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Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

therecord.media

111–120 of 448 posts

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#111

The entire American software industry will feel the ramifications here. Gotta stay polite for HN. No data stored on an American server is secure. I really really do like Open Suse though, and I think an open source future is possible. Open Suse, Libre Office, etc.

I am often amused at how people outside the US don't like the current US government yet if it wasn't for the current US government the whole world would have been sleep walking into Office 365 and Teams. I don't hold any political opinion but do like that we are now going to have alternatives and true competition.

I'm not sure I follow, are you saying that because the current US government is so bad that people are rejecting Microsoft products, the rest of the world should be thankful to the US for "waking them up"?

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#112
post #42

Happy to see Schleswig-Holstein switching as well and also it being mentioned in an article on the HN front page. Who would have thought?

They also have their own Mastodon server, which is a great way forward for government institutions!

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#113
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I genuinely do not understand why other countries put up with this." Maybe because there is no drop in replacement of microsoft and microsoft dependant tools? So yes, one can (and should) build them. But the market right now is not offering this yet.

There's Nextcloud/OCIS/Owncloud for Sharepoint (god I fucking hate Sharepoint) and Onedrive, there's Libreoffice/Collabora (and Onlyoffice, but that's russian...), there's Thunderbird for Email. Windows is absolutely replaceable also, of course, maybe even easier than the Office365 subscription mentioned above. The lock in only exists in brains of (old) people that can't adapt. MS products can all be replaced, and sh…

People get a lot of cash, house and other benefits when they pick up suppliers.

And if they don't get a direct bribe, for some reasons, they end up as VP of what ever branch more or less directly related to their previous job as client.

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#114
post #57

From an applications point of view: They want web apps only running in whatng cartel web engines? libreoffice? A massive piece of software you can build only with US c++ compilers (MIT and mostly apple)? (the mistake was to use c++ in the first place, well computer languages on an insane level of complexity). To put it together: it won't be perfect, lines for compromises will have to be drawn, and it will feel like g…

Who cares if a piece of open source has American maintainers? The point is not to avoid touching anything American. It is control and sovereignty.

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#115

Oh oh... Time to say goodbye to Greenland. Lets see what is going to happen to LEGO.. Freedom Bricks?

Why do you think there's a connection between the Danish government and LEGO?

Trump has already started talking about taking over Iceland. Where's next?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yZA7A1fy8yelNvDK2aVesx24jak...

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#117
What are the hurdles from any of the EU governments from: 1. Choosing the best open source options for the various MS replacements 2. Fund an office who's job would be to provide software support, continue development, and make customizations for various departments. They continue to host this as open source. 3. Expanding adoption of the new tools to more gov departments over time. Continue to expand software office accordingly. 4. Eventually, they will have a solution entirely within their control. The costs will initially be higher likely, but way less over time.

If this progresses, then other governments can also adopt those same tools and also provide funding to the software office so that the software is continuously updated for things like security, big fixes, etc. all remains gov sponsored open source.

Am I crazy?

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#118

That's great, but it's always just one agency, or one very local bit of government. If we (Europeans) really mean it - and we should - the top level of government just needs to make the declaration: as of X, all Microsoft licenses will be terminated. No exceptions. Adapt or die. According to the CLOUD act, the US government can demand access to data from US companies, regardless of where that data is stored. That mus…

"all Microsoft licenses will be terminated"

Ok, and what will be the alternative? I am not talking about the easy part, like documents creation, although I don't see walking away from Excel as LibreOffice alternative is a bit of disappointment. But what about the whole security/networking/permissions area? What is the viable alternative that can scale?

Remember Covid times? In Poland all schools got access to Office 365 (overnight ) and education kept going. 500 000 teachers and a few millions of pupils. Tell me who else except Microsoft or Google have ability to support that?

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#119
post #86

That's great, but it's always just one agency, or one very local bit of government. If we (Europeans) really mean it - and we should - the top level of government just needs to make the declaration: as of X, all Microsoft licenses will be terminated. No exceptions. Adapt or die. According to the CLOUD act, the US government can demand access to data from US companies, regardless of where that data is stored. That mus…

"I genuinely do not understand why other countries put up with this." Maybe because there is no drop in replacement of microsoft and microsoft dependant tools? So yes, one can (and should) build them. But the market right now is not offering this yet.

For many services there are drop-in Replacements available. I don't see what's so special about Mail or Calendar from Microsoft vs other vendors.

The Quality is also Shit. I get some stupid Errors when trying to Access OWA every other day. Then I have to reset cookies/cache and can login again

Re: Danish government agency to ditch Microsoft software (2025)

#120
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I genuinely do not understand why other countries put up with this." Maybe because there is no drop in replacement of microsoft and microsoft dependant tools? So yes, one can (and should) build them. But the market right now is not offering this yet.

There's Nextcloud/OCIS/Owncloud for Sharepoint (god I fucking hate Sharepoint) and Onedrive, there's Libreoffice/Collabora (and Onlyoffice, but that's russian...), there's Thunderbird for Email. Windows is absolutely replaceable also, of course, maybe even easier than the Office365 subscription mentioned above. The lock in only exists in brains of (old) people that can't adapt. MS products can all be replaced, and sh…

Have you worked in government services and know what their needs are?

I did not, but as far as I know, they require a bit more more than some office solution, shared drive and some email client.

(How do you imagine how it works internally if you apply for a new passport, they just send some office documents via email around?)

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