Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

zdnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 333 posts

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#101

Post by ishtanbul »

pphysch wrote: post #79
worldsayshi wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What features in Office are essential for those users that you don't get from Google? If you're talking about Excel I can imagine there are such features but not so much in other apps.

I think it's less about feature parity and more that the users have spent tens of thousands of hours in MS office and don't want to relearn all the shortcuts and menus and subtle behaviors -- muscle memory stuff.

All the plugins for excel, word and powerpoint integration. And we have to be able to send attachments with actual files, not links. Law firms and banks are pretty set in their ways here. It has to be office and windows. Google sheets doesn’t remotely compare to excel for serious financial modeling.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#102

Post by nerdile »

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…

When the reverse happens, it generally doesn't make the news.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#103

Post by xw38011 »

worldsayshi wrote: post #75
CharlesW wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. For knowledge workers who live in these tools, the difference is stark. Even for companies who've standardized on Google Workspace or Apple iWork, advanced users will need Microsoft Office.

What features in Office are essential for those users that you don't get from Google? If you're talking about Excel I can imagine there are such features but not so much in other apps.

> What features in Office are essential for those users that you don't get from Google?

Backward compatibility with existing documents that are already in Word. Also, for those knowledge workers who aren’t in tech, the high likelihood that the recipient can open the document with correct formatting.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#104

Post by UberFly »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #92
CharlesW wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. For knowledge workers who live in these tools, the difference is stark. Even for companies who've standardized on Google Workspace or Apple iWork, advanced users will need Microsoft Office.

In that case, they can use FreeOffice, whose office suite is indistinguishable from MS Office and works on Mac and Linux! (Granted, I say that as someone who very much does not live in those tools except as a rare hardship imposed by normies society.)

Suggestions based on ignorance of the product isn't the best place to start.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#105

Post by chris_wot »

TheLoafOfBread wrote: post #47
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.

ORLY? My understanding is that LiMux failed because the then mayor was trying to get Microsoft to move to Munich.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#106

Post by chris_wot »

yayr wrote: post #6

1. Every software needs resources to be maintained and improved. Those resources finally will need to be paid for by someone. 2. Getting Linux and LibreOffice does not get you a functioning productivity environment. You still need mail, calendars, shared document storage, web conferencing, security etc. There are various levels of usability in those and on basic levels you could get those already 30 years ago mostly.…

lol the latest Microsoft Outlook removed a ton of features. Like for instance, you can no longer drag and drop emails and attachments!

All of the above things you talk about have solutions in the Open Source space.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#107

Post by chris_wot »

FdbkHb wrote: post #99
sega_sai wrote: post #35

I have been using Libreoffice/OpenOffice continuously pretty much for last 20 years (mostly Impress/presentation part for teaching/presentations). And the number of bugs, crashes, issues with video etc occasionally gets very annoying. I was hoping over the years things would improve, but I don't quite see that unfortunately. If I could get something to replace LibreOffice that is not online and works on Linux I would…

The other parts aren't much better either. Calc is unbearably slow on large spreadsheets. It's always been a janky and stuttery experience and the massive improvements in computer performance (CPU, SSD etc) have never managed to bring it up to par, you can see how much faster Word loads even on a simple document compared to Writer. It's been that way since before it became open source: Star Office made you look at it…

There has been a lot of work on performance in Calc. Do you have a concrete example of such slowness nowadays, or has it been a while since you last opened a large spreadsheet?

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#108

Post by bombcar »

jeremyjh wrote: post #85
worldsayshi wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What features in Office are essential for those users that you don't get from Google? If you're talking about Excel I can imagine there are such features but not so much in other apps.

It’s always mainly about Excel, but some people are really set on Outlook, too.

From my experience it is Excel first, PowerPoint second, followed by Outlook and, last, Word.

The order varies depending on what you do, each can become absolutely critical.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#109

Post by mandevil »

I'm sorry, what year is it? Am I posting on Slashdot still? Is this year finally going to be the year where Linux desktops become something for normies?

When Munich did this it never got to a majority of their desktops, is my recollection, it maxed out in the 40%s. Now we're going to do it all over again with a different, much poorer, German state?

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#110

Post by tredre3 »

Frankly I am shocked that they went with LibreOffice over OnlyOffice.

OnlyOffice supports online collaboration already, works online and offline, and has a much more familiar interface. Compatibility is also better with MS Office documents.

OnlyOffice is developed online-first but they provide an electron app that works fully offline on all OSes: https://www.onlyoffice.com/download-desktop.aspx?from=deskto...

Yep, an electron app is better than native LibreOffice. That's how low the bar is currently.

Post reply on HN