German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice • Hacker News Board

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#291

Post by bee_rider » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:16 PM UTC

7thaccount wrote: post #258

Stranger43 wrote: post #7

The germans have been tinkering with policies mandating non-cloud dependent products for a while wondering if this is a start of it actually getting implemented on a large scale or if the delay attempts will remain successful elsewhere across the region. If this is a start of an actual migration away from cloud dependence, it's a matter of time before windows(which is as cloud dependent as office those days for enter…

I figured the stated move to open source was a bluff to get a lower license cost.

I could swear this has happened before…

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#292

Post by jofaz » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:18 PM UTC

lrvick wrote: post #109

pixelpoet wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the americans exclusively use MS Office in government computers?

Yes. Most schools too. Microsoft has incredible political power here.

Not as much as it used to be, now that they can do most of what they need with Google's free apps

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#293

Post by TheCleric » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:19 PM UTC

nokeya wrote: post #44

China started the process of switching from x86 to own architecture (loong-something if I recall correctly). Where Microsoft is essentially not present. I think they use Microsoft products a lot like any other governments. So we might see a big switch to libreoffice soon

Even North Korea has their own linux distro: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Star_OS

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#294

Post by boringg » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:21 PM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #236

deaddodo wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it? I thought local installs still function offline for up to 48 hours, as long as you haven't passed the last synced expiry date? At least, that's how it used to function way back when I used it and had a not-always-online connection.

It doesn’t. These guys are probably still upset about the ribbon. Microsoft is not my favorite company. But the only reason O365 has been down for days is when customer integrations (identity, security stuff, VPN rules, etc) break. That was even true in the early days before 365 branding. Source: I’ve been accountable for 250k+ user O365 environments as a customer director or VP for over a decade.

Really? Or did that not make its way up the chain of command? None of your 250k+ accounts had issues because they didn't connect to the internet? What about license renewals - did anyone get shut out of their account immediately because they missed a license renewal date and happy to be off the internet?

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#295

Post by rawgabbit » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:28 PM UTC

andsoitis wrote: post #253

daeros wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sane policy. Every time Office 365 is down I watch the maddening dash of IT workers who can't get anything done, it's amusing.

> sane policy. Every time Office 365 is down I watch the maddening dash of IT workers who can't get anything done, it's amusing. While there might be issues with Office 365's reliability (I don't know, I use Google Docs), the online collaborative capabilities is a fantastic tradeoff. Mailing individual files amongst a group of collaborators impede productivity (even though it has other benefits). You could make the a…

Hmmm. Compared to Google Docs and Google Drive, Microsoft's collaboration is just bizarre.

Yes, under ideal conditions, teams of people technically could use Microsoft to edit and review documents online at the same time. I have yet to see it in a real world setting. Often times, where I work, we just get confused by OneDrive's links vs direct sharing vs personal onedrive vs sharepoint onedrive. And we end up sharing multiple copies of the same file on Teams which is another source of confusion.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#296

Post by prmoustache » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:32 PM UTC

LunaSea wrote: post #271

prmoustache wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The initial premise is wrong for a start. You don't need a cloud to efficiently develop software. I've worked in companies that were running kubernetes on prem. It was a PITA for kubernetes ops but from a developer perspective it wasn't much different than using the cloud in a large company. Cloud is very flexible for very small orgs that have little processes but once you get into a certain size with lots of process…

> You don't need a cloud to efficiently develop software. I've worked in companies that were running kubernetes on prem. It was a PITA for kubernetes ops but from a developer perspective it wasn't much different than using the cloud in a large company. EC2 servers and Kubernetes are a very small part of what is necessary to run complex applications. > Cloud is very flexible for very small orgs that have little proces…

>Friends working at banks have to make formal requests for new versions of Python that months to be accepted.

And I have been asked by my manager to help a different team and I am still waiting 10 days later to get access to the necessary AWS account.

These kinds of problems are organizational, not technical. Thinking cloud solutions solve organizational issues magically is naive and delusional.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#297

Post by 1970-01-01 » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:34 PM UTC

jraph wrote: post #276

1970-01-01 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I predict it will yet fail again. Desktop Linux maintains it's bad reputation very well, and 20 years is just enough time for everyone to forget the details. Unless they have an insane user to IT ratio (perhaps 6:1), the adoption pain points will soon be rediscovered and overwhelm the project.

Do you have actual elements? Actual pain points? The details you are mentioning?

The simple fact that 30 years got the Linux Desktop to 3% desktop market share should be a very loud signal that this isn't going to work.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#298

Post by f_allwein » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:41 PM UTC

mschuster91 wrote: post #226

jonesjohnson wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a sad story. My spouse is working for the city in some legal department and she was happily using LiMux for years with no big issues. The main problem was that the IT department was understaffed and underpaid... One reason for their switch might be that Microsoft thought about opening up a big office here. Another reason might have been the study conducted by Accenture [1], who have some close ties to Microsoft.…

> It's a sad story. My spouse is working for the city in some legal department and she was happily using LiMux for years with no big issues. The main problem was that the IT department was understaffed and underpaid... I worked on LiMux in the developer team at the start of my career. HN is a village, lol. And the situation is more complex, and long enough has passed for me to detail out what actually were the proble…

So interesting - Dankeschön for sharing!

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#299

Post by FloatArtifact » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 3:42 PM UTC

Stranger43 wrote: post #7

The germans have been tinkering with policies mandating non-cloud dependent products for a while wondering if this is a start of it actually getting implemented on a large scale or if the delay attempts will remain successful elsewhere across the region. If this is a start of an actual migration away from cloud dependence, it's a matter of time before windows(which is as cloud dependent as office those days for enter…

I hope they set aside some budget/resources to contribute back to the open source ecosystem

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#300

Post by outcoldman » Thu, Apr 04, 2024, 4:19 PM UTC

Russia had the same story when about 15 years ago they tried to move their postal service away from Microsoft. They spent a lot of money to teach personal, and I believe it was a disaster at the end. Microsoft just gave them a discount later and they stayed on Microsoft products.

B2B is expensive, but so many companies just don’t understand how much money they will have to spend on education and support. Not sure what is the story with LibreOffice, if they are getting it with support or not.