From December 2002 to April 2005, a pilot was conducted in DG INFSO to evaluate the use of Linux based PC's in the Commission environment, which involved a selected group of users. This group consisted of about 40 persons with a wide diversity of functional profiles (project officer, secretary, financial officer, deputy director general, assistant, etc. …). The scope of the pilot was the testing of the interoperability between the Linux and the Windows environment in terms of electronic file and printer sharing, text processing, spreadsheet, presentation, email / groupware software, other software and support facilities, this specifically in the EC environment.
In co-operation with the Informatics Directorate, a reference configuration was set-up on a number of PC's based on the Linux Operating System and other Open Software products.
Main conclusions are:
- The integration of the Linux based clients in the Windows NT environment did not cause any problems. Integration in the newer NET1 environment (based on the Active Directory) was also successful without major problems. Electronic files and printers both from the Linux environment and the Windows environment could be shared with each other.
- Compatibility tests of the Open Source text processing, spreadsheet, and presentation software were generally satisfactory. Conversion of complex documents showed to be sometimes problematic because of the differences between MS Word and OpenOffice and some problems were encountered with the proprietary fonts of Microsoft. On the other hand, some features were available in OpenOffice that did not exist in the Microsoft Office suite. Further improvements are to be expected now that Microsoft is supporting XML based file formats. Some problems relating to important Commission-specific extensions to MS Word, such as the ones used for the preparation of official notes and legal documents, were identified. A redevelopment of these extensions would be required to solve this issue.
- At the level of the email most of the features are available and no major problems were encountered. However, the shared mail and calendar resources functionality caused several problems at the level of the interoperability with the present Commission email infrastructure. Interoperability tests with the future Commission email infrastructure (foreseen for implementation in 2006) were positive and most of the problems were solved. Some problems relating to specific extensions used within the Commission (Email Archiving System) remained. The question can be raised if a totally new environment based on Open Source at Commission level could be envisaged. Several Open Source solutions are available with functionality comparable to Microsoft's email platform. Initiatives worthwhile mentioning are the development of Kroupware (funded by the German Administration), eGroupWare and OpenGroupware.
- Compatibility tests of Commission-wide applications were negative. Redevelopment of these types of applications as web applications will resolve the problems. The Commission environment would evolve to a more Windows-independent environment, if a strategy could be adopted on these lines. Within the present planning of DG DIGIT it isforeseen that the corporate applications under their responsibility will be redeveloped by 2008. This is already a realisation of a large part of that strategy. However, it is imperative that any web application should be developed in a browser independent way, which should be feasible to do. The browser independence is further emphasised by the commitment of the Commission to implement the first level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines for the Europa and the Intracomm website.
- The Open Source world has proven to have the ability to adapt to new versions of the Microsoft software / environment. This was demonstrated with the changeover from the NT domain to the NET1 domain and with the changeover from the older versions of Office / Email to the newer versions. Sometimes there was a delay in the development of the adaptation depending on the magnitude of the differences. Also, sometimes certain useful features available in OpenSource world do not exist in the corresponding software in the Microsoft environment.
- The availability of third party software is not completely positive and is greatly depending on the market and profit analysis done by the corresponding software vendor. The question can again be raised if totally new software based on Open Source could not be envisaged. Most of the time Open Source solutions are available with functionality comparable to the original third party software.
In general, the Linux platforms that were tested show a very fair level of usability and compatibility. An environment based on Linux is today technically feasible for limited groups with specific needs. Although there are many other factors that could play a role in the decision in favour of the implementation of an environment based on Linux, the present testing shows that is not possible to implement it at this moment in time on a large scale. Amongst the most blocking factors is the availability of Commission and local applications. The redevelopment of applications would be necessary to solve this problem. In any case, a migration of more than 25000 users is an entirely different project with different objectives, starting with a necessary cost/benefit analysis. The project of a general migration would need to be prepared and planned very carefully, in the hypothesis of a satisfactory OSS platform and a political and technical decision, in order to guarantee minimal disturbance to the users and a similar level of functionality.
