The government of Switzerland has acknowledged that Microsoft Windows is currently the only viable solution for their desktops. The government has signed a contract with Microsoft without going through their normal bid process, because there is "
no sufficient alternative" available.
But even though it is clearly not possible for Switzerland to switch to anything else, Red Hat and other vendors
have sued for a do-over . They want to force the Swiss government to bid out contracts even though there is no possibility that any other vendor than Microsoft can provide the solution. Thus, every contract would have to go through the time and expense of bidding, and still every contract would be awarded to Microsoft, because it
is not possible to convert to anything else at this time, and even if it was possible to convert to Linux, it would
cost more than Microsoft products.
One might expect that Munich would be the first to warn Switzerland how very difficult and expensive it is to migrate to Linux, but that isn't the case. Florian Schiessl, project manager of the LiMux Linux migration for the City of Munich, where they have been
diddling around for
almost six years now, has
posted this on his blogI’m curious if the court follows the (Swiss) governments argumentation, that there is no sufficient alternative available for servers and clients. I think there are many examples showing the contrary. (emphasis added)
I wish Mr. Shiessl would state those contrary examples, since Munich itself is the best
confirming example.
One thing for sure, the Munich Linux follies will be exhibit A for the Swiss government's attorneys in the Red Hat lawsuit.
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