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Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

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Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#201

Post by BenFranklin100 »

seanieb wrote: post #191
BenFranklin100 wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is blatant nonsense. The best security choice for any small business that doesn’t have a dedicated full time security staff is Microsoft 365.

Have you admined a Google Apps account and an MS365 account? I'm curious why you think Microsoft is more secure? For me they are completely different, Google is secure by default, Microsoft is not. Do you have "Direct Send" enabled on your account for example?

Because outside of a handful of nerdy tech companies, all small businesses need to use Microsoft Office. From there, it’s a no brainer to stay in the MS ecosystem and use Sharepoint etc…

For a small business without a dedicated IT team, simply hire a IT contractor to harden the tenant (MFA etc…), have them review every six months and be done with it and focus your resources on running your business.

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#202

Post by freehorse »

lukan wrote: post #195
Loughla wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What were the goals for Afghanistan?

Destroying Al Quaida and their host, the Taliban. Al Quaida might be gone, but I believe Taliban are in power today and the US left in a not so glorious way after giving up fighting them.

Not just "giving up fighting them": when the US decided to leave, the taliban were in a stronger position than they were before the US invaded (eg they controlled a bigger part of the country and had much less opposition inside afghanistan). The war was already lost long before the US decided to leave.

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#203

Post by vanschelven »

arianvanp wrote: post #194

I studied at Utrecht University and all the programming classes in the Bachelor were C#, Visual Studio, XNA, DirectX. Windows. Database class i had to learn in Proprietary Microsoft tools too. All Microsoft stuff. Sure nobody would complain if you did stuff on Linux but all the support by TAs and teachers was on Microsoft platforms only.. The Master was much better but the Bachelor basically was grooming people to be…

Surely not _all_ the courses... Utrecht was and is big on Haskell as you know... Given that you TA'd a course on it :)

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#204

Post by dmos62 »

arianvanp wrote: post #194

I studied at Utrecht University and all the programming classes in the Bachelor were C#, Visual Studio, XNA, DirectX. Windows. Database class i had to learn in Proprietary Microsoft tools too. All Microsoft stuff. Sure nobody would complain if you did stuff on Linux but all the support by TAs and teachers was on Microsoft platforms only.. The Master was much better but the Bachelor basically was grooming people to be…

And same goes for less technical disciplines too. Adobe, Autodesk, Archicad, etc. It's pretty bad software: expensive, very buggy, poor extensibility, poorly maintained, closed-source, rapid tech debt accumulation requires upgrading your pc every few years. If only a minor percentage of organizations licensing it would instead spend that budget financing an open source project, that would have a very positive effect for everyone. I can somewhat understand private businesses not thinking long-term, but public institutions paying licensing fees instead of financing open-source seems like plain incompetence. Then again, maybe there's a lack of open-source initiatives willing to spearhead this.

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#205

Post by freehorse »

rorylawless wrote: post #145
trinix912 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about running a few mail server, network shares, and an office suite (LibreOffice if you want). Any university's in-house IT department should be able to pull that off, and it's exactly what many did for a very long time.

If Universities are anything like other large public/public-adjacent organizations, the bulk of the in-house IT department was long since replaced by Microsoft resellers posing as IT. It’s insidious.

Not all universities in Europe are like this, but some are 100% like this. But if there was a larger political directive towards a more autonomous solution, it would eventually work, I think.

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#206

Post by NedF »

arianvanp wrote: post #194

I studied at Utrecht University and all the programming classes in the Bachelor were C#, Visual Studio, XNA, DirectX. Windows. Database class i had to learn in Proprietary Microsoft tools too. All Microsoft stuff. Sure nobody would complain if you did stuff on Linux but all the support by TAs and teachers was on Microsoft platforms only.. The Master was much better but the Bachelor basically was grooming people to be…

[dead]

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#207

Post by canpan »

arethuza wrote: post #23

When I did a 4 year CS degree at a UK university in the 1980s I don't think I touched anything from Microsoft for the entire time I was there!

Same here in 2000s, studying CS was completely MS free. The professors mostly used linux or Mac anyhow. The university system for students was web based. Papers were written in LaTeX with official template. The email system was hosted by the university and not based on outlook. Math related professors did not even use a PC at all during class but a blackboard/OHP/paper. So I don't see a problem for the netherlands..

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#208

Post by tamimio »

Not just in education, but even at work, companies or even governments would rather have MS, for example, paying them hefty contracts, while hiring borderline minimum wage workers to run such systems. I remember I had similar arguments with an executive before, and I recommended hiring competent people and using alternative tools. The answer was simple: "We don't want to have XYZ department relying on this person/group, but rather on this big popular company." They thought they were mitigating the risk, only to put all their eggs in one basket!

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#209

Post by mcv »

YC9834689 wrote: post #159
ta20240528 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The usa couldnt handle Aghanistan. Now they are invading continental Europe? As I said, still licking the car battery.

Most European countries barely have a standing military to defend themselves, they're completely dependent on the USA for defense through NATO. And their leadership is so docile and complacent that I can't see them being able to muster up a strong resistance to any incursion, most likely if there was an actual invasion of The Hague they would let America do what they need to and try to return back to business as usua…

The EU put together has the second largest military in the world.

> And their leadership is so docile and complacent

That is the real issue.

Re: Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

#210

Post by machomaster »

LPisGood wrote: post #88
seanieb wrote: post #21

I spent the past year working for a company that relies heavily on Microsoft for email, productivity tools, and identity management. After that experience, I can say with confidence: never again. The support is astonishingly poor, and user experience feels like an afterthought. More importantly, using Microsoft at scale can leave your organization fundamentally insecure. The obscure, insecure defaults are, at best, d…

What kind of obscure insecure defaults are there?

Obscure from a typical user's POV: the fact that file extensions are not being shown by default. This makes it possible for the user to click on a file that has the extension and the icon of a picture (imbedded inside), but turns out to be an executable file.
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