Munich Linux Migration Project LiMux Reports Success

LiMux, a project to convert local government institutions to Linux and open source software in Munich, has exceeded initial expectations. The project has done slightly better than projections of 8,500 and now boasts 9,000 Linux migrated workstations. The progress and evolution of this project that began in 2003 is well worth examination.

LiMux is the name of both the migration project and a specialized Linux distribution. The LiMux distro, which is based on Ubuntu, is certified by the German government for use in both government institutions and private businesses. I've long been an advocate of this approach, and I wish that more was being done in the UK and the US to ratify a standard national Linux distro.

It's nice to be able to report on this success story after the disappointing news, earlier in the year, that the German Foreign Office had abandoned its Linux adoption plan in favor of a return to Windows and other proprietary software. One thing that the community has had to learn is that celebration upon hearing the announcement of a plan for Linux adoption is sometimes premature. The news that migration has been successful and is going well is a more reliable indicator that Linux is establishing a foothold on the desktops of government workers.

In a 2010 webpost, Florian Schießl, one of the architects of the project, admitted that they had underestimated the difficulty of the task and labeled their initial approach

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