You're not alone. Munich doesn't represent some unique enlightenment on the part of local government. It is just an ordinary political decision where the calculus was informed by conditions which just happened to be statistical outliers and thus the result is also a statistical outlier.
About the time this decision was rolling out, I worked in Municipal government. They had standardized on WordPerfect Office Suite. As part of my job, I attended a few council workshops and can unequivocally assert that these were neither visionaries nor geniuses. Just people making decisions that balanced their personal aspirations and the public good while answering their constiuancy.
This story gets rolled out every few months and draws the expected upvotes. One day I hope to read an inside technical account rather than 'Linux has Risen, Risen Indeed.' Today alas is not that day.
"One day I hope to read an inside technical account"
Me too! Most of these feel-good Linux switch stories either fail to look at the long term picture (I switched to Linux last week and so far no problems!) or fail to address the specific reasons why Linux was chosen, or is superior to the MS products.
When I read that in this case they weren't saving any money, I was intrigued and eager to read about the real reason. Yet, after reading the entire account I still don't feel like there is/was any compelling data to back up or justify the decision.
It's pretty much certain, if you take taxation, need for continuos development, and long-term competence/competitiveness etc. into account. Especially with the public sector one should look at the big picture, which bean counters sadly seem to be incapable of doing.
I'm just asking for proof of B. Even though I would argue the portion returned in taxes would be insignificant.
I gripe frequently about local towns awarding contracts to entities not within the town/state/region, but I'd like to see some sort of data about how this helped the local economy and wasn't just a xenophobic/isolationist response.
German income tax rate goes up to 45% (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_Germany#Income_tax). But you get to tax the company on sales [of the software to Munich city], and you get profit based taxes usually. Then you get the taxes from the wages of the workers. Then you get the taxes from the money the software workers spending locally, then you get the taxes from the people servicing those software workers. And so on.
If you spend money on something from a local independent company, especially one that has little to pay in terms of inputs and overheads, then the money seems usually to stay local.
I wonder how they coped with EU competition law that - from the little I know - seems to require anything paid for with government money to be put to open tender and to not preference origin in the purchasing decision.
About the time this decision was rolling out, I worked in Municipal government. They had standardized on WordPerfect Office Suite. As part of my job, I attended a few council workshops and can unequivocally assert that these were neither visionaries nor geniuses. Just people making decisions that balanced their personal aspirations and the public good while answering their constiuancy.
This story gets rolled out every few months and draws the expected upvotes. One day I hope to read an inside technical account rather than 'Linux has Risen, Risen Indeed.' Today alas is not that day.