and lack of priorities is what it does. This guy must know someone. I doubt that of everything the city of Munich depends on, an xml parser even registers as a thing that needs money. And if it did then you'd have to have given similar to so much more things already.

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#32

Post by QuantumNomad_ »

hchja wrote: post #30
weinzierl wrote: post #3

The longer background is that Christian Ude our mayor until 2014 furthered the LiMux[1] project - migrating more than 14000 PCs in public administration to Linux. He got personal visits from both Ballmer and Gates that pressured him to stay with Microsoft[2] but did not balk. Unfortunately his successor caved to Microsoft's siren song abolished LiMux and Microsoft got a nice campus in the city (they used to be at the…

Why would you want/need change when it comes to OS of choice in the public administration? If you personally prefer Linux then you should install that. Maybe I’m not understanding the impact of one over the other in this scenario or if it’s a long historical gripe thats shared between many Munich citizens?

From the linked Wikipedia article about LiMux:

> The main goal was to achieve more independence from software distributors. The decision in 2003 had two components: to get free software running on most desktops, and to buy and develop web-based and platform independent (e.g. Java-based) business applications. A core goal was to reduce reliance of Microsoft-based software stacks and fund local developers to write replacement software.

and:

> The city reported that due to the project, it had gained freedom in software decisions, increased security and saved €11.7 million (US$16 million).

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#35

Post by what-is-water »

vasco wrote: post #31
ayanb wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for highlighting. I just realized this is open to developers who aren't city employees, which is unique. A city can pay a vendor for a deliverable, but paying an outside individual to improve something the city doesn't own is interesting (to say the least)

Smells of favoritism and corruption and lack of priorities is what it does. This guy must know someone. I doubt that of everything the city of Munich depends on, an xml parser even registers as a thing that needs money. And if it did then you'd have to have given similar to so much more things already.

The 6 month open source sabbatical is something any external developers can apply to (with a specific Open Source project and an Idea what to do), and the city selects among the candidates. They do explain why they picked libexpat[1] (google translate works well enough for the site).

1: https://opensource.muenchen.de/de/software/libexpat.html#ope...

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#36

Post by tirant »

weinzierl wrote: post #3

The longer background is that Christian Ude our mayor until 2014 furthered the LiMux[1] project - migrating more than 14000 PCs in public administration to Linux. He got personal visits from both Ballmer and Gates that pressured him to stay with Microsoft[2] but did not balk. Unfortunately his successor caved to Microsoft's siren song abolished LiMux and Microsoft got a nice campus in the city (they used to be at the…

I have very little hope in Krause. He is just a populist and an opportunistic politician without much substance behind.

Personally I couldn’t care less which operating system the city chooses to use as long as it helps to save costs and increase efficiency. Bureaucracy is extremely high and ideology driven, permissions take too long to be granted and populist projects are taking money away from families and their young children (Kindergarten contributions are through the roof).

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#37

Post by schubidubiduba »

hchja wrote: post #30
weinzierl wrote: post #3

The longer background is that Christian Ude our mayor until 2014 furthered the LiMux[1] project - migrating more than 14000 PCs in public administration to Linux. He got personal visits from both Ballmer and Gates that pressured him to stay with Microsoft[2] but did not balk. Unfortunately his successor caved to Microsoft's siren song abolished LiMux and Microsoft got a nice campus in the city (they used to be at the…

Why would you want/need change when it comes to OS of choice in the public administration? If you personally prefer Linux then you should install that. Maybe I’m not understanding the impact of one over the other in this scenario or if it’s a long historical gripe thats shared between many Munich citizens?

Having your public administration be dependent on the whims of a foreign government (and yes, Microsoft is subject to whims of the US government if it comes down to it) is just a bad idea in general. And in particular since 2 years ago.

Then there's the ridiculous license costs that could be saved.

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#38

Post by codethief »

jjp wrote: post #26
dataflow wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "balk" did you instead mean "budge"? Or am I misunderstanding what you meant?

Baulk - refuse to comply

> He got personal visits from both Ballmer and Gates that pressured him to stay with Microsoft[2] but did not balk.

So he did not refuse to comply, i.e. complied? I think the parent is right: Grandparent probably meant "he did not budge".

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#39

Post by dataflow »

zachwlewis wrote: post #29
dataflow wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "balk" did you instead mean "budge"? Or am I misunderstanding what you meant?

balk is the American spelling of baulk, meaning to hesitate, stop short, or refuse to proceed due to reluctance, fear, or an obstacle. "He got personal visits from both Ballmer and Gates that pressured him to stay with Microsoft but did not balk" can be rephrased as "He was pressured by Microsoft [to stay with Windows] but that pressure did not cause him to hesitate [with switching to Linux]."

If he did not balk that means he did not refuse. Which means he complied.

What he did not do was comply/capitulate/etc.

Re: libexpat now funded by the City of Munich for up to 6 months

#40

Post by [deleted] »

codethief wrote: post #38
jjp wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baulk - refuse to comply

> He got personal visits from both Ballmer and Gates that pressured him to stay with Microsoft[2] but did not balk. So he did not refuse to comply, i.e. complied? I think the parent is right: Grandparent probably meant "he did not budge".

[deleted]
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