Enterprise open source Toolkit

Story: Munich Linux migration slips to 2006

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Of course Microsoft are going to revel in this news. Look how hard it is for Munich to stop using our software they will claim, forgetting of course that that's actually the problem.

As a long time, desktop Linux user I'm confident that moving to Linux isn't hard. I've encourages many people to do it and they now wonder why they spent so much time nursing their Windows desktops along.

What is hard is moving away from the many proprietary lock-ins that Microsoft has raised as barriers to your departure from their platform. It's no wonder we're now seeing governments like Massachusetts decide that they need to be using open, published file formats, rather than limiting their choice of applications based on a proprietary file format.

It's not going to be easy to get out from the yoke of Microsoft products. And while Microsoft's own TCO figures show that moving to another platform can be more expensive, what they don't show is that having moved away from Windows (a one time cost) you won't have anything like the ongoing TCO that Windows has.

Put simply, choice gives you flexibility, and choice gives you cheaper prices. and Microsoft tries desperately to take choice away.

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