This is the annual shakedown to lower Microsoft license costs with threats
German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
211–220 of 368 posts
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you could save money by switching to Linux from Windows, I’d expect to see much more Linux machines in corporations.
I only saw linux machines in SE companies so far (at least remote ones). Maybe, just maybe, it is because non-tech people 1) cant handle it as cli is needed from time to time 2) because personal preferences & habits make it almost impossible to "force" using linux on staff..?
3) Excel macros and VBscript
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not the parent but I'll answer as a 9 years Linux user and advocate. Things just break with updates, or sometimes do not work. I'm on Ubuntu 20 right now and Firefox can't detect the microphone on some websites like FB or instagram, but works just fine on Chrome. On my home computer running Arch and similar setup Firefox detects the mic just fine. It's brittle, it feels like it's duct tapes all the way down and t…
Your example sounds more like typical Firefox to me. While I use it as my daily driver, video calls should always be done in Chrome in my experience. (Yeah, I know that is not exactly a point in favor of free software but it is what it is.) Honestly at least relative to the general mood of the software industry I wouldn't say that foss projects don't care about backwards compatibility. The kernel is famous for caring…
Why are you doing video calls in a browser in the first place ?
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#214I'm all for using free / open source where it makes sense and is cost effective. And frankly, Office is probably overkill for most of the actual needs of users. Having said that, I tried making a three page brochure a year ago, using the most recent LibreOffice release at the time. Just a mix of some screenshots and paragraphs of text. It was just too slow to be useable. On the same computer, Google Docs running in t…
As much as I want to support libreOffice, my experience has been the same as yours. The whole office suite just feels so janky/stutter-y/not-smooth. Its like there are fps drops or slight pauses before many actions. It is quite irritating. Also on a hidpi/4k display, many things still do not scale properly.
I wonder if there some specific bug you’re both hitting? I have a modest workstation and have not experienced this (fwiw 99% Writer/Calc, with the occasional slideshow)
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#215I really would like to pay to use a viable alternative for MS Office on Linux that’s not clunky like Libre Office. I’m trying Softmaker program now and it’s fairly decent.
Have you tried WPS? https://www.wps.com/
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#216I think what people get wrong with FOSS is, they assume that it's free as in beer.
If I was a big company or national government planning on moving to FOSS I wouldn't count on a cost saving at all. Instead I'd take all that licence money 'saved', ring fence it, donate half of it to the opensource projects being used (to pay full time developers to maintain them), and half to a contract developer house to create and contribute the features that turn out to be missing.
Secure software that works well and does boring useful things costs money. All FOSS does is let you choose who you pay to do that work.
Unfortunately, due to how organisations work, it is much harder to create and defend this 'optional' expenditure into the future than it is to just keep paying software subscriptions that turn the lights out if you stop.
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#217Excel is 100x better than any alternative I’ve used (it’s been a while since I used an open source version though). Any savings would be offset by loss of productivity if it’s a spreadsheet heavy workflow. MS software is good, I don’t know how much it costs for enterprise but it’s probably dwarfed by employment costs.
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#218I feel like I've read this exact headline like 5 times over the last 7 years
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was a post-mortem of the Munich project published anywhere? Some people may remember the hype over the One Laptop Per Child Project, which had a noble mission that many people could get behind. In 2011 I heard from someone at MIT who criticized aspects of the program such as no real planning for support when the devices broke down in the field. Other issues came out years later, including unrealistic cost estimates a…
It's a shame it failed and there are no real cheap netbooks anymore (aside from Chromebooks). I used an Acer Aspire One when travelling through Germany as a student (to research jobs and conferences) - and it was amazing being able to program and write papers on such a small device. Reading about the hardware issues reminds me a lot of the ZX Spectrum reviews (especially the keyboard!) - keeping a low price means a l…
The modern equivalent is a tablet with its corresponding type cover.
Re: German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
#220I think what people get wrong with FOSS is, they assume that it's free as in beer. If I was a big company or national government planning on moving to FOSS I wouldn't count on a cost saving at all. Instead I'd take all that licence money 'saved', ring fence it, donate half of it to the opensource projects being used (to pay full time developers to maintain them), and half to a contract developer house to create and c…
> All FOSS does is let you choose who you pay to do that work.
Until Amazon makes it available as AWS and corners the market. Then you're paying the largest vendor again.
The only reason this hasn't happened to desktop linux is because the market share is so small. (Oh wait -- Red Hat, OpenSuse, etc.)