Reports coming from the local council of the small southern Germany city of Schwäbisch Hall are rising eyebrows worldwide.

The council, which in late 2002 abandoned Microsoft software in favor of Linux, used sneaky tactics. Speaking at the Open Source for Local Government conference in London, Horst Bräuner - the civil servant responsible for implementing the migration - conceded that the clincher  was his choice of a woman to demo the software.

The UK site silicon.com reports Bräuner's explanation as follows:

"We put the chairwoman of our workers' council on stage in front of all the municipal workers, and showed her using the new system. After that, we found that no man would say that he couldn't use his PC now that everyone knew a woman could do it."

The migration issue wasn't a cakewalk. "I became the most hated person in the municipality," Bräuner said. "So, to people who didn't like it I gave away Linux T-shirts and stuffed penguins."

The silicon.com report also explains that Linux gaming played its role.

Other users were upset that they could no longer run the front cover CD-ROMs from their favourite computer magazines at work, or keep their old screensavers. These feelings were assuaged, Bräuner says, once it became clear that games did run on Linux ...

As is now well known, the first large city to follow suit after Schwäbisch Hall was Munich. Just in time, as Bräuner notes: "Private screensavers and computer magazine CDs might not work in Linux, but on the other hand the MyDoom virus doesn't either." .

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