p2pnet.net News:- It’s now official: Munich in Germany is dumping Windows for Linux.

The latter has only 3% of the client OS market against Microsoft’s staggering 96%, but the decision, “may be a sign of a new day dawning for open-source software,” says Enterprise Linux IT here, pointing out that Bergen, Norway, has also decided on SuSE Linux from Novell for its server system

“The decision by Munich had been expected, despite an active lobbying campaign by Microsoft that included a visit to the city by CEO Steve Ballmer last year,” says the report.

The migration to Linux is expected to cost about $42 million and will begin next month, says Paul Thurrott in his WinInf here.

“In addition to replacing the core Windows OS with Linux, the city will also implement several other open-source programs for applications such as Web browsing, office productivity, and personal information managemer (PIM),” he says.

However, on whether or not the Munich move signals a new, not-so-bright day for Bill and the Boyz, “After Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer rushed to Munich last year to broker a deal that undercut the lowest Linux bid by $12 million, many large Microsoft customers used the threat of a Linux migration to negotiate better licensing terms from the software giant,” Thurrott points out, adding:

“Although most reports about these threats are anecdotal in nature, many companies don’t seem to be actually considering Linux but are rather using the threat as a bargaining chip against Microsoft.”

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