After LiMux shutdown: How Munich is slowly getting closer to open source again

After long delays, Munich's IT department has made progress with the implementation of a 5-point plan for open source that the city council adopted four years ago. The "replacement program", which the green-red coalition launched in 2020 after the end of the Linux-based desktop project LiMux, "everything is on track", SPD city councillor Lars Mentrup told heise online. He hopes that the still open "sabbatical program" will be the "next milestone" in the steps taken towards digital sovereignty. The aim is to offer professionally qualified developers from all over the world the opportunity to "advance their open source projects and work closely with the city administration".

Mentrup intends to promote this part of the initiative once again in his welcoming speech at the Munich Digital Forum on November 21 in the Bavarian capital. Applications are already open. "The sabbatical is attractively remunerated so that the programmers can take time off from their employer," writes the IT department's Open Source Program Office (OSPO), which was set up as a hub in January. There is no obligation to follow instructions. In principle, a fixed-term permanent position of six months is conceivable, as are temporary freelance assignments for administrative staff and external programmers.

Mentrup explained that 200,000 euros are available for sabbaticals. As a rule, this could be used to fill two relevant short-term positions per year. The aim is to "jointly develop solutions that not only advance Munich, but also other administrations around the world". It is a unique approach "that combines the innovative power of the open-source community with the specific requirements of public administration". In Berlin, the party "Die Grünen" has been submitting an application to the Senate to set up a similar funding initiative since mid-2023, but the current black-red state government has not yet taken it up. The Social Democrat also sees other major cities such as Hamburg as allies in this field in principle.

Looking to the federal government and Schleswig-Holstein

At the beginning of 2022, city councillor Judith Greif from the Green Party complained that the IT department was not committed to the course of the elected representatives. Laura Dornheim, the newly elected IT officer in July 2022, promised improvement. The OSPO, headed by Kubernetes pioneer Klaus 'klml' Mueller, is now up and running and staffed. Its main purpose is to actively screen projects with free software that could be of interest to Munich, maintain contact with the community, advise the administration on software procurement and clarify legal issues. With a current budget of 75,000 euros, it provides strategic internal support for frequently used open-source programs such as Consul for citizen participation, Vue.js for creating web applications, an OpenAPI generator for open interfaces and a robot framework. Commercial support and financial assistance for work on core functionalities (open core) of various relevant projects will also be provided.

According to the coalition plan, the principle of "public money, public code" is also to be brought to life. The corresponding campaign states that programs financed with taxpayers' money must be free and reusable for the administration. The city's own projects are therefore now published on GitHub. There are currently 106 repositories on the Munich site. Everyone involved ruled out a LiMux revival after the SPD and CSU decided to return to Microsoft in 2017. Mentrup knows that things have largely calmed down meanwhile. The coalition is still counting on not falling completely into the clutches of Microsoft, SAP & Co. They are keeping a close eye on how the federal government is doing with the Windows alternative OpenDesk and how Schleswig-Holstein is doing with the switch to open source on the desktop that has been initiated there.

(akn)