Follow up: I called the IT dept and spoke with them. Apparently they already get the "low cost" licenses with Microsoft for users who don't need access to office (which is the overwhelming majority of them) and just basically get them an email address. The cost increase is really down to the city having added more staff, which means more licenses, since they've got a fixed rate contract locked in with MS. It sounds like moving non-power-users into LibreOffice would have negligible benefit and cause more disruption than not. Ah, well, swing and a miss. Thanks for the support, everyone!
this post was submitted on 29 May 2025
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If I wanted to do this, I think I would start by getting to know the IT staff. This would:
- Help me to understand the challenges they face in getting their work done: what's problematic for them, what's helpful, what skills they already have, etc. This would eventually guide me in how to approach suggesting changes with minimal friction.
- Make me a familiar person to them, and allow opportunities to build trust in my skills, knowledge, and judgment. If this is established before I ever suggest a change, it could avoid some of the doubt and resistance that would surely come if a stranger walked up and pushed for changes. I want to be a friend, not a foe.
- Potentially identify an ally within IT: Someone who might already want to make the switch (perhaps because they're tired of Microsoft's BS) or at least agree that it would make sense. An ally on the inside would not only make it easier to get others to seriously consider the change, but also potentially help gather information about how MS Office is currently being used so that I could prepare equivalent LibreOffice workflows for users who need them.
I suggest taking your time, and saving Linux for later so that it doesn't create more friction against moving to LibreOffice.
I am IT staff and I've worked for government in the past.
No matter how easy you make the swap over, no matter how much money it offers to save, there's gonna be somebody who has sign off level executive authority who will refuse to change anything, because it means changing something, and they won't like it.
Making a company-wide transition from Microsoft to a free version that does exactly the same is not a simple change.
If you make the change, you're going to see a huge upswing in the number of support calls. You're going to see a huge upswing in the number of complaints. You're going to see downturns in efficiency and productivity as people make the changes, not to mention the fact that administering libreoffice from an organizational standpoint is a completely different beast from administering office.
I'm not saying that it can't be done, by any stretch of the imagination.
I'm saying that the human element is the largest factor in whether or not it would be done, and unless you are already the city administrator or a big to-do inside of the fish pond you find yourself in, you likely do not have the human capital needed to make the transition, regardless of every other benefit.
If you want to get this done, I would suggest preemptively installing libre office on every single computer in the entire organization and then slowly telling people to use it as the opportunity arises so that three to five years from now there will be enough people who have used it that the transition would not be a huge ordeal.
Short of that you need to have an executive mandate from on high come in and say, we are not using Microsoft Office anymore, we will use LibreOffice, here are your training hours, go.
Those are great points, it's almost always better to walk in the light. I think I got too attached to the validity of my idea. I'll reach out to them and see if someone can have that discussion.
Just wanted to say that I took your advice, and posted an update to this thread. It turns out that moving to LibreOffice would have virtually no benefit in any regard whatever according to the city IT manager. Thanks for the advice!
You should take into consideration the additional load this would generate on IT, both short and long term.
The transition would be relatively costly. As would all the support tickets that go in for users asking "how do you do x. In word, I used to be able to click here and here and now it's not there"
The other area i would be concerned about it excel. Many organizations rely heavily on excel and moving to another type might make calculations, pivot tables, etc, break. You'd need to do a feature analysis across a variety of use cases and roles. (And I'm pretty sure the finance team would poison your coffee for even suggesting moving off excel)
Is LibreOffice calc much worse? And, again, I feel that most users of office suite software are fairly basic users. I want to specifically leave MS Office power users alone, let them keep their licenses, but if people are just using the basic features, there's no reason for us to be paying outrageous amounts for MS Office licenses for them. Yeah, I'm aware that this is going to increase the load on the IT dept, but I'm hoping that the targeted user base are basic enough users that they can be onboard with an orientation video for most cases.
Most users of word & powerpoint are fairly basic users, but if you're using excel for work then there's a surprisingly high likelyhood you're using a sheet written by a wizard with arcane skills in it with the number of VB macros, pivot tables, and things most people don't even know exist.
Even if you're just a user and not creating them, and their functionality would better work in a dedicated program or a database, chances are it'd still break unless you're very lucky.
Oh, yikes, that's problematic. I was afraid of that. It really doesn't feel good to look at that and say "and therefore, sorry firefighters, we need to pay Microsoft half a million a year to let us have Excel", but I guess I get it.
Yeah, it's a classic of locking you in and hiking up the prices, and the people capable of porting those sheets are probably way too overworked dealing with supporting the vast majority who have no idea how they work to spend time on it (or getting fired by Elon for not doing anything while being the single block that supports the tower)
It sucks, but I wouldn't give up on trying to get them to convert, just be aware that it's very possible that this will be one of the biggest technical (as opposed to administrative) blocks.
If your office uses Excel your idea is fucked.
Again, I specifically want to leave the power users alone, but my experience in business/industry is that 90% of folks with Excel on their machine don't even know how to write a function. There's no sense paying lavish amounts of cash for those particular people to have Excel when LibreOffice will likely suit their needs.
Honestly even most Excel users would be fine transitioning to LibreOffice Calc. I was very impressed with how most of my spreadsheets just worked on recent Calc versions. Formulas and charts were mostly all fine. Even pivot tables worked. I had one formula that had to be changed (it was specific to Excel, but there was an equivalent option in Calc), and one external data pull that I had to figure out. That was across 4 pretty involved spreadsheets.
The main problem will be users who are so ingrained with the specifics of navigation that they can't easily adapt to a new menu system. The same happened when Microsoft changed from the old toolbars to the ribbon. And that will be an issue across all the apps.
Valid point. Good luck with your journey!
Maybe you get some inspiration here
https://european-alternatives.eu/alternatives-to
Many don't need "excel" but don't take it away without talking to them and knowing the alternatives
Talking to the IT guys with knowledge about the alternative systems is highly adviced! But you have to talk to them.
$10 says the cops got a budget increase though
Nah, the cops are losing some positions too. Our council is pretty good compared to some others, (and, honestly, our PD is pretty good too. They've worked really hard to keep a good working relationship with the community) but they're definitely hitting a bunch of stuff that nobody wants to see cut either. It's pain across the board. I guess if we have to make cuts, that's how to make them, but I'd like it if Microsoft took one for the team too, here.