Barcelona quits Windows and Office goes Linux

This is a yet another big announcement by Barcelona which has decided to dump Windows and Office and migrate to Linux and other open source solutions. The idea is simple; saving money and not paying Microsoft subscriptions fees, and the open source software beauty is always there to lure, its free of cost.

Barcelona is not the first city to make a move towards open source software solutions, Munich already has done this, initially implementing plans back in 2003. Munich has fully moved to open source in 2013. However, the city announced in 2016 that it is moving back to Microsoft solutions. Why Munich has announced to go back to Microsoft is still unclear, it could be business deal or anything else, but one thing is pretty obvious free things cannot provide yours with privileges that paid things can. It’s a universal truth believe it or not.

However, Barcelona is not on the ridge ready to start flanking maneuver, the city is going away from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office and adopting Linux, Libre Office, and Open Xchange. Some of the city council members are already using Linux PCs with Ubuntu installed on them and Firefox being the default browser as part of the scheme.

Barcelona also plans to hire developers to create fresh programs from open source software, the plan is to create products that could also be distributed other cities across Spain. Now keeping the Munich example in mind, only the time will tell whether Barcelona had been successful in implementing changes.

One of the main reasons Munich switching back to Microsoft was the fact that tailored Linux distro used (Linux, based Ubuntu), as well as Libre Office, were “lacking behind in the technical possibilities of established solutions”, this was causing frequent crashes and instability.

However, open-source patrons would argue that overall Linux has made impressive strides and has become more stable and fully supported during the recent times. Now Munich is not the first city who failed to migrate to Linux, Vienna also tried in 2005 and after four years of struggle, they returned back to Windows.