Barcelona plans to change Windows for Linux and free software

According to the major Spanish newspaper El País, the city of Barcelona is migrating its computers away from Windows. First by replacing all applications with open-source alternatives until Windows is the only proprietary software, to be later replaced by Linux.

To achieve this change, the city will hire 65 developers to work on different projects, one of them will be a digital market in which small businesses can participate in public tenders.

This change comes as a breath of fresh air for fans of free software after Munich (a city that has long been in favor of Linux and Free Office) decided that all Linux computers would be replaced by Windows 10 before 2020.

The process of change has already begun and its goal is spring 2019

During 2018, 70% of the city's resources that are allocated to the acquisition of software licenses and permits will be used for the creation of open-source software. This is expected to help make the transition complete by spring 2019.

According to Francesca Bria, the city's commissioner for technology and digital innovation, the software created will be available for the public to use, and guides will be provided so that people can learn more about free software.

For the time being, Outlook and Exchange will be replaced by Open-Xchange. Internet Explorer and Office will be switched in favor of using Mozilla Firefox and LibreOffice. As a final step, Ubuntu is expected to be the dominant distribution in the city. Currently, more than 1,000 machines running Ubuntu have already been located in various public locations as part of a pilot program.

Aside from saving a lot of money on licenses, this change is also expected to encourage the public to use open source to modify their programs and add their own ideas.