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

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#351

Post by Isolus » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 8:35 PM UTC

elygre wrote: post #152

Isolus wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they didn't. That happened for example in Munich. But that is on the other side of Germany. And there is already a joke that MS can't move their german headquarters every time a state or big city want's to move away from MS products. (They did this when Munich changed back to MS producs - but of course this was pure coincidence.)

Microsoft started building their new Munich headquarters in 2013/2014. Their old headquarters were already immediately outside Munich. For example, the Munich airport is further away from Munch city than the old headquarters were. The decision to revert to a Microsoft Platform was taken in November 2017.

Yes, the final decision to revert to Microsoft was taken in 2017. But in 2014, the mayor of Munich began an investigation into how to return to Microsoft products. And he was also the one who negotiated the location of the headquarters with Microsoft in 2013.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#352

Post by joshxyz » Fri, Apr 05, 2024, 11:00 PM UTC

icemelt8 wrote: post #23

Genuine question, is there any other professional field in the world where people work for free like how Software Engineers work in open source?

pro bono aka volunteer work that hones their skills

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#353

Post by NekkoDroid » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 12:01 AM UTC

FloatArtifact wrote: post #299

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

They already do at least a bit :)

https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#354

Post by mbs159 » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 8:12 AM UTC

zelphirkalt wrote: post #185

Less of my tax money into the hands of companies that do comply with EU law, ergo criminals, great! I hope they have some solution in mind for cooperatively working on documents. That seems to be a big hurdle. Maybe some Nextcloud thing, that outputs ODT and only for locally working using LO? Or does LO offer collaborative features now?

Someone is salty as hell, chill bro. Also, calling Microsoft a company that complies with EU law is kind of funny. I guess they must be constantly fined due to some prejudice?

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#355

Post by jamwil » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 10:27 PM UTC

josefx wrote: post #341

tiahura wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

office365 is a crippled mess. Strong “I have no idea what I’m talking about” vibe here.

It is not like there are pages describing just what excels web version cannot display or dozens of features that the web versions break because they cannot handle them correctly (like connectors).

Correct the web version is not a 1:1 swap but the desktop version has been a stable product used by millions for decades. Most users use the desktop version and indeed it has few compatibility issues with itself.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#356

Post by josefx » Sat, Apr 06, 2024, 11:49 PM UTC

jamwil wrote: post #355

josefx wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is not like there are pages describing just what excels web version cannot display or dozens of features that the web versions break because they cannot handle them correctly (like connectors).

Correct the web version is not a 1:1 swap but the desktop version has been a stable product used by millions for decades. Most users use the desktop version and indeed it has few compatibility issues with itself.

Well the point wasn't "desktop vs. web version" but showing that compatibility issues are common even within the proprietary products of a single vendor, something which one of the previous comments implied wouldn't be the case. If you have to fixate on a single, non portable product (lets not talk about office for Mac) then you can easily get consistency from LibreOffice as well.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#357

Post by coffeeling » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 12:39 AM UTC

rawgabbit wrote: post #318

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what you consider ideal conditions, but we do it all the time. It's pretty common for me to be reviewing a document and see the avatars of other people who are simultaneously reviewing and editing it. I've been doing this for years and have yet to have a problem. Sharing multiple copies of the "same" file is where the problems come in.

There are multiple issues. [1] If you drag/drop or upload the file to Teams, it creates a copy and shares it via Teams SharePoint? [2] If you look in Teams, some people have automatic permissions because they are in the Team or already have access to the Teams folder. If they are not in the Team, then you have to give "direct access". [3] For the paranoid, you first go into OneDrive and "manage access". Then you are…

With Teams, the distinction is pretty easy: Within a Team, the file gets uploaded to the Team's SharePoint site. If you share a file in the Chat module, it gets uploaded to your own OneDrive.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#358

Post by coffeeling » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 12:51 AM UTC

morsch wrote: post #76

Rinzler89 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how do you do that? You think EU companies will stop buying Office 365 subscriptions to reduce their dependency on the US? Companies buy Office 365 subscriptions so they can focus on their main business and don't want to think about their office solution and want something that JustWorks which is already compatible with what everyone else uses. They have a business to run and money to makes, so spending extra tim…

Governments can take a longer and more strategic outlook than private enterprises. It's not even primarily about nationalistic trade wars: I want my tax euros to fund as little closed-source software as possible. It's crazy how much money even just our schools spend for software that can't be freely redistributed or modified. That said, I'm not holding my breath regarding the success of this most recent move.

I mean, even aside that? If you spend the money on European developers instead, that's jobs and tax dollars here.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#359

Post by coffeeling » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 1:20 AM UTC

mminer237 wrote: post #211

prmoustache wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And I don't buy the argument that a document not being formated correctly is costly. People mostly don't care and when real administrative stuff needs to be shared it is done via pdf forms where the output is controlled.

Trying to collaborate and send revisions to each other is a nightmare when you are using different programs. You spend way more time fixing the nth mangling or redoing the other's changes in your copy than you do actually getting work done.

Thus probably why they said LibreOffice would be compulsory.

Re: German state moving 30k PCs to LibreOffice

#360

Post by Aerbil313 » Sun, Apr 07, 2024, 1:50 AM UTC

This is the best thing to happen to Linux desktop, ever. Linux has dominated the server OS market since a long time. This is likely be the butterfly’s wing, the trigger to make Linux desktop break into consumer market. Libreoffice will likely get much more investment after this, likely triggering a cascade of investments to the desktop Linux ecosystem.