German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice • Hacker News Board

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#31

Post by valenaut » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

ginko wrote: post #10

raxxorrax wrote: post #2

Awesome. I know how people in offices work and for their use cases LibreOffice has become the safer and more fitting choice. Yes, MS Office isn't bad and I wouldn't pull Excel from the dead hands of physicists, but the whole MS cloud deal is bad for government.

> I wouldn't pull Excel from the dead hands of physicists Accountants I understand but physicists? I'd have thought they mostly use Matlab or maybe Mathematica.

My physics undergrad had about equal parts Mathematica (for theoretical subjects), MATLAB (for engineering crossover), Python (for CS), and Excel (for labs).

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#32

Post by raspyberr » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

RedShift1 wrote: post #30

nivenkos wrote: post #24

Now switch to Linux too. The more we invest together, the easier it becomes. German states can help Spanish states, and Finnish schools, Danish universities, and French businesses, etc. - collaboratively investing so that everyone benefits and Europe can build its own Tech industry and have some independence from the US. This is absolutely critical to move away from the dominance of "Big Tech" to FOSS solutions that…

I agree with your arguments but the Linux desktop sucks, I would never want to use it full time let alone support it (note that I used to be a full time Linux desktop user, I left after KDE 4 came about). Linus Tech Tips is running a series on desktop Linux and they are hitting the hammer on the nail where exactly all the pain points are.

I can imagine Linux desktop being made to work pretty well for a constrained work environment like an office.

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#33

Post by kall » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

OneTimePetes wrote: post #21

Would be nice to have a german software culture. But all we got is politicians who wish for that and then turn a blind eye on fraudsters like WireCard. Something is missing from the german cultural dna, that our neighbours have.(Swiss,Luxemburg, Belgians, Chechen Republic, Poland, Litauen). Seems the most important thing to be big in software in europe, is to foremost be not german ;)

Feels like a good chunk of OSS development is happening in germany. By some accounts, the entirety of linux is being ruined by one german. The biggest software companies like SAP are maybe not shining examples, but when you go lower, there‘s a lot of good stuff. What differences do you see to the other European countries? Who‘s big in those countries?

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#34

Post by 1234letshaveatw » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:06 PM UTC

nivenkos wrote: post #24

Now switch to Linux too. The more we invest together, the easier it becomes. German states can help Spanish states, and Finnish schools, Danish universities, and French businesses, etc. - collaboratively investing so that everyone benefits and Europe can build its own Tech industry and have some independence from the US. This is absolutely critical to move away from the dominance of "Big Tech" to FOSS solutions that…

That sounds so wonderful! Hopefully the US can also come together by divesting from European goods and services and also participate in this independence movement!

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#35

Post by bserge » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:07 PM UTC

throwaway123x2 wrote: post #12

MS Office was so much more functional and nicer to use than libreoffice when I last checked.

You should definitely check again. Office 2010 is over a decade old now, it's been going downhill ever since.

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#36

Post by whalesalad » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

I tried to use LibreOffice recently and that lasted about 30 seconds. Terrible software.

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#37

Post by nawgz » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

1234letshaveatw wrote: post #34

nivenkos wrote: post #24

Now switch to Linux too. The more we invest together, the easier it becomes. German states can help Spanish states, and Finnish schools, Danish universities, and French businesses, etc. - collaboratively investing so that everyone benefits and Europe can build its own Tech industry and have some independence from the US. This is absolutely critical to move away from the dominance of "Big Tech" to FOSS solutions that…

That sounds so wonderful! Hopefully the US can also come together by divesting from European goods and services and also participate in this independence movement!

Trade might be a good thing in general, but this comment is a bit reductionist with respect to the role of US Big Tech in suppressing and controlling EU tech

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#38

Post by hulitu » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:08 PM UTC

emteycz wrote: post #15

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Seems to be a running trend in Germany to move toward open software. Yeah, until the Ms sales guys wine and dine some German politicians and promise to build a new campus in $BIG_CITY that creates ## jobs, then they suddenly decide to renew their windows and office licenses instead. Rinse and repeat.

Sure, it has nothing to do with overall better UX that the actual users of these computers require, it's all corruption.

Better UI ? Ten years ago, yes. Now the UI in Office 365 is a disaster. And yes, some german politicians are very sensitive when money starts to flow.

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#39

Post by jhgs » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:09 PM UTC

Has been done multiple times before. Re-training users and increased support expenses usually nullify any license cost savings over time.

Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

#40

Post by jhgs » Thu, Nov 18, 2021, 2:10 PM UTC

RedShift1 wrote: post #30

nivenkos wrote: post #24

Now switch to Linux too. The more we invest together, the easier it becomes. German states can help Spanish states, and Finnish schools, Danish universities, and French businesses, etc. - collaboratively investing so that everyone benefits and Europe can build its own Tech industry and have some independence from the US. This is absolutely critical to move away from the dominance of "Big Tech" to FOSS solutions that…

I agree with your arguments but the Linux desktop sucks, I would never want to use it full time let alone support it (note that I used to be a full time Linux desktop user, I left after KDE 4 came about). Linus Tech Tips is running a series on desktop Linux and they are hitting the hammer on the nail where exactly all the pain points are.

>Linus Tech Tips

Sorry