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German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

zdnet.com

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Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#41

Post by maglite77 »

breadwinner wrote: post #13
HeavyStorm wrote: post #8

While I work for msft, I'm all for open source, even more in this space - consumer and office apps - however, my government has tried this and rolled it back a while later in some branches, while others just suffer with it. Office is much superior to any open source and even paid alternatives, and we must remember that most people using the software don't have a degree in CS. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the rev…

> Office is much superior to any open source and even paid alternatives Bullshit. The only reason to use Microsoft Office is compatibility with Microsoft Office files. What improvements have been made in the last 10 years in Outlook and Word? Nothing. There are some new bugs that didn't exist before, but no advancements. That's what lack of competition gives you.

While I'll agree the "eye candy updates" may not be there (apart from marketing-driven AI additions and visual updates), there are some big features that aren't visible until you enter the enterprise space. For example, Purview Information Protection [1] and Data Classification integration [2] make data protection, audits/compliance a no-brainer, and are _extremely_ compelling arguments for an integrated suite at the CISO level.

(The downside of course is this is a single-source stack, which can be a risk in of itself)

I have no real background in Libre (apart from using it, which I enjoy), but from cursory searches, there doesn't appear to be equivalent features available (very happy to be wrong here FWIW). Are there alternatives in this space?

[1]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/information-protec... [2]: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/purview/data-classificatio...

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#42

Post by lfkdev »

wolverine876 wrote: post #31

Can LibreOffice on Linux deliver management solutions? Think of 1,000 workstations, a small to mid-sized network: you need software that automates installation, configuration, security, etc. It's not like at home: Even if everyone is in the same building, you can't manually install, configure, change configuration, upgrade, etc. 1,000 times (think about it; not only the time and quality issues, but you'd spend a tota…

Ansible could easily do this

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#43

Post by splittingTimes »

wolverine876 wrote: post #31

Can LibreOffice on Linux deliver management solutions? Think of 1,000 workstations, a small to mid-sized network: you need software that automates installation, configuration, security, etc. It's not like at home: Even if everyone is in the same building, you can't manually install, configure, change configuration, upgrade, etc. 1,000 times (think about it; not only the time and quality issues, but you'd spend a tota…

Your admin uses cfengine for example

https://cfengine.com/

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#44

Post by jseliger »

holografix wrote: post #21

Very hard for me to understand why, in a world of Google docs, anyone would want to deal with the bloated mess that is ms office. I was helping an elderly relative who works as a translator and hasn’t touched a modern version of word in about 5 years. They had a new computer and I got an ms office sub for them. The poor person re-did about 4 hours of their work 3x because they couldn’t find the file MS Word had guara…

Writing/editing offline, complex formatting, familiarity.

I'm not an Excel jockey but friends who are testify to its power and flexibility.

I use Word a lot and the ease of use still beats gdoc's. For example, the macros and the "customize keyboard" options are great. cmd-l for "next edit," cmd-j for "accept and move on," cmd-; for "reject change." The speed is paramount.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#45

Post by canadianfella »

jll29 wrote: post #12
mlok wrote: post #3

Munich did it a few times already since 2003. Last one was in 2020 : https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-not-windows-why-munich-i...

Munich reportedly chickened out of Linux a few years later - due to lobbying.

[dead]

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#47

Post by TheLoafOfBread »

wolverine876 wrote: post #31

Can LibreOffice on Linux deliver management solutions? Think of 1,000 workstations, a small to mid-sized network: you need software that automates installation, configuration, security, etc. It's not like at home: Even if everyone is in the same building, you can't manually install, configure, change configuration, upgrade, etc. 1,000 times (think about it; not only the time and quality issues, but you'd spend a tota…

This is basically core reason why LiMux failed - previous German project doing exactly the same - and will be the reason why this project fails as well.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#48

Post by stateofinquiry »

breadwinner wrote: post #13
HeavyStorm wrote: post #8

While I work for msft, I'm all for open source, even more in this space - consumer and office apps - however, my government has tried this and rolled it back a while later in some branches, while others just suffer with it. Office is much superior to any open source and even paid alternatives, and we must remember that most people using the software don't have a degree in CS. I wouldn't be surprised if we see the rev…

> Office is much superior to any open source and even paid alternatives Bullshit. The only reason to use Microsoft Office is compatibility with Microsoft Office files. What improvements have been made in the last 10 years in Outlook and Word? Nothing. There are some new bugs that didn't exist before, but no advancements. That's what lack of competition gives you.

Objectively there have been an absolutely enormous number of "improvements" to MS office (including Outlook and Word) over the last decade. The biggest is probably cloud/simultaneous editing capabilities. See https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-life-hacks/sto... .

Interestingly, there is a decreased emphasis on the file format- the opposite of your point. In addition to cloudy used on mobile devices, sharepoint, etc; since 2007 or so Word has used docx, which has better cross compatibility with other suites, even Google Docs: https://www.howtogeek.com/304622/what-is-a-.docx-file-and-ho... .

My personal use patterns- I use LibreOffice quite a bit, Google Docs rarely, and MS Office daily for work. Outlook and Word have changed a lot and continue to evolve (watch for copilot integrations).

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#49

Post by paulryanrogers »

dataflow wrote: post #17
bkor wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Office is much superior to any open source and even paid alternatives, and we must remember that most people using the software don't have a degree in CS. Germany is investing in improving free software, see https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/ . Though not sure if this is linked to that state switching. I think LibreOffice is riddled with loads of small "paper cuts". Basically loads of small issues that make it annoy…

> I hope that they understand it shouldn't be about cost, it should be about being sovereign Makes sense in principle, but practically speaking Germany would seem to have higher priority threats to address than software from the United States?

Countries are big. They can do more than one thing at a time.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#50

Post by jolmg »

schmichael wrote: post #37
wolverine876 wrote: post #31

Can LibreOffice on Linux deliver management solutions? Think of 1,000 workstations, a small to mid-sized network: you need software that automates installation, configuration, security, etc. It's not like at home: Even if everyone is in the same building, you can't manually install, configure, change configuration, upgrade, etc. 1,000 times (think about it; not only the time and quality issues, but you'd spend a tota…

Linux has directories and config/package/fleet management as well. No one in the past 20 years should be walking to every desk in 1,000 desk building installing software.

> No one in the past 20 years should be walking to every desk in 1,000 desk building installing software.

Maybe even 50 years, if one considers that they could've automated the installations through telnet.

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