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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

#221

Post by Shorel »

csdreamer7 wrote: post #23
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…

> 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. My mom had to buy a copy of MS Office. Her university provided free ms office online, but there were certain features missing from it she needed for her papers. I am remembering wrong, but it was annotations? Citations? I do not remember. Libreoffice kinda could do it, but I could not fi…

Annotations, citations, bibliography management I can understand, even if I use LaTeX for that and consider it a far superior tool.

But video recording and streaming? Why would anyone prefer to use MS Office for that when OBS exists?

Is it as obnoxious as having to use Teams for chat?

That's certainly a case of having a hammer and thinking all problems are nails xD

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#222

Post by xeornet »

korginator wrote: post #219

My current and past employers are all-in with Microsoft because (like it or not) managing large corporate fleets is easier. Our Linux and Mac machines are treated as exceptions. This has nothing to do with user experience, it's all about risk management. If we need some software on our Mac, we need to sign a waiver accepting responsibility for any security issues. With the corporate issued windows laptops the IT depa…

That’s because their primary setup is Microsoft based.

The opposite is true for Apple-first companies.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#223

Post by antod »

ramijames wrote: post #130
mandevil wrote: post #109

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?

I'll admit, I miss Slashdot.

Yeah, it was a sad day when Netcraft confirmed it was dying.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#224

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#225

Post by mandevil »

dannyphantom wrote: post #134
mandevil wrote: post #109

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?

Oh wow, I wasn't really online at that point in my life but I wanted to read more about it - were these the articles/threads you remember? Munich Finally Starts to Embrace Linux, September 26, 2006 - https://slashdot.org/story/06/09/26/0236246/munich-finally-s... Munich Reverses Course, May Ditch Linux For Microsoft, August 18, 2014 - https://linux.slashdot.org/story/14/08/18/2219253/munich-rev...

Those articles for sure, but my memory is that it came up an awful lot in most linux slashdot discussions: Munich was cited the proof that this now was finally the time that normies would use desktop Linux, it was just turning the corner, this time definitely. Definitely remember going rounds with people over whether OpenOffice would be the spear to destroy the evil MS/Wintel monopoly (this discussion was definitely before the LibreOffice fork and Oracle murdering original flavor OpenOffice) and Munich was the main example to discuss.

Of course, nowadays there are more *nix based GUI's in the world than Windows: between all of the various Apple products (XNU) and Android (Linux) you have the vast majority of the consumer GUI's in the world. Because most of us wasting our time in the linux slashdot forums missed how the world was actually going to change.

Any resemblance to us now sitting around on Hacker News is purely coincidental I'm sure.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#226

Post by datavirtue »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #125
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…

The popularity of all these paper emulators seems odd to me. Like, how long after the advent of software will it take before our workflows find their authentic shape? Or was that shape really just a list of flat rectangles all along?

I love the question as I'm constantly faced with the absurdity of user-hostile software. It was supposed to be built to help humans. Instead it creates PTSD.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#227

Post by 7thaccount »

CharlesW wrote: post #63
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…

> 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.

Mostly because of network effects and wanting software that will be supported for another three decades potentially and can open my document long-term. Google cancels products all the time and has practically no vision.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#228

Post by francisdavey »

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.

As a commercial lawyer, I often have to exchange drafts with another lawyer somewhere else. Almost everyone will accept Word, far fewer are happy with a Google doc. Obviously I can generate a Word document from Google, but that isn't quite the same.

A specific problem in this scenario is tracked changes. Google has a history/version control but it does not map particularly well onto Word's tracked changes, which the other party will understand and is likely to want to use. Passing things into and out of Google will often result in loss of useful information like that.

Personally: Word is the absolute best piece of software for dealing with numbered lists that is easily available. In many ways it is terrible of course, but it is less terrible than anything else. Getting numbering right is important.

Google has gotten better. It used to be very bad at larger and more complicated documents. But it still doesn't have all I need to write a really good contract (at least by my standards of "really good").

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#229

Post by wolverine876 »

pmontra wrote: post #40
okasaki wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wealth only matters in comparison to others, and Europe is poorer than ever compared to other regions.

In relative values it's worse than 100 years ago, better than 1000 years ago. Absolute values are also important. It's still much better than 100 years ago. And then so many people migrate to Europe from the Americas, Africa and Asia. It shouldn't be so bad after all.

> In relative values it's worse than 100 years ago

Relative to what? 1926 was after WWI devestated Europe and I think Germany would have been in very bad shape from the Versailles Treaty.

Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

#230

Post by sgustard »

shiroiushi wrote: post #186
Difwif wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many microcosms with tech. I'm always reminded here on HN how terrible Office is and why we don't just use Google Docs. I hold this same opinion personally. However I go to other communities (I think the last one I remember was some startup subreddit) and GSuite is being mocked and everyone is recommending Office and Teams as the obvious choice for starting your business. I assume it's just that we prefer the devi…

>and GSuite is being mocked and everyone is recommending Office and Teams as the obvious choice for starting your business. These must be paid shills. While it's actually quite understandable why real people and businesses would want to use and recommend MS Office, no one in their right mind actually thinks Teams is the best video chat tool in the world. Any serious business uses Zoom, Slack, etc.

Unfortunately my "serious business" of $2B revenue dropped Zoom and Slack like a hot rock when they signed an enterprise Microsoft deal, because Teams is free, and usability, productivity and job satisfaction be damned, and your jobs are moving overseas anyway and nobody dares complain there.
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