5 Factors for Open Source Success
In 2001, Horst Bräuner, the IT director of Schwäbisch Hall, a fairy-tale city in southern Germany, faced a situation familiar to many local U.S. government officials. Germany was in an economic slump — the country’s economy had been flat for several years. The gross domestic product dropped from a 2.5 percent rate of growth in 2001 to an anemic 1.4 percent in 2002. In response, the federal government expanded the number of tax deductions firms could take on as losses. Since local governments in Germany depend heavily on business taxes, the change in the country’s tax law coupled with the broader economic recession led to a sharp decline in local tax revenue. But according to Bräuner, Schwäbisch Hall’s problems were even worse.
Just as government budgets were cratering, Microsoft Corp. upgraded its operating systems from Windows NT to Windows XP, forcing IT directors like Bräuner into a difficult choice: retain an outdated operating system without support from Microsoft, pay for the new operating system, or find an alternative. When Schwäbisch Hall’s technological and budgetary challenges collided, it felt to Bräuner like a slow moving tsunami. Things would only get worse.
While most governments bit the budgetary bullet and opted for the Microsoft upgrade, three cities in southern Germany embarked on something radically different. Munich, Schwäbisch Hall and Treuchtlingen adopted and implemented plans to migrate all PCs to open source operating systems and applications.
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