> ...cites cost, security, and digital sovereignty... With the recent XZ Utils backdoor fiasco, I would really think twice with this decision. Might be worth sticking to MS for a little bit longer, who knows if the backdoor code has been reused somewhere else? Besides, wasnt it a MS employee who uncovered this backdoor?
German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
121–130 of 333 posts
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#122I'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?
Schleswig-Holstein is not poor. It is next to Denmark, and it is really nice and well developed.
I think transitioning to a different platform is mostly an organizational and political, rather than technical problem, and the main roadblock is educating users and altering processes to migrate away from MS Office.
That said, modern Linux distributions like NixOS or Guix could be great to manage large fleets of computers, keep them up-to-date, and upgrade things without fear. In my experience, that is the main technical issue administrations are experiencing.
And of course, running free software is great because it brings freedom to change things.
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#123Very 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…
People always forget about Outlook. Name me a competing desktop app that does integrated calendar, email, todo, and meetings as well as Outlook. Thunderbird is (unfortunately) a joke, and web clients aren't as nice when managing complex folder arrangements and lots of mail.
outlook has a gazillion things that are far far more of a joke than those lacks in thunderbird, those are just things people accept because they cant change it, and impose a 1:1 feature/bug requirement on a new thing, or its "not ready"
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
Without an actual design vision, all open source software will flounder and never replace commercial counterparts.
Gimp, blender, firefox and obs are all very successful OSS alternatives that come to mind.
You really gimped your argument by including it; otherwise I'd agree it can be done.
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#125Very 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?
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#126Can anyone tell me what this means: "Other countries, notably China, have proverbs that say they are much more stubborn when shifting gears from Windows to Linux." Proverbs? A stitch in time saves nine. Many hands make light work. Please, anyone, show me a proverb that says "they are much more stubborn when shifting gears from Windows to Linux."
Here's one:
"Switching a Windows user to Linux is like moving mountains with a teaspoon; both demand patience and a miracle."
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#127Go Germany go!
In the diesel repair shop I work in, I managed to convince the suits to switch out ms office for libre office. 90% of our stuff is now libre by default...only 2 users have full office suites and theyre both in the bean counting department. We print our BOMs, labels, envelopes and invoices using libre. Compared to office it runs like a scalded dog and never crashes.
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#128I'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?
And published on zdnet.com?! Did I mention that Netcraft has confirmed BSD is Dead?
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#129I'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?
Schleswig-Holstein is not poor. It is next to Denmark, and it is really nice and well developed. I think transitioning to a different platform is mostly an organizational and political, rather than technical problem, and the main roadblock is educating users and altering processes to migrate away from MS Office. That said, modern Linux distributions like NixOS or Guix could be great to manage large fleets of computer…
As a long time Linux user, I think problems are partially technical. For example:
* A lot of software used by them is certainly Windows only (they will have to find alternatives, change their workflows or invest in some windows virtual machines)
* Windows tooling for organizations is much more mature. There's a reason virtually everyone uses AD.
* Linux is very focused on user freedoms. This is not usually important in the office. But freedom to configure things is a freedom to break thinks, and cause admin headache.
The problems are solvable, but it doesn't mean they don't exist.
Oh and I love nixos, and I always wonder how realistic would it be to use it in a company for management of thousands of desktop machines. Sounds like it would be perfect for it, but i don't know any stories.
Re: German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice
#130I'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.