[ Thanks to Peter
West for this translation and link. ]
One year after the signing of the cooperation agreement with IBM
for the advancement of Open-Source Software in the administration,
German Federal Minister of the Interior Otto Schily determined that
the agreement was producing positive results. Schily and IBM’s
chairman of the supervisory board Erwin Staudt both praised the
agreement as a “milestone” and “great success” on the road to a
diverse and open software landscape in the public administration
sector. Schily announced that during the last year the number and
quality of software migrations to Open Source in the federal
administration had increased dramatically, and named as examples of
this the Federal Cartel Office, the Monopoly Commision, the Federal
Commision for Data Protection and the Institute of Animal
Experiment, which have partially or entirely converted their IT
infastructure to Linux and other Open Source products.
A total of over 500 public agencies, national, state-wide and
local, have applied to join the outline agreement. This would offer
them special conditions for the supply of PCs and servers using the
open-source operating system Linux, as well as project support and
training from IBM. Using the foundation of the Cooperation
Agreement Schwäbisch Hall became the first city in Europe to
choose to depend entirely on Linux for its IT infrastructure. And
the vote of the Munich’s City Council, to change over 14,000
desktops to Linux, will “further elevate the success of this
arrangement,” expressed a pleased Erwin Staudt.
“We are well on our way, to making Germany a leading Linux
nation,” he claimed. “No government in Europe has taken measures as
far-reaching as the German Federal Minister of the Interior,” the
IBM manager exclaimed, praising his fellow signatory. He does not,
however, want to have the cooperation understood as an affront
toward Microsoft. Just two months ago signed a Licensing Agreement
was sign with the software shop. “We have had a positive
cooperation with Microsoft”, emphasised Schily, making clear that
this was not about ousting Microsoft from public offices and
agencies. But “we want to break open monopoly structures —
Microsoft will have to get used to that.”
Schily promises an additional heavy push toward Open Source
software through the comprehensive Migration Guidelines, which the
Federal Ministry of the Interior will present at the Linuxtag in
Karlsruhe. It should provide IT decision makers with criteria and
assistance for the strategic decisions in advancing their
systems.