Thoroughly thrilled at the thought of Munich’s progress switching to Linux, I have actually been tracking and logging such migrations for a long time. As a matter of fact, on my OpenSUSE Linux blog, I offer a course wherein I explore all of the migrations of which I am aware. I wanted to share that list with ya’ll.
The explosive growth of the Linux operating system has literally taken the world by storm and by surprise. With the many migrations to Linux, my interest was piqued. I wanted to delve into the details of who was actually switching. Is all of the excitement just from the novelty of a few groups switching over? Or is all the excitement coming from migration after migration of many different organizations? Are that many people really making the switch?
So I hit the trail, hoping to create some kind of order out of the chaos. For several months, I searched out relevant articles outlining migrations to Linux. When it was finally finished, I compiled it all here.
After some extensive research, I uncovered some fascinating trends in Linux migration. Check out this impressive list of companies, organizations, and other entities who have switched over to Linux:
U.S. Military Forces
Governments Worldwide Using Linux
U.S. Government – SGI and Fed Centric Secure U.S. Government Order for Massive, Cost-Efficient Enterprise Computing System
United Kingdom
Switzerland – Swiss government switches 3,000 systems to Linux
Japan – Japan Moves to Adopt Linux for Government
Norway
Israel
China
Spain
Australia
South Korean Government
Brazilian Government
Venezuelan Government
Italy
Indonesia – Indonesia adopts JDS on Linux as a national desktop
Dutch Government
Netherlands
India
Taiwan
Russian Government
Mexico City
Peruvian Congressman – Ending Microsoft FUD: An Interview with Peruvian Congressman Villanueva
Singapore
California – California considers open-source shift
Mississippi – Mississippi deal a landmark for Linux in government
Chicago, IL – City Of Chicago Migrates To Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Austin, TX – Austin tests desktop Linux waters
Boston, MA – Proprietary software–banned in Boston?
Garden Grove, CA – Linux Means Business to the City of Garden Grove
Largo, FL
Minister of Science and Technology in Costa Rica – Excerpt from Meeting with Costa Rica’s Minister of Science and Technology
London borough of Newham, Birmingham – Birmingham City Council claims open-source success
French Parliament – Au Revoir: French Parliament Drops Microsoft
Vienna, Austria
Munich, Germany
Amsterdam – Amsterdam Will Give Open Source a Try
Kardjali, Bulgaria – Bulgaria also goes Free and Open Source in the city of Kardjali
Province of Genoa, Italy – Genoa launches Open Source platform
Paris, France
Several Other World Governments
Financial Institutions Using Linux
Companies and Corporations
Educational Institutions
Other Migrations to Linux
Conclusion
Summarily, a great many are switching to Linux. Remember that the list of migrations provided above is not comprehensive. As a matter of fact, it would be quite impossible to include them all. Even with this limited amount of research, it is obvious that there are some major players making the move. And it’s not just a couple of small-time organizations, unless you consider the U.S. Military small-time.
Evidently, several banks have switched to Linux, also. Why would they make the switch to Linux? They must trust in its security. A bank has a great deal to lose if its security is breached.
Could it be that Linux is a great option? Evidence makes it sure appear to be, doesn’t it?
Linux has a great deal to offer. It is a robust operating system used by major military and governmental organizations throughout the world. At the same time, it is easy enough that my grandmother could use it. And it is free. And it is rock-solid secure. Incredible, to say the least.
Thinking about migrating? No time like the present.
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June 4th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Scott, many thanks for compiling such a comprehensive list! It’s very rewarding to see the work of the Linux and open source community get adopted on such a grand scale. No matter the industry, size of organization, or geography, Linux is delivering increasing value every day. I’d like to mention a list of customers we’ve collected at Novell who have migrated from UNIX to Linux, available at http://www.novell.com/linux/unixtolinux/references.html . It includes names ranging from Office Depot and the Finland Ministry of Defense to Audi and even Sesame Workshop (producer of Sesame Street).
June 4th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
[...] Much more can be found here! [...]
June 4th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Michael,
Thanks, and thanks for the additional resource. That is incredible. Thanks for stopping by!
June 5th, 2008 at 12:54 am
[...] Major Linux Migrations: An Unbelievable List of Nearly 100 [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Scott, thank you for such invaluable information on Linux. This is so encouraging. Many years ago, as a CorelDraw user, I was pleased that Corel came out with a Linux OS and CorelDraw in Linux. I remember sending a note of thanks to Michael Cowpland (president of Corel at the time). Unfortunately the entire Corel Linux endeavor was discontinued. The Corel Linux OS was sold to Xandros. We all know the success of Xandros and the eee pc by Asus. Kudos to both companies. It’s great to have my Thinkpad in Ubuntu. Many of my friends are migrating to Ubuntu and other linux flavors. I believe Linux has finally come of age for the home user. Thank you, to the open source community..no more blue screen!
June 5th, 2008 at 9:18 am
Allie,
Hey, you’re welcome. Linux is definitely much more accessible to the home user, I agree. Spread the word! Thanks for stopping by!
June 6th, 2008 at 9:03 am
[...] opensuseblog.com, acaba de publicar su lista particular (que lleva elaborando desde hace años) con información sobre las 100 principales empresas e instituciones que han migrado a Linux. Junto a los nombres, Scott ha apuntado un enlace a una noticia relacionada, en la que se indican [...]
June 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
How about the NYSE recent switch to Red Hat.. that’s mission critical stuff.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:05 am
ps. I think you should follow the Pixar thing further; Dreamworks make all their films on Linux (Shrek etc), and I read that basically all special effects post 2002 for every Hollywood film are rendered on Linux (Lord of the Rings, StarWars, HarryPotter…)
June 6th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Great article, many thanks. I am kind of new to Linux, but from what I can see so far Linux can only move forward
June 6th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
BobCFC,
Great point. Somehow, that one got missed. Just goes to show that this list isn’t even comprehensive. There could be many, many more out there than the ones I have listed here. Nice thoughts, man. Thanks for stopping by!
June 6th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Kais,
Yes, Linux gains momentum daily. Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks, you’re welcome.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
[...] este blog de Open Suse han recopilado las adopciones a Linux de parte de gobiernos, paÃses, empresas. Como [...]
June 9th, 2008 at 7:37 am
[...] el sitio http://www.suseblog.com/?p=340, pueden encontrar un detalle de las 100 migraciones a Linux, consideradas las mas importantes [...]
June 14th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
[...] decision of the government of Munich to migrate to open source software, Scott Morris has compiled an impressive list of migrations to open source from around the world. You should take a look at his entire list (almost 100 examples) but some of [...]
June 26th, 2008 at 5:35 am
My 2 cents about Russia.
Government don’t use Linux here at all – IBM intentions of 2003 didn’t result in something noticeable. However, when Microsoft started it’s “licensing crusade” in 2007 and proposed a deal to supply all government and educational organisations with licenses, The Ministry of Finance forbade that deal (too expensive). Instead, about $3 million were given to support development of comprehensive open source programs’ package for educational and governmental needs. Educational version was developed in 2007 based on Russian Alt Linux distribution and now enters it’s second adoption stage (first stage was limited “test-drive” in 3 of 83 regions of Russian Federation, second stage that planned up to end of 2009 is adoption throughout entire Russia). “Governmental” version as far as I know is still in development.
my English is far from good, sorry for that )))
January 17th, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Very impressive. I’m glad to see this list. It needs to be published WEEKLY in the major news papers around the US to show just how Linux is growing up and being used by major industry and world governments.
February 14th, 2009 at 1:30 am
Great list you have out here ! You might want to add this news article to your list too :http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/02/12/tech-feds-open-source.html
March 18th, 2009 at 1:43 am
For those who are doctors/healthcare professionals, here is a great article (with weblinks to individual project/programs) on ’50 Successful Open-Source Projects in Medicine’ – http://nursingassistantguides.com/2009/50-successful-open-source-projects-that-are-changing-medicine/.
Though I am from a health admin background, I myself was not aware of this !
Jay
December 29th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Government don’t use Linux here at all – IBM intentions of 2003 didn’t result in something noticeable. However, when Microsoft started it’s “licensing crusade” in 2007 and proposed a deal to supply all government and educational organisations with licenses, The Ministry of Finance forbade that deal (too expensive). Instead, about $3 million were given to support development of comprehensive open source programs’ package for educational and governmental needs. Educational version was developed in 2007 based on Russian Alt Linux distribution and now enters it’s second adoption stage (first stage was limited “test-drive” in 3 of 83 regions of Russian Federation, second stage that planned up to end of 2009 is adoption throughout entire Russia). “Governmental” version as far as I know is still in development…………
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