Open source software in public institutions

Open Source - software (abbreviated OSS) and free software , often with Linux as the core component, is an alternative for proprietary use software on computers in public facilities. The city of Munich , which had been converting essential areas of its EDP to free software since 2003 , gave up this project again after a city council decision in 2017 (see LiMux ) , achieved greater media presence on this development . Smaller municipalities (such as Schwäbisch Hall ) or authorities such as courts or the US Army switched larger parts of their IT infrastructure to OSS. According to a 2005 survey by Maastricht University , 49% of all public administrations in Europe use free software . But usually on a smaller scale and sometimes without it aware to be.

Reasons for the switch

The reasons that the public institutions themselves give for a migration to OSS can be of various kinds: Most of the time, old, existing applications and operating systems have to be replaced. The motives for choosing free software can be summarized in the following points, which are to be weighted differently in each individual case:

Independence from a manufacturer

Dependency on a single manufacturer, also known as the lock-in effect , is often cited as a main reason for switching to free software. In addition to the more difficult price negotiations, these dependencies often prevent the desired interoperability and standard conformity of software products. A Planned obsolescence of a software product borne by the user, as with proprietary software usually is excluded with Free Software.

Cost savings

Another reason for choosing free software can be the desire for cost savings in software licenses , which typically account for 5–20% of total IT spending. With proprietary software, licenses for regular (security) updates, migration to these new versions and user training are a recurring cost factor. It is possible for manufacturers of proprietary software to charge almost any price once a market-dominating position has been achieved and de facto standards have been set ( lock-in effect ). IT solutions from the field of free software offer a widening of the range of products that is desirable from a market economy perspective. Switching to another provider also opens up the possibility of negotiating lower prices for the next migration or additional software products. Since more and more public institutions are using free software, providers of proprietary software have also come under greater price pressure. However, cost savings should not be the sole motivation for a switch to Free Software, as this advantage can be quickly eaten up by migration imponderables or, according to the “ Total Cost of Ownership ”, hardly exists or does not exist at all.

Maximum flexibility

One advantage is the free availability of the source code . This would allow a software product to be adapted to the respective requirements, e.g. For example, even if the original product provider is no longer available or the product line has expired. A common approach when migrating public institutions is to take an existing Linux distribution as a basis and adapt it so that it fulfills a specified specification . However, splitting off your own distribution (called a fork ) from an existing one has the disadvantage that you lose the simple and direct upgrade support of the original distribution ( loss of compatibility ). Maintaining your own distribution is associated with considerable effort, which in the long term can also prove to be too great. Other methods are either to integrate the adapted software components into the original distribution, which is not always useful or possible, or to develop them further as additional packages from the actual operating system distribution.

Hardware platform independence

Free software also facilitates the operation of an inhomogeneous IT hardware infrastructure, as it is often written on a platform-independent basis. For example, Linux as the operating system supports very different hardware platforms , which can be a great advantage after the merging of facilities if they had previously used different architectures. Linux can be ported to almost any computer architecture .

safety

Although the manufacturers of proprietary software also make efforts to make their products secure, the customer, but also potential malware developers, often do not know the real weak points ( security through obscurity ). If the manufacturer of proprietary software products ends their support, security gaps that cannot be closed over time will also arise, and the customer will be forced to upgrade to a successor product, which is usually subject to a fee. In the case of free software, anyone can view the source code, check it for errors and correct it if necessary, which is why the EU, for example, recommends promoting OSS. As a result, security holes can be recognized by the global programmer and user community and often closed quickly. Due to its origin as a UNIX-like multi-user operating system , Linux also has a comprehensive and deeply integrated security concept. For this reason, too, there are hardly any viruses , worms and Trojans for Linux, although it would certainly be interesting and profitable for cyber criminals to infect the numerous Linux-based servers.

Another security aspect, particularly relevant for state secret service or military authorities, which speaks in favor of open source Free Software, is verifiability for backdoors and other deliberately introduced mechanisms that could be used for political or economic espionage purposes. For example, Microsoft, as a provider of non-open source software, has problems refuting recurring rumors about NSA backdoors in their operating systems because disclosure of the source code is not an option for Microsoft.

Business promotion

Local programmers or companies are involved in many free software projects. The majority of proprietary software products are still developed in North America. That is why European, South American or Asian authorities like to promote the local software industry by using free software and supporting its further development. If an external service provider is called in for the migration , a local company can also be taken into account.

Risks and challenges of switching

Lack of availability of applications

Specific specialist applications as well as some common office software applications (e.g. Adobe Photoshop ) are only available for a few platforms (primarily Windows and macOS ) (lack of interoperability / lock-in effect ). This can make it difficult to switch to other operating systems. While larger administrations such as that of the City of Munich or the Swiss Federal Supreme Court theoretically have the critical size to have their own specialist applications developed or to switch to alternative software, this is not always possible in an economically justifiable framework for smaller organizations. Organizations that rely on commercial Unix systems such as OS X, Solaris or other commercial operating systems such as OpenVMS or OS / 2 (eComStation) are also affected by this problem . There were therefore migration projects in which a back migration to common Microsoft products was decided after a short time, even if this increased the costs.

Cost shifts

Also because open source is equated with free in the public perception , the financial complexity and effort of a migration are often underestimated. On the one hand, savings in license costs, which only make up part of the IT costs, are misjudged. On the other hand, the effort for adjustments or the often necessary new creation of specialist applications must be taken into account. The support costs of an individual, proprietary solution are sometimes higher than when using a proprietary solution, in which the costs for support and further development by a commercial software manufacturer are factored in from the outset. Incorrect estimates can make budgeting for migration projects more difficult. If cost overruns occur as a result, political decision-makers sometimes have to consider the question: " OSS versus commercial software. " In individual cases, this has already resulted in a complete departure from OSS.

complexity

The migration effort (time, infrastructure upgrades, etc.) is partially misjudged: Very few software packages - any commercial, open source - are fully interchangeable (eg. Microsoft Office - macros and OpenOffice macros). Complex specialist applications often have to be adapted to operational processes and user habits, which is why a complex and time-consuming migration process may be necessary despite the availability of alternative, functionally equivalent open source products - as is the case with commercial software. For these reasons, the migration process in the Munich city administration took about ten years. Even though commercial migration projects often fail because of the challenge of underestimated complexity, this complexity is often overlooked in the public and in politics and the errors are looked for in the OSS approach alone. Conversion projects in cooperation with Microsoft, such as at Dataport , often have similarly long runtimes: In Hamburg, even after ten years, it was still not possible to convert all 31,500 internal workstations to a uniform operating system.

Operating costs of individualized solutions

One of the strengths of OSS, that it can be adapted to specific needs (e.g. those of a public institution), can turn into a financial risk compared to a proprietary commercial “off-the-shelf” solution. The maintenance and further development of your own, individualized software solutions always causes higher costs. In the otherwise common development model for proprietary commercial software, this effort is taken over by the manufacturer, who can pass the costs on to several customers and thus be cost-effective. Therefore, the operating costs of a customized OSS solution can be higher, even if the migration costs were lower. The less an OSS solution available on the market is customized, the lower the subsequent operating costs will be. For these reasons, some migration projects switched after some time from a Linux distribution that they initially maintained themselves to one of the distributions already established on the market or to a widespread commercial solution.

User acceptance

Although migrations from and to commercial software products can be accompanied by poor user acceptance, this can be particularly the case with migration to OSS for several reasons: On the one hand, OSS products sometimes have an image problem in public. It is believed that "free" products per se cannot compete with commercial solutions. Lack of public presence of OSS products, etc. a. due to lower marketing budgets, leads to the perception that it is less mature than commercial software. Coupled with a fundamentally critical attitude of the user towards every change, this can lead to a strong rejection of OSS solutions. If the existing software is still used in parallel with the OSS during the transition period, the migration is often never actually carried out in practice. Users feel left out if they have built up a great deal of know-how with existing software and can no longer use it, for which the open source orientation alone is subsequently made responsible. Involving users as early as possible, intensive training, good support during the transition and, above all, project planning that is aware of this problem can significantly increase user acceptance.

Implementation and migration

Normally, the technical conversion of the software infrastructure is not the greatest expense item. In order to achieve user acceptance ( acceptance test ), it is important to record and map all processes and structures in a company so that they can be mapped in the new technical structures. This also serves the purpose that the built-up know-how of the users can be further used in their work area with regard to the processes and structures. The preparatory work of the structure and process recording, which can take several years, must also be done when changing from one proprietary system to another proprietary system. Before you can replace existing software, you need to know which processes have been implemented in it. If isolated solutions have been established over the years due to a lack of functionality , they must first be tracked down and understood. Then additional interfaces may have to be defined or an integration planned. There are usually numerous questions relating to data security and data protection to be clarified in public institutions . For example, not every department should be able to read the data of another; other data may only be stored for a limited period of time.

An existing Linux distribution usually serves as the basis for developing the new software environment. This is supplemented with the necessary application software and changed so that it covers all defined needs. Once the programming and configuration work has been completed (for the most part), a test or pilot phase with a small number of users follows. If no major problems arise , the rollout to the users follows . This can be done for thousands of workstations on a weekend if the hardware requirements are met, or spread over several years, staggered according to functions or departments. Before or shortly after the workstations are converted, end users must be trained in order to find their way around new desktop interfaces such as KDE or Gnome . Another focus of the training is mostly on the applications that are necessary for operational processes. From the time the new Linux environment is used in day-to-day business, further support is important. The feedback received from the users can result in further optimizations.

Once the migration is complete, there is often a new distribution. This can be published or integrated into an existing distribution. In this way, the distribution that served as the basis receives new functions and can be qualitatively improved. It is not uncommon for a distribution developed by a public institution to serve as the basis for the migration of another public institution. Sometimes a distribution developed in this way can be adopted without changes, since, for example, many offices have very similar demands on their IT.

Examples of migration projects

Worldwide there are numerous examples of public institutions that have migrated to OSS and Linux. Many such projects also remain secret, as government organizations often prefer not to inform the public about the programs and systems used for reasons of security. Current or completed migration projects are listed alphabetically below:

Africa

Kenya

The following parts of this article appear since 2012 is out of date to be : What has happened since then?
Please help to research and insert the missing information .

In September 2012 the Kenyan government announced on Software Freedom Day that it wanted to convert proprietary software in public institutions to free and open source software. This is intended to save license costs on the one hand and to help make IT more available in rural areas.

South Africa

The South African social security system (SASSA) has been using SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) on its computers since 2007 . A thin client system is used. Thanks to Linux, SASSA was able to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

Asia

China, South Korea and Japan

→ Main article : Red Flag Linux

In order to counterbalance the North American supremacy in the software industry, the governments of China , South Korea and Japan have been jointly promoting the development of the Linux distribution Red Flag Linux since 1999 . Based on Red Hat Linux 9.0, the distribution is adapted for use with Asian characters. KDE and Opera are standard applications in Red Flag. Most of the development takes place in China. The companies Hewlett-Packard , Oracle , IBM , Dell , Intel , BEA Systems, Inc. , SGI , Sybase , Haier , Great Wall , TCL and others are project partners. On February 17, 2014, the South China Morning Post reported that Red Flag Linux was about to end. The reason for this is mismanagement and the low level of awareness achieved, since Red Flag Linux could not prevail over other Linux distributions either. The contracts are to be terminated and the project discontinued.

Philippines

The Philippine government had distributed at schools, where 2008 23.000 computers in Fedora Linux or Ubuntu was installed.

Pakistan

The Pakistani government has been promoting Linux in state and private projects since 2002 . This is done in the context of tremu -Programms ( T echnology Re source M obilization U nit). In general, the aim is to ensure that Pakistan does not lose touch with the digital age. There are also some successes with Linux to report in the education sector.

South Korea

The South Korean Ministry of Information and Communication has been trying since 2006 to make the switch to Linux attractive to government authorities and universities with financial incentives. The goal is to strengthen the local software industry. The Ministry for Planning and Budget has started 37 projects that include Linux.

In May 2019, the South Korean government decided to migrate the workplaces of the Ministry of Interior and Security from Windows 7 to Linux. The migration and purchase of new computers will cost around 780 billion won (580 million euros ). Nevertheless, thanks to Linux, costs should be reduced. A dependency on a single operating system should be prevented in the future.

Taiwan

The state-owned Central Trust of China (CTOC), which is responsible for the acquisition of computers in Taiwan , first ordered in 2006 that the newly acquired 120,000 computers must be Linux-compatible.

People's Republic of China

In an official notification on May 20, 2014 , the Chinese government announced that it wanted to convert 200 million computers that were still working with Windows XP to Ubuntu Kylin . The goal of this large-scale migration is to reduce the dependence on foreign manufacturers of operating systems. Migration to Windows 8 was prohibited for security reasons .

Australia and Oceania

New Zealand Ministry of Education

The Ministry of Education of the South Pacific island nation of New Zealand signed a contract with Novell in 2005 that enables all schools to replace the NetWare infrastructure they had previously used with Suse Linux across the board . The aim was not only to run the servers with Linux, but also to switch the student, teacher and administrative workstations from Windows to Linux. Thanks to Linux, New Zealand schools can reduce IT costs, increase the stability of IT systems and increase security.

Europe

Germany

State Media Center Baden-Württemberg

The State Media Center Baden-Württemberg has published a so-called Linux sample solution for server-side school use and made it available for download under the name " paedML Linux ". In 2006, 2008 and 2010 this project was awarded the Comenius seal of the Society for Education and Computer Science (Berlin). In 2012, the State Media Center placed the order for the further development of paedML Linux to Univention GmbH in Bremen , which then created a paedML Linux (new paedML Linux 6.0) based on the Univention Corporate Server @ School , which was adapted to the needs of the State Media Center and which was published in 2014. Version 7.1 will be up to date at the end of 2019.

The developer community of the free sample solution continued this under the name Linuxmuster.net .

Bavarian land surveying administration

The Bavarian Surveying Administration uses Linux in the State Office for Digitization, Broadband and Surveying and at all 51 offices for digitization, broadband and surveying. Since 2003, 2,800 workstations have been running OpenSUSE at these offices . The survey teams in the field have used the same distribution on 650 robust notebooks since 2007 . Thanks to the Linux boot and installation mechanisms, all systems can be installed and updated uniformly via remote maintenance. All these systems are operated with open source software or in-house developments. Due to the positive experience with regard to stability and service life of the hardware, this path will be continued.

Government desktop

The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) developed a Linux distribution called the Authority Desktop . The idea is to offer public administrations inexpensive and secure software solutions. Debian , KDE and OpenOffice.org served as the basis . The official desktop was available for the public to download in May 2006, but is no longer being developed and supported by the BSI.

Federal Office for Radiation Protection

The Federal Office for Radiation Protection relies on open source products such as Linux ( openSUSE ) and MySQL for the operation of the ODL measuring network . The data logger developed by the Federal Office for this purpose, the MWS3 measured value transmitter , which has an AXIS ETRAX CRIS CPU with 100  MHz , also has Linux as its operating system. Only open source products are used to publish and update the measured values ​​on the Internet. The BfS uses the Linux distribution Univention Corporate Server including Samba as central IT management and IT infrastructure management as well as for file and print services as well as DNS and DHCP server at its nine locations throughout Germany with around 950 IT workstations a.

In addition, the Federal Office for Radiation Protection relies on an open source strategy for the new development of the Integrated Measurement and Information System (IMIS3) , in which the components of the IMIS3 system are under a free license. This applies to the choice of existing software as well as to new components to be developed. The in-house developments of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection are published on GitHub .

German Bundestag

In March 2002 the Council of Elders of the German Bundestag decided to move the approximately 5,000 workstations and 100 servers of the Bundestag administration to a new operating system platform. The project was named MigOS . In the course of 2003, all workplaces in the Bundestag administration were migrated from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows XP . Confirmed by a parliamentary decision, the servers were migrated to Linux in July 2005. It is mostly Suse Professional 9.2 is used.

German Federal Employment Agency

The Federal Employment Agency has a total of 13,000 self-service places on in 2008 OpenSUSE changed. The migration took place without the involvement of an external service provider. Was replaced Windows NT 4.0 with Linux and not with a current version of Windows, because the automatic maintenance can be realized easily, the license costs much lower and security problems are easier to get a grip. Very high demands were made on the security of these self-information stations because some of them are publicly accessible. The Federal Employment Agency also uses servers with a Linux operating system.

German Foreign Office

Since 2002, the Foreign Office's strategy has been to use free software. By 2007, 230 foreign representations with a total of 11,000 jobs around the world had been migrated to Linux. The IT structures of the Federal Foreign Office are very complex, as 80% of the computers are located abroad. Around 400 notebooks owned by diplomats must be able to securely dial into the Federal Foreign Office's network at any time from anywhere in the world and with all possible technologies ( UMTS , WLAN , analog modem , ...). A Debian -based distribution was used. SINA- adequate encryption of all connections ensured security . Thanks to Linux, it was possible to reduce the costs per computer workstation to 1190 euros, previously it was more than double.

Nonetheless, a return migration was announced in 2011 in order to save costs again.

Freiburg

In June 2007, the Freiburg municipal council decided to use open standards and ODF . This resulted in the use of OpenOffice.org as an office package . The migration was never fully completed, which led to the parallel use of OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 and Microsoft Office 2000 in administration. A report prepared in 2012 doubted the further development of Apache OpenOffice, which is necessary for the administration in Freiburg, with regard to the exchange of documents and the interfaces to other applications. Therefore, on November 20, 2012, the municipal council decided to migrate all workplaces to Microsoft Office 2010.

Gummersbach

Gummersbach is a town in the Oberbergisches Kreis with around 50,000 inhabitants. Connected to the communal data center in Siegburg (Civitec), around 325 workplaces are looked after on site. Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Office XP were used on the PC-based workstations until the start of the migration , but due to the outdated PC inventory and a possible operating system change, new Microsoft licenses for the operating system and Office would have to be replaced in addition to the entire PC inventory -Products need to be procured. The administrative board therefore approved the migration from Windows to Linux desktops and the use of thin clients . The new IT architecture provides for a session to a Suse Linux terminal server cluster in the HA network to be established using Fujitsu Futro thin clients via XDMCP . Mate is used as the desktop . In addition to LibreOffice as an office suite, Open-Xchange 6 is used for e-mail and calendar management via the web frontend. In addition, the WollMux developed by the City of Munich is used in some specialist areas. Windows applications that are still required are made available to the Linux desktops by two Citrix servers that are operated under VMware. 300 jobs have thus been migrated in recent years. Only 25 workstations in the CAD area and citizen service (special additional hardware and Windows drivers required) work with Windows 7.

Isernhagen

In 2004, the city ​​of Isernhagen in Lower Saxony switched its administration to thin clients that use Linux as the operating system. The servers were not migrated to Linux. They continue to run on Novell - NetWare . The migration to Linux took place without any problems. Only in the migration to OpenOffice.org there was because of the incompatibility of VBA - macros some difficulties. Hardware costs were cut in half, and within three years 150,000 euros were saved on licenses for MS Windows and MS Office.

Cologne

The Office for Information Processing of the City of Cologne has included Linux as an option in its implementation planning since 1999. After the decision in favor of this system had been made, the city administration was able to look back on around ten years of experience in 2013: "Cologne uses OSS ... mainly for economic reasons." In the meantime, a framework contract has been concluded with an external service provider, which was most recently in April 2016 was rewritten.

Leipzig

By October 2012, 3,900 workplaces in the administration of the city of Leipzig had been migrated to OpenOffice.org . After the migration is complete, a total of 4,200 workstations will be equipped with the free office package. During the migration, the experiences of the city of Munich were used. The motivation for the migration is a lower dependence on proprietary software products.

Leonberg

The city administration of the Baden-Württemberg city of Leonberg has been migrating to Linux since 2004 in a "gentle change". The reasons for choosing Linux are: savings in the six-figure range, better functionality, increased security and independence from manufacturers.

Mannheim

The city of Mannheim converted its administration to Linux in a "gentle" migration. A total of 110 servers and 3,700 desktop computers are affected. The philosophy of the project called LiMAx is: "Open source, where possible and commercial software, where necessary." The project began in 2004. a. file storage and office communication. In addition, new solutions had to be found for more than 150 specialist applications . The Linux platform should offer the necessary flexibility and ensure freedom of choice when it comes to technical offers. IBM supported the LiMAx project as an external consultant . According to an information template for the Heidelberg municipal council, the city of Mannheim's migration was canceled at the end of 2007. Since then, the switch to established products on the market has been reversed. The reason for the departure was as follows: "Massive technical problems, instabilities and considerable disruptions in the daily workflow, which could not be resolved even through high internal and external personnel expenditure (IBM, Oracle)."

Munich

→ Main article : LiMux

Munich started implementing the plan for LiMux after the Windows NT 4.0 system had to be renewed. The company Microsoft announced the support for Windows NT 4.0. Further use would have resulted in major security gaps and problems in the area of ​​hardware support due to a lack of device drivers . After a lengthy decision-making process, including a comparison of migration scenarios based on Windows XP and Linux, the Munich city council finally decided in 2003 to convert large parts of the communal IT system to Linux. The LiMux project is being followed very closely around the world because Munich is considered a pioneer of free software in administration.

The aim was to convert around 80% of the 15,000 workstations to Linux and to equip all PC workstations with open office communication (including OpenOffice.org). The planning work was completed from 2003 to 2004. A Linux distribution specially adapted to the needs of the Munich administration, which bears the name LiMux, was derived from Debian . Since the end of 2009 they switched to an Ubuntu distribution. In July 2011 the LiMux Release 4 was launched. This is based on Ubuntu 10.04 and KDE 3.5. The development of a letter, form, template management and text module system turned out to be the most complex tasks. The resulting document template system WollMux was registered with OSOR in 2007 by the City of Munich and has been freely available since then. Due to uncertainties about software patents , the project was briefly interrupted in summer 2004. Overall, an evolutionary and phase-oriented approach was chosen: first, all PC workstations were equipped with open office communication by the end of 2009, then the main focus was on the roll-out of the Linux operating systems (LiMux client). The test phase was completed in September 2006 and the actual migration began in November 2006. All employees have been able to work with free office communication software since the end of 2009, and at the end of November 2012 the project goal of 12,000 migrated PC workstations was achieved. A total of 15,000 workstations use free software such as Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice.org and the WollMux.

According to its own information, the city of Munich was able to achieve cost savings of around 25% in the IT structure with LiMux compared to a theoretical, extrapolated IT solution based on Microsoft Windows. In February 2017, the city council decided to have a client developed based on Microsoft Windows with “standard products available on the market” instead of the open source solution by the end of 2020. At the beginning of March 2017, the responsible IT manager stated that by 2013 80 percent of the clients had been switched to LiMux and the previously known problems "never had anything to do with LiMux".

At the end of November 2017, the city council estimated the cost of returning to Microsoft products at 89 million euros.

Lower Saxony police

The police in Lower Saxony migrated almost 11,000 jobs to Linux in 2003-2004. The reasons given were lower license costs, independence from the product cycles of individual software manufacturers and an increased level of security. In addition, computers could remain in use for longer because the hardware requirements of Linux are lower and there is a noticeable increase in convenience. At the end of 2014, "based on an economic feasibility study", there were considerations about migrating back to Microsoft Windows. The background was, among other things, problems with the Lower Saxony process processing, analysis, documentation and information system Nivadis.

Lower Saxony financial administration

In the summer of 2006, the Lower Saxony financial administration migrated around 12,000 workstations from Solaris x86 to Linux. The reasons for the change were a larger range of ready-made desktop applications and better support for common hardware.

Currently (2018), however, the Lower Saxony financial administration wants to migrate the workplaces, which have now increased to 13,000, to Windows. However, open source software should continue to be used or offered in parallel.

State Education Office Schleswig-Holstein

In 1999, the Schleswig-Holstein State Education Office had a Linux-based terminal server developed for use in schools. SuSE Linux 9.1 served as the basis . The last update to version 5.1 took place in 2004.

In October 2017, the Schleswig-Holstein state government announced that it would change its course to open source in IT procurement and aim for a "complete replacement" of closed source software in the long term.

Schwäbisch Hall

The southern German city of Schwäbisch Hall was one of the first municipalities in Germany to use Free Software. As early as 1997, individual applications in the administration were consciously switched to Free Software. In 2001, the proprietary office package used had to be updated because the license expired . This was a financial problem for the small town as the hardware used at the time was too old for the new version of the Office suite. Due to positive experiences with the free software that was already in use at the time, the mayor instructed the IT department to look for free software alternatives. Schwäbisch Hall found what they were looking for at SuSE and OpenOffice.org . Today the administration and the city's own operations work almost everywhere with Linux and other open source applications. The experiences are very positive.

Rhineland-Palatinate primary schools

In 2009, a pilot project for migration to Skolelinux was started at eleven primary schools in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate . The aim is that the schools can later choose between a Linux environment and MNS + , a networked Windows-based solution.

Senator for Education and Science in Bremen

The Bremen Senator for Education and Science looks after the IT for 156 schools in the city-state with around 77,500 IT users (students, teachers and school employees) and 10,000 client systems. There are two separate IT infrastructures in the Bremen school area: the school administration network, which is closely linked to the administrative network of the city of Bremen, and the school pedagogical network. The latter provides the connection between the computers of the students and teachers. This network has been available to all schools in Bremen since 2006. The central administration of this heterogeneous network with the operating systems Windows 2000, Windows XP, macOS and Linux clients was taken over by the Linux distribution Univention Corporate Server (UCS) together with the UCS embedded software Samba 4 and the UCS component UCS @ school . Thanks to Samba 4, the network administrators have access to all Microsoft administration tools known from Active Directory as well as the possibility of administration using group policies (GPOs). UCS @ school in turn enables the teachers to perform administrative tasks such as distributing digital teaching materials, creating groups for teaching purposes, etc.

Treuchtlingen

The municipality of Treuchtlingen migrated its entire administration to open source software in 2002. The focus was on lower hardware costs through thin clients and terminal servers . The existing software products were not available for this hardware platform, which is why the administration has been working successfully with Linux, KDE , GIMP , Scribus or Inkscape since then. The telephone system runs on an Asterisk server and for web-based applications it is consistently built on a LAMP server.

France

In September 2012, French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault urged the authorities across the country to use open source software whenever possible. When evaluating new software or replacing existing software, open source products should be taken into account. The authorities should build up open source know-how and stimulate the software market by participating in open source projects. As early as April 2012, it was announced that France is investing 15 percent of IT spending in open source - and the trend is rising.

French public institutions and companies have published software themselves under a free license, e.g. B. Code Aster or Salome . The VideoLAN project was also started in France at the École Centrale Paris , even though it is now being further developed by developers from 20 countries.

French gendarmerie

France's Gendarmerie nationale is gradually migrating 72,000 workstations from Windows XP to an adapted Ubuntu variant called GendBuntu .

The project started in 2004 with the agency-wide migration from MS Office to OpenOffice.org and the conversion of the agency-internal file exchange to the OpenDocument file format. Migration to the programs Firefox , Mozilla Thunderbird , GIMP and VideoLAN followed . Subsequently, in 2008, the migration of the entire operating system was tested on an initial 5,000 computers. In 2011, the changeover to 20,000 and 2012 to 30,000 computers. GendBuntu should also be installed on the remaining computers by summer 2014.

The migration reduced IT costs by 70%. This corresponds to 7 million euros annually.

French Ministry of Culture

In order to no longer be dependent on proprietary software, 2,500 servers of the French Ministry of Culture are migrated to RHEL . Some of these were AIX systems. The reason for choosing Linux was solely the license costs and the range of services.

French Ministry of Agriculture

The 400 servers of the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries were upgraded to Mandriva Corporate Server in 2007 . The desktop computers were equipped with OpenOffice.org and Windows.

French National Assembly

In early 2007, the French National Assembly converted all of its 1,000 or so desktop computers to Ubuntu . MEPs are mostly very happy with the free software environment. Parliament wanted to achieve more control and self-determination over the software used. In addition, the goal was to provide the same range of functions at lower costs. Since September 2012, MPs have been able to choose between Windows 7 or Ubuntu or Office 2010 and / or OpenOffice on the work computers made available to them.

Paris

The city of Paris is pursuing the strategy of increasingly using Linux and Free Software. In doing so, she wants to break free of dependence on individual manufacturers. Proprietary systems are not excluded, however. More than half of the approximately 400 urban servers already ran under Linux in 2005, and numerous schools were also converted to Linux. Employees were advised to switch to free software such as OpenOffice.org.

Toulouse

Between 2011 and 2014, the administration of the city of Toulouse migrated around 90 percent of the 10,000 jobs to LibreOffice. This can save 1.8 million euros in license costs for Microsoft products every three years. The migration process cost 800,000 euros once. Around 50 percent of servers in the Toulouse region have been using Linux as their operating system since 2009 . The remaining 50 percent is split between AIX or Windows servers. Since 2009, attempts have also been made to integrate as many administrative processes as possible into web applications . When web engineering are preferably open source CMS and - frameworks used.

Great Britain

British government

The UK government is considering switching from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice or Google Docs to improve administrative efficiency and collaboration. The open OpenDocument standard is to be used in the future to " break the oligopoly of IT providers".

Birmingham

In May 2005, the City of Birmingham commissioned a study on the use of open source software for public administration. However, following a successful case study for the libraries, implementation was canceled in November 2006 after it became clear that a Windows XP-based solution would have been cheaper.

Iceland

In 2012, Iceland decided to replace Microsoft Windows with Linux (Ubuntu) in schools for cost reasons. Five out of 32 secondary schools had already migrated by March 2012. The background is a one-year project that aims to lay the foundations for the migration of all Icelandic authorities to open source software. The city of Reykjavík and the national hospital have already made major changes to open source software independently.

Italy

On August 7, 2012, a law was passed in Italy that obliges the authorities to use open source software. After the law comes into force, only software or open source products that have already been developed by the authorities may be used. Exceptions are only possible if it has been proven that no economical solution is possible with open source products.

The Piedmont region had already passed a comparable law in 2010. This was challenged before the Italian Constitutional Court because of feared distortion of competition , but declared to be legal by the court. The Apulia region issued similar rules in July 2012.

Italian military

The Italian Ministry of Defense decided to equip all 150,000 computer workstations with LibreOffice from October 2014 ; This is accompanied by the specification of the ODF document format.

South-Tirol

The public administrations in South Tyrol will gradually migrate from MS Office to LibreOffice within three years , as announced on June 20, 2013. In the state administration itself, around 7,000 computers are being upgraded and several thousand jobs are also affected in the communities and in the health sector. The aim of the migration is a cost saving of 600,000 euros in the first three years and a more flexible IT infrastructure.

Naples

The Naples City Council migrated around 2,000 computers from Windows to Linux in 2007. They were equipped with Ubuntu and OpenOffice. Even before that - between 2001 and 2002 - the city of Naples had acquired hundreds of computers on which several Microsoft products were installed without a valid license. After the license abuse became known, Microsoft threatened legal action. In order to forestall this, the city signed a contract with Microsoft in 2009 which, among other things, provided for the acquisition of current Windows and Office licenses in the amount of 700,000 euros. To protect these unintentionally made investments, it was announced in August 2014 that all workstations would migrate back to Windows.

Turin

As the city administration of Turin announced in September 2014, it plans to convert 8,300 administrative workstations from Windows XP to Linux within five years. This is intended to reduce IT costs by 20 to 40 percent. This is possible not least because the relatively old hardware can be used for longer.

Macedonia

All students in Macedonia were given computer access for every child through a project called Computers. In 2007, 20,000 computers with an Edubuntu operating system were shipped to schools across the country. With software from NComputing , which is a mixture between virtualization and a terminal server system, a total of 180,000 students can work simultaneously on one of the 20,000 computers. Thanks to this system, a workstation was only $ 70.

Netherlands

Amsterdam

Open.Amsterdam was an attempt by the municipal administration of Amsterdam to develop an open workstation system , which was abandoned after a few years of development.

Austria

Vienna

→ Main article : Wienux

The city of Vienna developed its own Linux distribution called Wienux for use in administration and municipal companies. Since 2006, 4,800 administrative employees have had the choice between Wienux and Windows 2000 . In December 2008, rumors arose that the city of Vienna's future migration plans might move away from Linux, confirmed by the migration of some departments back to Windows. But in June 2009 the Vienna City Council decided to increasingly promote Free Software in administration. A clear political confirmation of the Linux strategy is still missing.

Wienux is based on Debian and KDE , but also uses system components from Knoppix . The distribution was released under the GPL license , but has not been updated since 2005 and the official download page was taken offline in November 2008.

Poland

Jaworzno

In the municipal schools in the Polish city of Jaworzno , all computers were migrated to Linux (Ubuntu) from 2009 to 2010. The expenditure for the computer pools could be reduced by a quarter by saving license costs. In addition, older computers could remain in service, since Ubuntu can also run on weaker systems. If the schools had switched to Windows 7, they would have had to spend a lot of money on new hardware.

Lubawka

The public secondary school "Gimnazjum Zolnierzy Sybiru" (pol. "Soldiers of Siberia") in Lubawka converted its 11 computers to Linux (Ubuntu 13.04) in September 2013. The school does not have to bear any additional costs because all the software is free. With the use of Ubuntu in computer science education can, for example, to the applications GIMP or scratch to resort and through the already integrated in Ubuntu File Hosting Service Ubuntu One of the construction of its own is school network down to the structured cabling unnecessary. The computers, which were purchased in 2005 and financed by the Polish Ministry of Education, run more reliably and faster than with the Windows XP that was previously used . Another advantage is that an anti-virus program is no longer necessary. The initiative for the change was taken by a teacher at the school without the help of the Polish Ministry of Education.

Russia

In spring 2009, the Russian Ministry of Information Technology presented a plan to increase the security and independence of the state IT infrastructure. The central point of this plan is the migration of IT from public authorities and schools to open source software. Cost savings are only seen as a positive side effect. The Russian government is investing 150 million rubles (around 3.5 million euros ) to develop a Linux desktop system for the country's authorities. The migration should be completed by 2015.

Switzerland

Swiss Federal Supreme Court

The highest court in Switzerland , the Federal Supreme Court in Lausanne , will convert its computers entirely to Linux by 2011. StarOffice , Evolution and Firefox have been used since 2001 . The profitability of the migration project was proven in 2008 by an audit by KPMG . 18% of the IT costs could be saved. This corresponds to 1.8 million Swiss francs per year.

Canton of Solothurn

In 2001 the government of the canton of Solothurn decided to convert the administration's IT systems to Linux. The aim was to lower the IT costs. A customized Debian distribution with KDE is used. The project was accompanied by background noises: some offices refused to switch to Linux. Parallel operation of Windows and Linux was still necessary in 2010 because central specialist applications had not yet been ported. The IT department spoke of user-related problems. The profitability of the project was repeatedly called into question. Although the successful completion of the migration for the end of 2010 was within reach, the canton decided on September 16, 2010 to migrate all workstations to Windows 7 and Microsoft Office in 2011 . Despite 1 to 1.5 million francs lower costs per year since 2002, it was decided to migrate to Microsoft products. In an analysis, the Swiss association Wilhelm Tux came to the conclusion that "it is hardly about Linux or Windows, but about only moderate project organization, pent-up anger, delays and an unfortunate choice of mail products."

Canton of Vaud

Since 2006, the administration of the canton of Vaud has been working partially with OpenOffice and other open source applications. Open source software is also often used on server systems. Since 2007, the canton has been pursuing a long-term open source strategy that has pursued these motivations: promoting open standards for data exchange, gaining more independence from individual manufacturers and reducing IT costs. As part of this strategy, which provides for a smooth transition to open source software, the evaluation of a Linux desktop system in the administration of the city of Lausanne began at the end of 2013 .

Zurich

In 2005, the City Council of Zurich decided on an open source strategy. While Microsoft Windows is predominantly used in the client environment, RHEL is one of the standard platforms in the Hagenholz data center . At the end of 2011, a total of 174 Linux servers were operated for web servers , messaging platforms, gateways , Voice over IP and other network services. Open source applications such as Apache , MySQL or PHP are preferred.

Spain

Andalusia

Guadalinex logo

The regional government of Andalusia has had its own Linux distribution developed since 2004 called Guadalinex , which is based on Ubuntu and is used in schools, public libraries, old people's homes and so-called Guadalinfo centers . There are more than 200,000 computers running all over Andalusia with Guadalinex.

Barcelona

The city of Barcelona announced in January 2018 that it was planning a massive move to open source software that would take several years. First, Microsoft Office applications are to be gradually replaced by Firefox, OpenOffice and Open-Xchange . A switch from Windows to Ubuntu as should follow later. On a trial basis, the city administration is already operating around 1,000 systems with the Linux distribution Ubuntu.

Extremadura

LinEx logo

A local Debian variant called LinEx is being developed in southwest Spain. The Extremadura regional government is migrating all authorities to Linux with support from IBM . The aim is to become more independent of certain IT platforms, to increase security and not lose touch with the digital age. Schools, offices and hospitals use LinEx, and 200,000 LinEx CD-ROMs were distributed to the population. However, in the spring of 2012, the company's own distribution was given up. In the health and education sector, it had a large distribution, but only 1% in administration. Nevertheless, about a month later, the plan was announced to convert all administrative workstations to Linux by the end of the year. In July 2014, the Extremadura regional administration announced that 70,000 of their own desktop computers and laptops had now migrated to Linux.

Zaragoza

In Zaragoza , Spain , administration will be completely switched to a Linux desktop. With the migration to open source software, the city wants to reduce license and IT costs. Despite massive opposition from users, the project is not called into question by those responsible because technological independence and flexibility are considered more important.

The migration project started in 2007. By June 2010, 700 workstations had migrated to Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop . By November 2013, around 800 of the 3,200 workstations had been converted to Linux. In the meantime, free software such as B. Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC and LibreOffice installed. Linux does not have a replacement for all applications. For example, a CAD and an OCR application will in future be used in VirtualBox or Wine on the Linux desktop. The migration from AZ-Linux 2, which is based on OpenSuse 11.2, to AZ-Linux 12, which is based on Ubuntu 12.04, is currently in progress.

Valencian Community

The Valencia region succeeded in 2013 thanks to the use of the Linux distribution LliureX to 110,000 of their desktop computers to schools, IT costs by 36 million euros lower. LliureX is an adapted variant of Edubuntu . Microsoft Office was replaced by LibreOffice on a further 120,000 Windows computers in the administration and in the individual municipalities . This creates savings of 1.5 million euros annually. The Valencia region is actively involved in numerous open source projects.

Turkey

Pardus logo

The Turkish government decided in 2003 to develop its own Linux distribution. Pardus is created and maintained by the National Research Institute for Electronics and Cryptology (UEKAE). The aim of the Pardus project is to increase the security of military and intelligence applications. Another goal was to lower IT costs through the use of Linux in administration. The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Education are already using Pardus. Further migrations are planned in the Ministry of Health. 13,000 Pardus CD-ROMs were distributed to the population. The project's website had over 12,000 downloads as of February 2007.

North America

United States

NASA

On July 21, 2012, NASA launched a satellite called TechEdSat , whose on-board computer is equipped with a Linux system. In addition to open source software, free hardware in the form of OpenRISC processors is also used.

US aviation authority

The US National Aviation Administration ( FAA ) migrated completely to RHEL in spring 2006 . This has saved US $ 15 million in public funds. The move was completed in half the time, saving an additional $ 25 million. The FAA previously used a very expensive proprietary UNIX platform rather than Windows. With RHEL, problems with scalability could be solved, efficiency increased and the high required availability of the systems ensured. The safety of the up to 8,000 aircraft that can be in the airspace monitored by the FAA at the same time depends largely on the availability of the FFA's IT infrastructure; the authority cannot afford any errors or failures.

US Department of Energy's National Administration for Nuclear Safety

The US Department of Energy's National Administration for Nuclear Safety ( NNSA ) operates a supercomputer called Roadrunner in Los Alamos in 2008 . It achieves a performance of 1,026 Peta - FLOPS and is operated with RHEL and Fedora . The total of 19,440 processors work together to calculate the aging of radioactive substances.

US Navy

On June 8, 2012, the US Navy placed an order with the company Raytheon Intelligence and Information System for the migration of drone control systems to Linux. A computer virus attack had previously caused problems in the systems. The system change is an attempt to reduce maintenance times and to increase the security of the Northrop-Grumman-MQ-8B drone systems. The US Navy is investing 28 million US dollars over several years in a conversion to Linux. In 2012 alone, 5 million were earmarked for this.

Department of Defense

Red Hat Enterprise Linux has been selected by the United States Department of Defense as the standard platform for server-based applications, web services, databases, network security, and the like. RHEL is used in numerous places in the US Army . The Department of Defense became Red Hat's largest customer in 2005 .

South and Central America

Brazil

The Brazilian government launched a program called PC Conectado in 2005 with the aim of connecting poorer households to the Internet. Another goal was to strengthen the local hardware and software industry. The central part of PC Conectado is very affordable PC hardware, equipped with a Linux operating system that emerged from the Brazilian project Associação Software Livre (ASL).

Cuba

Nova logo

The government of Cuba sees US software products as a threat to national security because US intelligence agencies have access to Microsoft operating systems. Therefore, the Cuban state has a Linux distribution called Nova developed, which was presented in 2006. It should not only be used on government computers, but on as many computers as possible in the island republic.

Peru

Peru passed a law in 2005 banning government agencies from purchasing hardware that only runs proprietary software in order to prevent unilateral determination. Commercial products can still be purchased, but only after a thorough review with a cost analysis. More and more schools in Peru are switching to Linux.

International

In 2013, the United Space Alliance announced that it will increasingly use Linux on the notebooks in the ISS .

See also

• Linux areas of application

literature

• Thomas Renner, Michael Vetter, Sascha Rex, Holger Kett: Open Source Software: Application Potential and Profitability . Fraunhofer Institute for Labor Economics and Organization , 2005, ISBN 3-8167-7008-8 ( fraunhofer.de [PDF; 1.9 MB ]).
• Leonhard Dobusch: Windows versus Linux: Market - Organization - Path . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-16242-3 .
• Heinrich Fritzlar, Andreas Huber, Alexandra Rudl (eds.): Open Source in the Public Sector: More Flexible, Safer, Cheaper (=  Innovators Club - German Forum for Administrative Modernization ). Werner Hülsbusch Verlag, Boizenburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86488-013-1 .

Web links

• The Open Source Observatory and Repository for European public administrations. European Commission (English). 
• Competence center open source software. Federal Information Technology Center , 2019. 
• Richard Stallman : Actions Governments Can Take to Promote Free Software. In: gnu.org. 15th December 2018 .  (The focus here is free software , the focus of which is the freedom of the user, and therefore regards the values ​​of freedom and society in the area of ​​data processing as an important social, political and ethical concern.)
• Federico Heinz: Public administration needs free software. 2012 . 
• Peter Ganten: Why Germany should now rely on open source. In: Computer Week. 7th July 2017 . 
• "I think that software with open source code has long since won". In: t3n. April 8, 2019.  (Interview with Prof.Dirk Riehle).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Half of the EU offices work with free software , report on pro-linux.de, October 25, 2005.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Rishab Ayier Ghosh: Free / Libre / Open Source Software in Government - EuroOSCON ( English , PDF; 712 kB) conferences.oreillynet.com. October 18, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
3. ↑ Fernando Cassia: Open Source, the only weapon against “planned obsolescence” ( English ) theinquirer.net. March 28, 2007. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} iMPOWER Consulting Ltd: Opening the door to open source? Version 2.0 (PDF document 735kB) ( English , PDF) Open source academy. March 9, 2006. Archived from the original on December 2, 2006. Retrieved on December 1, 2011.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Byron Acohid: Linux took on Microsoft, and won big in Munich ( English ) www.usatoday.com. July 17, 2003. Retrieved October 18, 2011: " [...] Microsoft subsequently lowered its pricing to $ 31.9 million and then to $ 23.7 million - an overall 35% price cut. […] On May 28, the city council approved a more expensive proposal - $ 35.7 million - from German Linux distributor SuSE and IBM, a big Linux backer. "
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Professional authority desktop WIENUX . www.wien.gv.at. 2008. Archived from the original on December 8, 2008. Retrieved October 18, 2011: “ […] is not available for download. "
7. ↑ ^{a b c} The "Authority desktop ERPOSS4" project is out of date and is no longer supported by the BSI. ERPOSS4 - testing the use of open source software in government agencies ( Memento of 17 December 2012 at the Web archive archive.today ), BSI
8. ↑ Gijs Hillenius: EP study: “EU should finance key open source tools” ( English ) joinup.ec.europa.eu. April 22, 2015. Retrieved on November 29, 2019: " The European Union should finance initiatives that increase security and privacy of open source solutions, [...] The experts say support for open source will increase the EU's technological independence. [. ..] A second study for this committee meeting argues that the use of open source computer operating systems and applications reduces the risk of privacy intrusion by mass surveillance. "
9. ↑ Mirco Lang: https://www.heise.de/tipps-tricks/Virenschutz-unter-Linux-3885535.html. Heise Tips + Tricks, November 9, 2017, accessed on May 3, 2019 : " The benefits of anti-malware programs are hotly debated today, and from some corners of the security world there is a call to do without them completely - and do it yourself under Windows. Viruses, worms, and Trojans have never been a serious problem on Linux. Among other things, because Linux pursues a significantly better security / rights concept that simply makes it more difficult for attackers. " 
10. ^ Duncan Campbell : How NSA access was built into Windows ( English ) Telepolis . September 4, 1999. Retrieved December 3, 2011: “ Careless mistake reveals subversion of Windows by NSA. "
11. ^ J Mark Lytle: Microsoft denies NSA backdoor in Windows 7 ( English ) techradar.com. November 22, 2009. Retrieved December 3, 2011: " US National Security Agency did, however, work on the new OS "
12. ↑ ^{a b c} The week: OpenOffice in office. Heise Online, November 29, 2012, accessed December 2, 2012 . 
13. ↑ ^{a b c d} Freiburg municipal council: 10th meeting of the municipal council on November 20, 2012. (PDF; 4.2 MB) City of Freiburg im Breisgau, November 20, 2012, accessed on November 27, 2012 . 
14. ↑ Better OOXML support for Libre and OpenOffice. Heise-Open, July 18, 2012, accessed on November 28, 2012 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b} Canton of Solothurn says goodbye to Linux , Tanja Henz, www.swissitmagazine.ch, September 16, 2010
16. ^ ^{A b} Richard Thurston: Large public-sector Linux project flops ( English ) ZDNet.co.uk. November 13, 2006. Retrieved December 1, 2011: “ A publicly funded Linux project which cost UK taxpayers half-a-million pounds has flopped. "
17. ↑ ^{a b c d} Analysis of IT strategy SO IT strategy Solothurn: Analysis shows surprisingly few technical problems, www.wilhwlmtux.ch, November 1, 2010
18. ↑ Macro . LibreOffice and OpenOffice Wiki. Retrieved on December 5, 2012: “ Macros in the script language VBA (Microsoft Office), however, cannot be executed at the moment. "
19. ↑ ^{a b} Isernhagen switches to Linux , report on pro-linux.de, January 18, 2004
20. ↑ Who rules Munich: Linux or Windows? PC World (April 4, 2003)
21. ↑ VBS boss Maurer sticks to FIS Heer. NZZ-Online, August 18, 2012, accessed on November 28, 2012 . 
22. ↑ Dataport is still a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner ( Memento from December 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
23. ↑ Small written question from MPs Farid Müller and Martin Bill (GRÜNE) dated September 24, 2014 and answer from the Senate Re: Open source software in the Hamburg administration (II) ( Memento from December 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
24. ↑ ^{a b} Extremadura gives up its own Linux distribution , Heise.de (January 2, 2012)
25. ↑ ^{a b} 40,000 new Linux desktops in Spain , Heise.de (January 23, 2012)
26. ↑ ^{a b} Katherine Noyes: Pain and Suffering in Germany, or How Linux Lost to XP ( English ) LinuxInsider. March 3, 2011. Retrieved July 8, 2012: “ Although open source has demonstrated its worth, particularly on servers, the cost of adapting and extending it, for example in writing printer and scanner drivers, and of training, have proved greater than anticipated, [...] "
27. ↑ Simplification of the SAP application. (No longer available online.) ABILITA AG, archived from the original on December 9, 2012 ; Retrieved November 28, 2012 . 
28. ↑ Jens Mundhenke: Competitive Effects of Open Source Software and Open Standards on Software Markets , Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1st edition (June 5, 2007), ISBN 978-3-540-71415-6
29. ↑ ^{a b} Linux migration in Zaragoza on schedule , www.pro-linux.de, June 8, 2010
30. ↑ ^{a b} Manfred Kloiber : Hard business. Deutschlandradio , Cologne, May 26, 2012, accessed on November 27, 2012 . 
31. ↑ Fredrick Obura: Data proposal sends firms back to drawing board. Standard Digital, September 10, 2012, accessed September 15, 2012 : "" We expect the savings to be huge on implementation; the difference should be used to take IT to rural areas. " At present, most government databases and computer platforms use proprietary software provided by vendors such as Microsoft, Oracle and Cisco but which it says is more costly compared to FOSS. "The government is considering possibilities of migrating its database and other computer operations to free and open software," said the Office of the President e-government director. " 
32. ↑ SASSA cuts costs and improves service delivery in rural areas with Novell and Userful Multiplier ( Memento from February 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Homepage of the TReMU program (English) - Report on omni-ts.com, 25. June 2009
33. ↑ Eileen Yu: China's home-grown Linux OS shutters ( English ) zdnet.com. February 18, 2014. Retrieved on February 20, 2014: " Summary: Once the world's second-largest Linux distributor, Red Flag software has closed down reportedly due to mismanagement and after owing months in unpaid wages. "
34. ↑ Red Flag Linux before the end ; Pro-Linux.de, accessed on February 17, 2014
35. ↑ Linux in China Heise.de, accessed on February 20, 2014
36. ^ Rodney Gedda (Computerworld): 23,000 Linux PCs forge education revolution in Philippines. IDG Communications, January 29, 2008, accessed September 7, 2013 . 
37. ↑ Establishment of Task Force For Linux ( Memento from November 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Homepage of the TReMU program
38. ↑ South Korea: Linux Migration for Profitability ( Memento of August 23, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) - FSPA Newsletter, February 21, 2006
39. ↑ Günter Born: South Korea's government migrates from Windows 7 to Linux. Heise , May 19, 2019, accessed on May 20, 2019 . 
40. ↑ Taiwan requires Linux-compatible PCs in public tenders - message from Heise online , June 6, 2006
41. ↑ Dr. Oliver Diedrich: China bans Windows 8 on government computers. Heise online , May 20, 2014, accessed on May 20, 2014 . 
42. ↑ To: China excludes Windows 8 from government computers. Xinhua , May 20, 2014, accessed May 20, 2014 . 
43. ↑ Open Source for New Zealand's schools , report on pro-linux.de, 15. July 2005
44. ↑ Comenius EduMedia Awards 2006 - Erasmus EuroMedia Awards 2006 (PDF; 179 kB) In: Press information June 22, 2006 . Institute for Education and Media of the Society for Education and Information e. V .. p. 10 June 22, 2006. Archived from the original on April 16, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
45. ↑ Comenius EduMedia Awards 2008 for didactic multimedia products awarded in Berlin (PDF; 147 kB) In: Press release June 20, 2008 . Institute for Education and Media of the Society for Education and Information e. V .. S. 12 June 20, 2008. Archived from the original on December 20, 2014. Retrieved on November 17, 2012.
46. ↑ Comenius EduMedia Awards 2010 for exemplary ICT-based educational media awarded in Berlin (PDF; 170 kB) In: Press release June 25, 2010 . Institute for Education and Media of the Society for Education and Information e. V .. p. June 13, 2010. Retrieved November 29, 2018.
47. ^ Symposium on the further development of paedML Linux . State Media Center Baden-Württemberg. October 5, 2012. Archived from the original on March 3, 2013. Retrieved on November 17, 2012.
48. ↑ Emmerich Hernadi: Dealer day for the pedagogical IT solution paedML Linux 6.0. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: Press release. State Media Center Baden-Württemberg, June 15, 2015, archived from the original on March 21, 2016 ; accessed on June 15, 2016 . 
49. ↑ BSI - Press releases of the BSI - LinuxTag 2006: BSI publishes the authority desktop ERPOSS4. In: www.bsi.bund.de. Retrieved November 15, 2016 . 
50. ↑ BSI provides the authorities desktop for download , report on Heise online , July 3, 2004
51. ↑ ODL-Info - start page .
52. ↑ Univention: Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS): UCS with Samba 4 supports Windows workstations with a wide variety of specialist applications. In: Reference report. Univention, accessed on June 15, 2016 . 
53. ↑ Integrated measurement and information system IMIS. Federal Office for Radiation Protection, December 3, 2018, accessed on September 16, 2019 . 
54. ↑ Radioactivity Monitoring: Improved Software Development. Federal Office for Radiation Protection, January 2, 2017, accessed on September 16, 2019 . 
55. ↑ BfS - Further reports - Radioactivity monitoring: Improved software development. Retrieved February 16, 2019 . 
56. ↑ OpenBfS - Federal Office for Radiation Protection. In: GitHub.com. Retrieved September 16, 2019 . 
57. ↑ Press releases of the German Bundestag: Successful Linux conversion in the Bundestag . www.bundestag.de. September 2, 2005. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. Retrieved October 26, 2011.
58. ↑ Bundestag completes switch to Linux , report from golem.de , September 5, 2005
59. ↑ Linux in business-critical applications  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 885 kB), Federal Employment Agency  
60. ↑ heise online: Federal Employment Agency relies on Linux .
61. ↑ Linux Day 2008 opens its doors: Federal Minister Steinmeier is the patron - press releases from the German Foreign Office from May 27, 2008
62. ↑ heise online: The Federal Foreign Office saves a lot in the IT area thanks to open source .
63. ↑ Oliver Dietrich: Die Woche: No Linux in the Foreign Office . In: heise open . February 17, 2011. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
64. ^ Freiburg: Opposition to Office Migration. Heise-Open, November 16, 2012, accessed on November 27, 2012 . 
65. ↑ Freiburg switches back to MS Office. Heise-Open, November 20, 2012, accessed on November 27, 2012 . 
66. ↑ Linux migration of the city administration Gummersbach completed .
67. ↑ [1]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
68. ↑ [2]  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
69. ↑ Conclusion of a framework agreement in the Linux area  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
70. ↑ Kirsten Böge: Leipzig on course for a free office package. City of Munich, October 4, 2012, accessed on November 29, 2018 . 
71. ↑ Leonberg goes the Linux way , report on Heise online , February 19, 2004
72. ↑ Mannheim “silently” switches to Linux - report from Heise online , October 11, 2005
73. ^ City administration Mannheim: Project "LiMAx" (PDF; 1.4 MB), "Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2007"
74. ↑ ^{a b} Report on the use of open source software / systems (PDF) In: Information template for decision-making . City of Heidelberg city council information system. S. 6. June 20, 2011. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
75. ↑ LiMux project page with information about the migration .
76. ↑ "LiMux - The IT evolution of free software in Munich - preliminary study". City of Munich, 2003, accessed on July 4, 2008 . 
77. ^ Portal München Betriebs-GmbH & Co. KG: Status of the Linux migration in Munich. (PDF) In: muenchen.de. Portal München Betriebs-GmbH & Co. KG, May 2009, accessed on November 11, 2009 . 
78. ↑ WollMux main page , accessed October 1st
79. ↑ Description ( Memento from November 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
80. ↑ Munich breeds egg-laying WollMux , on www.silicon.de, accessed on October 1st
81. ↑ LiMux: Cheaper and more robust than Windows , on heise.de
82. ↑ Press and Information Office of the City of Munich: Rathausumschau - Issue 054 (PDF) pp. 12-13. March 19, 2012. Accessed on October 18, 2012: “ The current budgetary costs for the LiMux project are 11.7 million (as of the end of December 2011). In the decision of the VPA of June 16, 2010 (template no. 08-14 / V 04284), an alternative calculation of the expenses for an operational maintenance of Windows systems comparable to the scope of services of the LiMux project at that time is presented. [...] An expansion based on Windows comparable to the scope of services of the LiMux project would have resulted in costs of at least 15.52 million euros. "
83. ^ Off for LiMux: Munich city council says hello to the penguin , on heise.de, accessed on November 29, 2018
84. ↑ Munich IT manager on LiMux: "There are no major technical problems" , on heise.de, accessed on November 29, 2018
85. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Final end for LiMux: Munich city council puts the penguin in front of the door . Heise online . November 23, 2017. Accessed February 21, 2018.
86. ↑ On the hunt for criminals with Linux , report from Heise online , September 18, 2003
87. ↑ heise online: Police of Lower Saxony want Linux back to Microsoft. In: heise online. Retrieved December 18, 2016 . 
88. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Linux-Aus: Lower Saxony wants to convert almost 13,000 computers to Windows. In: heise online . July 24, 2018, accessed August 18, 2018 . 
89. ↑ Development history on www.lernnetz-sh.de (December 16, 2004)
90. ^ Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti: Schleswig-Holstein heralds farewell to Microsoft. Heise Verlag, October 3, 2017, accessed on October 3, 2017 . 
91. ↑ OpenSource in the town hall , article on the website of the city of Schwäbisch Hall
92. ↑ What is MNS +? Retrieved November 29, 2018 .  , Article on mns.bildung-rp.de
93. ^ Skolelinux for schools in Rhineland-Palatinate. In: heise online . March 16, 2009. Retrieved March 17, 2009 . 
94. ↑ Rhineland-Palatinate: Pinguin comes to the Pro-Linux school, March 16, 2009
95. ↑ Senator for Education and Science in Bremen. Univention, accessed on June 16, 2016 . 
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97. ↑ Heinz-M. Graesing: Ten years of open source in a municipal administration. LinuxTag e. V., May 23, 2012, accessed November 27, 2012 . 
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104. ^ French Ministry of Agriculture takes Linux - message from Heise online , July 4th 2007
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106. ↑ Paris loves Linux - linux-community.de, January 23, 2009
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114. ↑ Peter Judge: Birmingham begins major open source pilot ( English ) ZDNet.co.uk. May 16, 2005. Retrieved December 1, 2011: " Birmingham City Council has started a giant trial of open source software on desktops and servers, intended to determine whether open source really delivers benefits. "
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125. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Turin is switching from Windows XP to Linux. heise open, September 15, 2014, accessed on September 17, 2014 . 
126. ↑ Macedonia: Ubuntu on 180,000 virtualized school computers - report from linux-magazin.de, November 19, 2007
127. ↑ Open software Amsterdam ( nl ) amsterdam.nl. September 10, 2009. Archived from the original on September 17, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2011.
128. ↑ Vincent van Adrighem: Open Amsterdam Project . vanadrighem.eu. March 10, 2011. Archived from the original on October 19, 2011. Retrieved October 18, 2011: “ When the project FINALLY completed (it was not all tech ... there was a lot of politics as well) it was shelved because of other priorities. "
129. ↑ What about Wienux? - Report from derstandard.at, December 18, 2008
130. ↑ Martin Schindler: Vienna Linux project failed. Silicon.de, June 4, 2008, accessed October 18, 2011 . 
131. ↑ Vienna wants to strengthen open source in its own authorities - article on ubuntuusers.de, message on ubuntuusers.de, June 27, 2009
132. ↑ Vienna is committed to open source - message on golem.de , June 26, 2009
133. ↑ Linux migration in Jaworzno , Poland, www.pro-linux.de, July 15, 2009
134. ↑ One year after the Linux migration (pol.) , Www.dobreprogramy.pl June 29, 2010
135. ↑ Gimnazjum Publiczne im. 'Zolnierzy Sybiru' w Lubawce i Linux ( Polish ) Fundacja Wolnego i Otwartego Oprogramowania (FWiOO, German: Foundation of Free and Open Source Software) . September 20, 2013. Archived from the original on October 30, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
136. ↑ ^{a b} Polish high school: Linux PCs 'faster and cheaper' ( English ) European Commission as part of the “Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA)” program. November 25, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2012.
137. ↑ Russian authorities are supposed to migrate to open source , heise online, accessed: January 18, 2011
138. ↑ Russia: Switch to Open Source by 2015 , heise online, accessed: January 18, 2011
139. ↑ Swiss Federal Supreme Court - Open IT Strategy and Infrastructure (PDF; 2.1 MB) Daniel Brunner, September 21, 2009
140. ↑ Linux desktop in the canton of Solothurn ( Memento from September 28, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF, web archive; 567 kB) - from openexpo.ch
141. ↑ Solothurn's open source strategy under fire - news from inside-it.ch, May 13, 2009
142. ↑ Solothurn, you can be proud of your IT! - Matthias Stürmer, contribution of the parliamentary group Blog Digital Sustainability, July 17, 2009
143. ↑ Crash landing for Linux , Andrea Müller, www.heise.de, September 16, 2010
144. ↑ Open Source Business Alliance - OOXML filter. Open Source Business Alliance , accessed February 5, 2014 . 
145. ↑ Specification "Layout-accurate representation of OOXML documents in open source office applications". (PDF; 97.5 kB) Open Source Business Alliance, December 12, 2011, accessed on February 5, 2014 . 
146. ^ François Marthaler, Conseiller d'Etat du canton de Vaud, Chef du Département des infrastructures: OpenExpo 2008. (PDF) Canton of Vaud , March 21, 2008, accessed on February 5, 2014 (French). 
147. ↑ Markus Feilner: Linux in Lausanne: City administration tests desktop migration. In: Linux Magazine Online. Medialinx AG, November 18, 2013, accessed on February 5, 2014 . 
148. ↑ Zurich City Chancellery: Annual Report 2011 (pages 72 and 99). (PDF; 9.8 MB) City of Zurich, accessed on November 27, 2012 . 
149. ↑ DistroWatch.com: Guadalinex .
150. ↑ Fabian A. Scherschel: City of Barcelona relies on Open Source and Linux. In: Heise Open. Verlag Heinz Heise , January 17, 2018, accessed on January 19, 2018 . 
151. ↑ heise online: Extremadura is switching completely to Linux and OpenDocument .
152. ↑ MIGUEL ÁNGEL CRIADO: Extremadura abandona Linex - La Administración del PP deja de desarrollar el programa tras nueve años, pero sus ordenadores usarán software libre ( es ) publico.es. December 31, 2011. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved on November 29, 2018. (English)
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154. ↑ Tim Schürmann: Saragossa: From Open Suse to Ubuntu , Linux Magazine, November 2013
155. ↑ Why Pardus? ( Memento of July 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Homepage of the UEKAE
156. ↑ Dr. Fredrik Bruhn: Report: TechEdSat - CubeSat Technology demonstration mission featuring plug-and-play and radiation hardened electronics (English). (PDF; 1.1 MB) Space & Defense Business, ÅAC Microtec AB and CTO, AAC Microtec North America, Inc., April 20, 2012, accessed December 6, 2012 . 
157. ↑ NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 2010 (English) OpenCores ( Memento from February 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
158. ↑ Red Hat supports aviation authorities on the ground - report on pressebox.de, April 27, 2006
159. ↑ US aviation authority FAA switches to Linux - message on computerwoche.de, April 28, 2006
160. ↑ Roadrunner cracks the PetaFLOPS mark , - message on heise online , June 10, 2008
161. ↑ Roadrunner Platform Overview ( Memento from October 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 1.4 MB) - Ken Koch, NNSA, April 13, 2008
162. ↑ Report: US Navy is converting unmanned drones to Linux. Heise-Open, June 10, 2012, accessed on December 6, 2012 . 
163. ↑ Open Technology within DoD ( Memento of October 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English) - Article on linux.com, April 7, 2007
164. ↑ Red Hat wants to force business with the public sector - message on Heise online , February 3, 2005
165. ↑ Report on informationweek.com (English)
166. ↑ Cuba presents its own Linux variant - message from golem.de , November 28, 2006
167. ↑ Kuba tinkers Insel-Linux ( Memento from April 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), report from Spiegel Online , February 12, 2009
168. ↑ Peru enacts law for free software ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) - report on bundestux.de, September 26, 2005
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170. ↑ System change to ISS: Windows loses users in space, Linux wins. Spiegel, May 12, 2013, accessed May 12, 2013 .