Munich mulls Microsoft agreement

munich-agreemnetThe poster child for open sauce goodness, the German city of Munich, might be thinking of abandoning the plan and going for Microsoft.

According to the German newspaper Süddeutsche, deputy mayor Josef Schmid says the city is considering the move because users miss the functionality that Voleware had.

For example, users are cross they do not have an integrated contact, calendar and email application. Süddeutsche claimed that Munich has set up an external email server to allow the City’s mobile devices to send and receive messages.

These are not little complaints either, in fact they are so bad that the city council will create an expert panel to assess the performance of its chosen software.

Schmid is quoted as saying that if the panel recommends a return to Microsoft, he will not say no.  Of course they could always pay someone to write a more integrated mail programme for them.

Munich decided to go with Linux back in 2004 and spend about 10 years installing it, however it is at the desktop level were Linux still has to make much impact, unless you count Android.

It is also bad news for the British government which also recently has issued an order moving towards desktop Linux.