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Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

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Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#71

Post by marcosdumay »

alkonaut wrote: post #68
freehunter wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>One might as well expect productivity to increase switching away from proprietary software. I would, at least. That doesn't make any sense. What is inherent about closed-source that makes it hard to use and what is inherent about open-source that makes it easy to use? I think the important phrase here is switching away . That implies there's been a change, which brings increased training (either formal or learn-as-y…

There is such a thing as inherent productivity in the software though. Switching from one piece of software to another has a fixed cost, but switching to software that makes you more productive will help offset that cost. I agree on OO. The risk in my eyes here is that OSS (desktop) software is almost invariably less productive than proprietary software for some reason. Switching that way can make sense if you save a…

> The risk in my eyes here is that OSS (desktop) software is almost invariably less productive than proprietary software for some reason.

Well while we don't need to state reasons, there is also the risk that all proprietary software is less productive for some reason.

How do both of them weight?

The one thing that is certain is that administrative costs of prorpietary software do reduce the softwre availability, as spodek said.

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#72

Post by [deleted] »

alkonaut wrote: post #58

The costs seem to mention training and support, but not comparing productivity makes it useless. It's like arguing that you can use the Gimp rather than photoshop, which is only true until you try. The whole point of software is that it increases productivity (word processor rather than typewriter). While it may be the case that Linux and open source alternatives saves a bunch on licenses, I don't buy the argument th…

[deleted]

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#74

Post by zanny »

Already__Taken wrote: post #69
velodrome wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The initial Dell sputnik was lacking (notably small screen resolution, price, etc.). The second rev is decent: 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-4210U processor (3M Cache, up to 2.7 GHz) UBUNTU Linux 12.04 LTS (64-bit) 13.3 inch LED Backlit Touch Display with Truelife and FHD resolution (1920 x 1080) 8GB1 DDR3L at 1600MHz 128GB Solid State Drive Intel® HD Graphics 4400 3.02 lbs Dell Price $1199.99

I don't understand why you'd get this and not the cheaper exact model with windows.

Because there are few opportunities to buy a notebook without giving Microsoft a lot of money.

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#75

Post by zanny »

nmrm wrote: post #31
brudgers wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I mentioned common open source productivity software runs on Windows. That includes Gimp, Emacs etc. - not that I believe that Munich is rolling out 14000 development/graphics boxes. The comparison does not appear to be between equivalent specifications. It's assuming that Windows requires Office. That's simply false.

For most people/IT departments, dependence on Office is the only reason they hand Microsoft a dime for Windows. If you're not using Office or other Windows-only productivity software, why pay the Windows licensing fee?

Retraining costs, mostly. The crowd on HN can sometimes forget that your average computer user, even one that uses it professionally - database entry, or just using some enterprise software daily - is literally hard coded trained to click on specific buttons in specific places on Windows, with nill comprehension of what they do, and if given any alternative layout would immediately stop and be unable to function.

Why do you think Windows 8 has seen such enterprise backlash?

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#76

Post by jdong »

zanny wrote: post #74
Already__Taken wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why you'd get this and not the cheaper exact model with windows.

Because there are few opportunities to buy a notebook without giving Microsoft a lot of money.

Except you aren't giving Microsoft money while buying a Windows laptop. Nor can I see what you'd benefit from spending extra money to not give Microsoft money.

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#77

Post by jebus989 »

velodrome wrote: post #20
yoran wrote: post #3

Is 2014 the year of Linux on desktop? Joke aside, it makes me happy to see the transition from Microsoft to Linux has been a success. I remember reading the news headline when they first announced it. I wonder how many of the 22,000 government officers that use Ubuntu at work are now also using Ubuntu at home?

Honestly, it is going to take a while. The display drivers needs a lot of work (intel seems solid). Also, desktop itself needs to be super stable. Also, the software (from companies) is treated like a second-class citizen. Chrome is horrible on linux, --disable-gpu --audio-buffer-size what user is going to bother with that? I have to do all these tweaks and workarounds to get things to work. Regular users will not ha…

Sounds like you last used ubuntu in 2006?

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#79

Post by scholia »

Titanous wrote: post #14
ams6110 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the big kahunas, Exchange, Sharepoint, AD, SQL Server licenses.

And don't forget the humans that support everything.

The humans being vastly more expensive than either the software or the hardware... which is why Munich is most likely in a deep financial hole over this project, due to the huge waste of staff time

Re: Ubuntu and open source help the City of Munich save millions

#80

Post by Alupis »

chrisBob wrote: post #54

I am not at all surprised that this worked. The biggest problem for mainstream linux is poor advertising. People with limited computer knowledge are just scared of change, and honestly, if no one knows how to pronounce Ubuntu then they are probably not going to pick a computer based on it. I mostly use Windows 7 and OS X, but I have worked with Debian/Ubuntu as a casual user. Linux was much easier to work with than W…

Well, Linux is now the most commonly used general purpose OS/kernel in the world. Every Android device, every Chromebook device (plus all the regular desktops and servers).

I can't help but feel that part of Android and Chromebook's success is in part due to the users not understanding/having-to-know they're running Linux. Android and Chromebook don't even mention Linux anywhere, and users are content. I think regular Joe's have a stigma about Linux, and just abstracting that aspect away has helped adoption.

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