Germany might become an example for other cities that are looking to shed their dependency on proprietary solutions, such as Windows. After Munich, which has already made the move to Linux, Hamburg could be the next big city in Germany to do the same thing.

Munich started the switch to Linux a few years back and the city needed a long time to completely train the people and change the way the administration worked. It's been a long road and Microsoft constantly pressured and lobbied the people in charge to change their mind. In the end, Munich managed to become a city that uses only open source and it's an example for other city administrations to do the same.

One of those might be Hamburg, but the official discussions haven't started just yet. One of the political parties in Germany wants to kickstart the discussions regarding this thorny issue.

It will take a long time

Even if Hamburg were to take the decision tomorrow, it would still be many years until everything got in place. This is a large city, with thousands of PCs and hundreds of employees that need training and experience.

"The German city of Hamburg should do like Munich, and switch to open source, says the city's Alliance '90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen). Switching to free and open source software enables innovation and increases security, and the city administration should emphasise this when selecting ICT solutions."

"The politicians are organizing a conference on 21 October, to discuss the opportunities of open source software for businesses, society and public administration. The meeting is organised in cooperation with the Open Source Business (OSB) Alliance, an open source trade group," is noted in the blog entry made on the official website for the European Commission.

The politicians say that Munich is a good example of what can be done if there is the political will to make the necessary changes. It's also a good bet that Microsoft won't stay put and they will try to influence the decision in this case as well, with their powerful lobby.

Hamburg is the right city for this change

The Hamburg officials have already demonstrated that they are able to look far into the future. One of the long-term goals of the city is to become car-free and they have estimated that it will be done in about 20 years. It sounds like the authorities might embrace something like open source for the entire city.