Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s most northern state, is starting its switch from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, and is planning to move from Windows to Linux on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions.
Concerns over data security are also front and center in the Minister-President’s statement, especially data that may make its way to other countries. Back in 2021, when the transition plans were first being drawn up, the hardware requirements for Windows 11 were also mentioned as a reason to move away from Microsoft.
Saunders noted that “the reasons for switching to Linux and LibreOffice are different today. Back when LiMux started, it was mostly seen as a way to save money. Now the focus is far more on data protection, privacy and security. Consider that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently found that the European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies.”
There’s a learning curve, but really, every large org can save so much money that way.
Heck, most proprietary apps are web apps these days anyway, so it really doesn’t hurt running Linux except for a few specialty roles. Just run Mac or Windows for those areas, and everyone else gets Linux.
I would love it if my work computer was Linux, 90% of my work is on a terminal anyway, it would save me from having to SSH to a Linux server every day.
The new German Microsoft headquarters will be in Schleswig-Holstein i guess.
Between basically every process being done on paper, and most of the civil servants having no idea what an operating system is, I’m sure this will go great.
Ugh I hate office365 but holy shit I would not want to support libreoffice.
The FOSS scene really needs an office suite that doesn’t feel like its from last century. People use Microsoft shit not only because its the only choice but because its actually usable for office tasks.
Exactly? The interface is god awful, if you’re running a dark theme then your icons will be unseeable (black on black) unless you enable experimental features. The interface is straight out of the early 2000s.
If I, a computer person, has so many issues with software normie office workers are going to use then they’ll have a hell of a time using it. I’d definitely not wanna be the helpdesk people having to deal with endless calls about why they can’t print their tps reports because they can’t find the print icon.
Libreoffice had some steam when it first forked from OpenOffice but it ran out pretty quickly. Theres not been any meaningful features added and they can’t even keep up with the frontend interface.
Also. It doesn’t seem like the German gov announced any kind of large funding contributions to libreoffice so I have no idea how they plan on encouraging anyone to fix the issues they’ll no doubt have.
As a helpdesk guy, this type of issue happens with microsoft office just as often. People tend to memorise where the thing they use everyday is, and any update that changes where it is or how it functions “breaks” their flow of doing their task. We as technical people tend to simply have the skills to use a search engine to find out where it moved/how to solve our problem, but they dont.
While I havent been using libreoffice that long or as intensively as a government enployee would so I cant comment on if its the best OSS office suit for this situation, Im just happy they are starting the switch away from microsoft and CSS and finally waking up.
The interface is straight out of the early 2000s.
The last good version of MS Office was Office 2000. The ribbon interface and the rest of its spawn are godawful.
Exactly? The interface is god awful, if you’re running a dark theme then your icons will be unseeable (black on black) unless you enable experimental features. The interface is straight out of the early 2000s.
Erm. I don’t have any experimental features enabled, and my icons aren’t black on black as far as I can see.
I’ve been using only Libre Office for about the last six years for the daily running of my business and I have no problems. Furthermore, I despise the ribbon interface, give me an interface from the 2000’s any day.
If all they are using their PCs for is word processing and intranet webapps, perhaps they don’t need Windows anymore. It is not like ActiveX is supported anymore.
