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

Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

itsfoss.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 306 posts

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#201

Post by watwut »

embedding-shape wrote: post #91
watwut wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between someone running from persecution and someone leaving because they might be conscripted into invasion they agree with or because they dont like the economy. Equating Russians with Jews is particularly ugly here. You could sorta a little equate Ukrainians, a little. And yes, actual historical events and motivations of past actors matter. Yes, there were multiple fully on-the-nazi side coun…

> That does not make the comparison you made meaningful. Yeah, even when I tried my best to, apparently the labels just fire up too much emotions. I've removed the country names completely as it's irrelevant to what I was trying to discuss. > Equating Russians with Jews is particularly ugly here I didn't do anything of the like in the original text, but good try!

[dead]

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#202

Post by keyringlight »

IslandRebel wrote: post #74
rich_sasha wrote: post #11

The real risk to MS here is when people take the plunge and see how much nicer a (well supported, well put together) Linux distro is, compared to Windows etc! Will they want to buy their next laptop at home with MSFT installed? Plus, if countries moving off Microsoft put a fraction of the savings into libre office product development, it might get an even more lopsided comparison!

> The real risk to MS here is when people take the plunge and see how much nicer a (well supported, well put together) Linux distro is, compared to Windows etc! Will they want to buy their next laptop at home with MSFT installed? Firstly, I would wager a large amount of personal computing is now done on a phone/tablet. None of my relatives have laptops for personal use. They may have work laptop (which will be runnin…

I think any movement is gradual and for it to be significant it would need to be sustained, people love dramatic sudden changes but it's going up against decades of momentum. As you mentioned mobiles, that took a long time to transition and that was with a starting point where a large proportion already had a non-smart phone along with the decisions they made about replacing aging devices.

The point about "fighting the last war" is interesting as there's a lot of uncertainty right now about how personal computing with a PC is going to look in the next few years. The angle I've been wondering about with the pressures on consumer hardware pricing/availability is if manufacturers can use it as an opportunity to establish new standards if/when it's easier to buy new again (eg, a major ATX revision/rethink) or if they keep following the same template. Over on the software side, what could a non-stagnant OS offer that would be attractive to consumers, what can consumer/desktop linux do that isn't following windows/macos, what would create a need for a mirror image of WINE as linux is leading with new features first?

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#203

Post by jxntb73 »

noja wrote: post #113
philipallstar wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That was maybe the last time, the US did anything "good" for the world. But yeah, I think it's useless to argue with you. This is a completely mad assessment. Haven't you noticed the massive issues with scientific, health, and social funding globally now the US taxpayer has stopped bankrolling it?

Bankrolling is an editorial word that implies almost a one way benefit.

All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us??

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#204

Post by mxuribe »

alkonaut wrote: post #48

The long tail of ms Excel does not get replaced easily. For 90% of customers and 90% of workflows you see either no use of a program, or use cases that can be replaced with anything. But eventually you'll find the power users who do business critical stuff in excel sheets that you notice can't be done in any other way, and if you stop doing it then people aren't paid in time or whatever. This doesn't mean it's a good…

> ...Excel has been one of those moats for decades now...

I think if we focus on "has been", and not consider something dire like "will always be"...then i see it as an opportunity (and opportunity for LibreOffice and others like it). Because i do agree that a small % of people do use/need advance features from excel...so if i were the European Union, then i would gather such data for advanced usage (which is best done when pilots are rolled out), and throw a little money at addressing that (by a little, i mean little for big governments, so talking like a few million, etc.). I'd throw some money at the devs who contribute to LibreOffice, openDesk, whatever...and specifically address whatever shotcomings might exist in the free and open source offerings. Maybe its not an overnight solution, but it would serve to produce 2 things:

1. You pay devs to address the issue...reducing or removing any gaps between excel and offerings like LibreOffice, etc.

2. The devs you threw money at will gain ever more experience addressing needs for this now more expanded marketplace...creating possibly some more jobs and/or opportunites for more local vendors to support these govs, and any businesses that follow suit in adopting such open source offerings...

...I think these create or expedite a marketplace...and one that is not controlled by the U.s. or any single dominant player. So, i think while it might be slow, its a good long-term approach.

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#205

Post by ifdefdebug »

> Do note that during the pilot phase, the new system runs in parallel with Microsoft 365 rather than replacing it outright. That's okay, I think.

Well I think it's not ok without at least a fixed deadline for removal of MS365. People usually have work to do and learning new ways to get it done means extra work, and (almost) nobody takes upon extra work if they don't have to. So the new software will be largely ignored by default.

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#206

Post by delta_p_delta_x »

herbst wrote: post #186
mft_ wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those issues are a problem for corporate managed Windows installations, which would be the proper comparator in the case given in the article. There are other reasons that Windows sucks, even (or especially?) in a corporate environment, just not those.

Is that true? No stock tickers, no ads, no ai nags? No "news"? No weird notifications that ask for my attention? I guess no regular weird update windows would be the case, but the rest?

On any Windows release, you can switch all of those off, and GPE out the update channels for non-system-critical changes. Windows Enterprise doesn't even get the so-called 'fun stuff'.

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#207

Post by INTPenis »

figassis wrote: post #119
teiferer wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That well funded company already happened 20 years ago. Canonical. Their distribution is called Ubuntu, you might have heard of it.

Yet my mom does not have a Ubuntu desktop. And if I set one up for her, I woudl have to split my time between my job and tech support for her. So well funded, but not sure they are the right company.

My 73yo mom actually runs RHEL 10 on her laptop, uses one of my 16 free developer licenses.

But it would never work without my help. On the other hand, Windows wasn't working too well either and I just couldn't help with that.

RHEL was the most stable alternative I could think of when her Windows computer stopped being reliable.

I have setup rustdesk on it for remote support.

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#208

Post by bell-cot »

mrits wrote: post #51
Atariman wrote: post #41

As a Swiss, I'm happy they finally try it. It's only around 5% of all government machines, but at least it's a start and I wish them all the best! We have to get independent asap from the US, they never were our (or any other countries) "friends" and most likely never will be. OSS ftw!

[flagged]

Who's "We" here? The US pursued its own interests from a (seemingly) nice, safe distance until it was attacked. The Swiss had no such luxury of distance, and also pursued their own interests so long as they were not attacked.

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#209

Post by MichaelZuo »

unethical_ban wrote: post #192
Atariman wrote: post #41

As a Swiss, I'm happy they finally try it. It's only around 5% of all government machines, but at least it's a start and I wish them all the best! We have to get independent asap from the US, they never were our (or any other countries) "friends" and most likely never will be. OSS ftw!

[flagged]

From what I heard, the shakedown of the Swiss government over the F35 contract couldn’t have happened without the active support of many actors in the beltway.

So it seems sensible for them to doubt the intentions of many hundreds of decision makers, not just a single person.

Re: Switzerland's Federal Government Is Replacing Microsoft on 3k Computers

#210

Post by aaron695 »

Atariman wrote: post #41

As a Swiss, I'm happy they finally try it. It's only around 5% of all government machines, but at least it's a start and I wish them all the best! We have to get independent asap from the US, they never were our (or any other countries) "friends" and most likely never will be. OSS ftw!

[dead]
Post reply on HN