German state ditches Microsoft for Linux and LibreOffice

[gezzer2]

some welcome news for Linux and LibreOffice ..

https://www.zdnet.com/article/german...d-libreoffice/

it doesn't state which flavour just Linux ..

[TheFu]

Didn't Berlin attempt this for about a decade? There was much push-back by office workers who didn't want to use anything but MS-Office and found the compatibility of documents less than great.

Basically, the entire country needs to standardize on file formats that work well with F/LOSS programs and ignore the OS or commercial offers. Then mandate that each province and city conform to those standards for all document interactions. This will slowly cause the govt to migrate and since every business deals with the govt, they will migrate as well, followed by individual who don't work in international companies with other standards. This will make local people likely to perform software development for the local needs/languages and make for higher than average paying jobs for those people which have trickle down to everyone else. It will be good for the entire country to keep the money local, no profits shipped to Redmond Washington or a tax dodge setup by MSFT lawyers/accountants to avoid taxation.

Until MSFT fully supports the open formats with 100% compatibility, they need to be blocked from the German state and cities/towns/villages inside that state.

[tea for one]

Didn't Berlin attempt this for about a decade?

If I remember correctly, it was Munich.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-...-source-again/

[1fallen]

If I remember correctly, it was Munich.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-...-source-again/

That Link is worth a good long read, interesting to say the least.

[TheFu]

If I remember correctly, it was Munich.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-...-source-again/

Yep, that was the city.
All sorts of "local good" happens when Linux is allowed and not stifled by non-standard data formals. MSFT has struggled to get even their own product running the same versions to be 100% compatible between MS-Windows and MacOS versions of MS-Office. Crazy, right?

[gezzer2]

yes it was Munich but then MS moved there head office there and certain minds were changed but Munich still uses Linux. this other German state is fully moving over to Linux and LibreOffice and have been trailing it now for over 2 years.

China is moving the whole country over to Linux and LibreOffice buts thats a whole different story.

but its welcome news for Linux and LibreOffice as not everybody wants their data in the cloud ..

[Eggnog]

I've been wondering what distro Schleswig-Holstein will be using, or if they are going with their own in-house distro. Things have changed a lot since Munich tried it. They may not have given it a lot of thought at the time, who knows?