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Debian Software Linux

Munich Decides On Debian 59

Posted by Zonk from the home-of-lager dept.
RichiH writes "Notwithstanding the recent craze about Ubuntu and the negative effects this might have, the german city of Munich chose Debian as the base for its LiMux project. Gonicus and SoftCon are the companies who were chosen to achieve this feat. With 14,000 desktops, this is one of the largest Linux transistions ever, even prompting Microsoft's Steve Balmer to offer a rebate of 90%. Other /. coverage here here and here."
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Munich Decides On Debian More

Munich Decides On Debian

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  • Long time planning. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Short Circuit ( 52384 ) * <mikemol@gmail.com> on Thursday April 14, 2005 @09:44AM (#12233649) Homepage Journal
    This has been in the planning stage for a long time. Much as I love the almighty Penguin, I'll believe this when I see it.

    • Re:Long time planning. (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by Otter ( 3800 )
      I had exactly the same thought -- this has turned into the new "one million GNOME desktops in Mexican schools".

      It's interesting, though, how the spin has changed from "Take that, Microsoft!" to "Take that, Ubuntu!"

      • Re:Long time planning. (Score:4, Insightful)

        by xoboots ( 683791 ) on Thursday April 14, 2005 @10:29AM (#12234149) Journal
        Who says this is a "Take that, Ubuntu!" ?? Just because the submitter suggested as much with his link to that retarded "controversy" the other day? Its all just meaningless flak. No doubt Munich chose the Debian distros they did (German) for the same reason that Suse was originally conisdered. No doubt SUse is not considered now just because it is now a foreign corporate entitity -- just like MS. Of course governments are going to want to support local ventures -- and why not? With Linux, they can. Everyone doesn't have to run distro "x" and it is possible to have many winners.

      • Re:Long time planning. (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        It's interesting, though, how the spin has changed from "Take that, Microsoft!" to "Take that, Ubuntu!"

        That's probably because Ubuntu's theme reminds everyone of a box of Kashi.

    • Re:Long time planning. (Score:3, Insightful)

      by 4of12 ( 97621 )

      Just like with computer hardware, the longer you wait for Linux the better the version you get.

      By the time deployment comes it will probably have OpenOffice 2.2, Evolution 2.4, etc.

      Success of the project will be measured by office workers shrugging as they get to work on the new systems and finding expected functionality has continued wondering what the big deal was all about.

      Kind of like the Y2K non-event.

  • What the heck happened there?

    At least it's not Windows!

    -m

  • Not cheap enough (Score:3, Funny)

    by SunFan ( 845761 ) on Thursday April 14, 2005 @09:52AM (#12233753)
    prompting Microsoft's Steve Balmer to offer a rebate of 90%.

    Ah, the price of Windows XP is now down to $20? With Linux and Solaris free of charge, Microsoft still has some distance to go.

    • Re:Not cheap enough (Score:5, Funny)

      by ajrs ( 186276 ) on Thursday April 14, 2005 @09:59AM (#12233827) Homepage
      Yeah, you would have to pay me a lot more than $20 to give up linux for XP.
      • What about dual-boot?

        • Re:Not cheap enough (Score:2, Interesting)

          by ajrs ( 186276 )
          I do have an old 98 partition I use to play games. For me, windows is only good for playing games, not for work. If you want me to use windows full time, you'd have to pay me enough that I didn't need to work anymore. And then some.

      • Re:Not cheap enough (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Therein lies the flaw in Microsoft's business model. Sun and IBM can pay you $20 to give up Windows, because they live off of hardware and services.

    • The cost of windows is not the $20, it's the cost of all the little add-ons that are absolutely free in the FOSS world that cost $19 here, $29 there, like cd/dvd burning software, office suites, editors, antivirus, etc.

      The other cost, which, depending, can be more, is, comma, the cost of babying the system: Install this, upgrade this, enter validation key here, run ad-aware there, and all the gnarly little tasks that people don't do because they're so freaking boring and tedious that end up making a P4 cr
      • "Install this, upgrade this, enter validation key here, run ad-aware there, and all the gnarly little tasks that people don't do because they're so freaking boring and tedious that end up making a P4 crawl to a painful stop, making the befuddled l-user call ME on the weekend to "please help me fix my PC cuz it's soo sloww". And then, I have to spend my precious time (not that precious considering /. really) telling them nicely (they're a friend of my wife) that, hum, yes I'm a computer programmer, but that,
        • I'm looking at that, but so far, not seeing all that much. Where are the screenshots? Where is the video? Where is a free demo?

          Is Sun offering a SunRay + SunGrid 90 day free trial combo to geeks?

          Call me Japanese, but I don't recommend things to my boss/friends/schoolmates on hearsay and slick marketing brochures. I have to go kick the tires and take it around the block, if you gt my meaning.

          I use Python. I recommend python. Other people use python on my recommendation.
          likewise firefox. SunRay? No. Reaso
  • I'm looking forward to see how they are going to plan a uniform distribution of packages across such a large quantity of workstations... rpm/apt/yum/redcarpet2/zenworks/altiris ?

    • I'm looking forward to see how they are going to plan a uniform distribution of packages across such a large quantity of workstations... rpm/apt/yum/redcarpet2/zenworks/altiris ?

      Well, since they are using Debian, I would assume the use of apt/dpkg since that's Debian's package management software.

      I am curious as to what you mean by "a uniform distribution of packages"? Are you discussing the bandwidth of updating 14,000 desktops from a Debian mirror, and thus want to setup your own mirror/repository? Or, a

    • Their own APT server containing only well tested packages, and then point all the 14.000 machines to that server? With a nightly cron job running apt?

      Dunno if it would actually scale, but it's certainly a good possibility it would.
    • Maybe they don't need to be all the same? A tarball to install a standard base system and then according to the needs of the user? There is still the issue of updates though. They'll probably have their own server.

  • Ballmer can kiss my !@# (Score:3, Insightful)

    by KingBahamut ( 615285 ) on Thursday April 14, 2005 @10:01AM (#12233857)
    with his rebates. I think M$ is so vicious in their borg like behavior that giving an entire group of 14,000 users a 90% rebate is just a sign of what theyll do to keep their userbase in Europe. Something I fear that they have clearly lost already. Why doesnt Ballmer just give them Windows for free and see if that will denth their $800,000,000+ settlement by the EU?

    Questions to be answered.


    • Microsoft can't give away Windows for free, because thier billions in cash would start to evaporate. Well, given how frequrently they settle lawsuits lately, it's probably evaporating already.
      • You are probably more likley correct than not.

        Of course in Ballmers case, he sees a loss of marketshare. Thats probably why he offered.

        What suprises me is the choice to go to Debian. Id have thought with the popularity of Novell/Suse in Europe, that it would have been the logical choice.

        • But people forget that M$ has a ton of cash in the bank. They can practically live on interests alone.

          • The shareholders expect better returns than bank interest rates. The $n billions that microsoft owns is really the shareholders money, because the shareholder own microsoft (that's what holding a share is).

            If the shareholders were happy with bank rates, they would be better off buying US treasury bonds: less risks, same return.

            No, MS can't just live on the interest. It _has_ to keep making money faster than other equally risky financial instruments to attract investors. Actually, a huge cash hoard is a li
  • Very interesting site linked to in the 4th to last link of that article. I hadn't heard of this "/." before.

    Oh, wait...
  • courtesy of babelfish...

    M?hen sets on Debian

    The companies Softcon and Gonicus got the addition from the Bavarian state capital M?hen, the IT Migrationsprojekt LiMux with the production to unterst?en configuration and care of a basis Clients which is based on open SOURCE often commodity f?die 14,000 Arbeitspl?e of the city administration. That means, which will be based zuk?tige basis Client of the city administration on the Linux distribution Debian. The city M?hen had European-wide written this order ou

    • Google normally produces similar results but with better handling of strange characters.
      from the Google Translation of TFA [google.com]:

      Munich sets on Debian

      The companies Softcon and Gonicus received the addition from the Bavarian state capital Munich, the IT Migrationsprojekt LiMux with the production to support configuration and care of a basis Clients which is based on open SOURCE often commodity for the 14,000 jobs of the city administration. That means, which will be based future basis Client of the city admin
  • Debian still has a larger package base, more archs supported and a bit less complecated costomazations. Ubuntu is better for end users looking for an easy install. The only "distrobution" we have seen derive from Ubuntu is Kubuntu, and thats just an alternative set of packages for default installation, and I would not be surprised if this mostly remains the same. Debian as a distro base is tried and true.
    I feel this is like comparing ROCK with Gentoo, if less extreem
    • Gnoppix is now based on Ubunto. Though the direction they are heading (Gnoppix is the official live CD version of Ubunto and Ubonto's live CD version disappears) means that "based on" will be short lived.

    • ...and indeed, ubuntu is based on debian.

      so.. why wouldn't they base their own distro on debian? it's after all a great base for something like that(as proved by ubuntu & others).

  • 90%? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by booch ( 4157 ) <slashdot2010@cr[ ... m ['aig' in gap]> on Thursday April 14, 2005 @01:22PM (#12236414) Homepage
    A 90% price cut? That's pretty incredible. To me it says one of 2 things:
    • The company makes more than 90% profit on every copy of Windows they sell.
    • Microsoft was attempting to "dump" the software for less than their cost, and should be prosecuted for that crime.
    If it's the first one, then people and companies need to start paying attention. If it's the second one, then the government(s) need to start paying attention.

    • marginal costs (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The marginal cost of any copy of windows is the cost of distributing the software.

      you see, with a standard product, like a car, a large hunk of the cost comes from paying for the raw materials, paying to make them into the parts and paying for the assembly and testing.

      Since microsoft has already written windows the cost per additional sale is mostly in actual cd production. We are looking a cents/copy. But if they were to sell these in a microeconomic free market (one without monopolies) they would only

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