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:D This is excellent news!
(I'm especially pleased to read that they're putting open source software into education : great move!)
If kids are taught in schools that it's okay to not just use one single type of word processor that's proprietary, that's a great thing!
I think it'll be more significant than that : people like to use the tools they're used to... If they've grown up using open source software, then that will be their norm. They will also realise that there's really no reason to pay for proprietary systems and apps. And that's a huge blow to Micro$oft, Adobe, et al.
Some years ago a lot of Spanish administrations and companies have done the same, saving a lot of money as the main reason.
Really? I don't think so... There are some exceptions, like the use of Linux on secondary schools (12-18 years old): #Lincat http://linkat.xtec.cat/portal/index.php and others
hopefully more and more will do so, even if they only have saving money as the reason
Which one(s)?
I don't know exactly, it's a lot of years ago. This is a similar article of this thread from 2013 from Spain https://www.genbeta.com/desarrollo/en-la-administracion-publica-de-espana-empiezan-a-brotar-cambios-serios-al-software-libre
From what I read about Germany I think that Spain is much more advanced and less restrictive respect internet and freedom on the net.
The next day M$ will erect their campus building... year later back to M$ products....
this time it at least looks like its focusing on the open-ness of open source instead of just the free-of-cost nature of it, and after seeing other parts of the german government switching to more open platforms (like parts of their health and military comms switching to matrix), we can at least be cautiously optimistic
I hope so too. This is super important for states to be lock-in free and open source as much as possible. And we need a good example for other countries to follow.
It'll be interesting to see if Micro$oft try to inveigle their way in again like they did in Munich, and to see if they're successful.
I hope they don't try to roll their own distribution like LiMux did.
Yeah, they should just buy a supported distribution. I bet they can get a pretty good deal on UCS or SuSE.
Really hope this works out.
I hope this time they will actually stick with it *looks at Munich with their LiMux*
Looks like you beat me to posting this by a few minutes!
lol I was sure someone would have already posted here, even took some time to search before sharing here
Every IT project of German authorities failed in the last two decades. So this is a bad news because the project will fail too and they will say it was because Open Source does not work.
Jan Philipp Albrecht notes of the Munich failure: “The main problem there was that the employees weren’t taken along enough. We do better. We are planning long transition phases with parallel use, and we’re introducing open source step-by-step when the departments are ready. With this, we also create the reason for further introduction, because people can see that it works.”
https://fossforce.com/2021/11/a-german-state-is-saying-goodbye-windows-hello-linux/
It will depend on people wanting to use it, but, imo, governments and government agencies ought to be using, and suggesting that others use, open technologies.
The main problem there was that the employees weren’t taken along enough.
Somewhere I heard that the project was suffocated by bureaucracy, whether intentionally or not I don't know. But I can imagine that the lobbying of Microsoft supported bureaucratic behaviour. I wish them all the best, but the history of governmental IT projects is a story of failure.
i infuriates me how microsoft is stealing tax money and has held a global monopoly for decades. especially when there are free alternatives. it isn't even legal for a foreign private company to hold monopoly and extract tax wealth. most other software they use follow these rules, so why not windows/office?
It infuriates me too.
I really don't understand how it's acceptable for shops to sell devices pre-loaded with Micro$oft products, without letting the consumer know that there's the license fee included in the purchase. But, as you say, this practice has gone on for decades.
that too, that just further adds to the issue. hell, industry standards like adobe literally only exist because they didn't pursue pirates (profit came from business license) and the adobe suite was the only tools people knew at the time due to being available for "free" to home users. a statement which the CEO admitted, but then had to redact. i assume by pressure from the music industry, sony's rootkit model, etc. at the time.
Imagine the software that could have been written with the money that microsoft sucked up into their shitty OS
and contribute to society/the world while doing it.
so many opportunities has been lost because of capitalism. it's not like private companies ever take risks either, they use the freely available research and development we paid for with our taxes and then sell it back to us as a product.
nope. open source everything. it's the only way to save the planet.