German universities are switching to Linux

The German government has signed a major agreement with Novell, under which Linux servers and desktops will be delivered to 33 universities in the country. Student computers will have Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 installed, as well as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Novell Open Enterprise Server, Novell Identity Manager, and Novell ZENworks.

This is the second stage of the transition of the German education system to free software. Until now, the universities of the German lands of Bavaria and Thuringia were serviced by Novell with a total number of 300,000 students. The new agreement with North Rhine-Westphalia (here are the major cities of Dusseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund, Bonn, Bochum, Duisburg) will increase the Linux student audience by 560,000 people. According to Novell's estimates, now 40% of German students are using Linux.

Installing Linux in universities in Germany is one of the largest examples of mass migration to Linux of public sector representatives. But far from unique: Amsterdam, Eindhoven and eight other Dutch cities have already announced the transition to free software. Own open source platforms are preparing to deploy in Munich and Vienna.