this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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they will save 188,000 € on Microsoft license fees per year

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

It would be nice to redirect a part of that money to support the development of used software. Thunderbird for example is constantly at risk of being shut down.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

ambitious plan

Good, good, but I guess it is only a plan to negotiate for lower prices.

But if they actually deliver without going back... 😍

[–] [email protected] 244 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (7 children)

Fingers crossed that this will be an indisputable success. 🤞
Allegedly a similar project in Munich went really really well, but was shut down when the right wing came into power.
For some reason the right wing of Munich doesn't like freedom. 🙄

[–] [email protected] 91 points 1 week ago

Well there is never enough money for the workers that they need for open source but there is always more than enough money for companies and their consultants ✌️😎

[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 week ago (1 children)

was shut down when the right wing came into power.

...and when M$ moved their headquarters into the city of Munich, making some nice impact on the city treasury.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago

They had already moved it, so Munich didn't have to switch back for that.
But yes I bet it was a factor as in corruption.

[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Munich racist shitheads (a.k.a. CSU) absolutely do love that sweet "freedom money" a.k.a. bribes though. Corrupt fuckers...

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

Microsoft supports genocide which also makes them attractive to fascists.

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[–] [email protected] 125 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This is the sort of adoption we need to bring Linux into the mainstream

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

This and software companies openly supporting Linux. For example, if Adobe and AutoCAD among others would build some tars then you could see it.

Ironically, Game Engines are ahead of the curve on this. You could build Unreal Engine from the github page on Linux for many years now and we also have Godot and Blender. I think several PCB design and also architecture tools already exist on Linux as well, so there is definitely room for a lot of industries and businesses to shift away from Windows as long as they can find a competent tech guy to maintain everything with minimal downtime.

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[–] [email protected] 98 points 1 week ago

Microsoft blocking email access to the ICJ director may be the best thing to happen for Linux adoption since the SteamDeck. Now every Microsoft lobbyst can be asked what would happen is the US government order Microsoft to block them out of their infrastructure.

[–] [email protected] 77 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's gonna be a rough few months for the IT department

[–] [email protected] 88 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Actually being able to troubleshoot things yourself instead of waiting for a reply from Microsoft support is a godsend.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week ago (7 children)

Assuming the IT staff isn't comprised of a bunch of junior techs that only know the Microsoft suite and not the actual inner workings of how email and Linux works.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Conveniently, this could be a path to competence for those juniors in the long term.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You a glass half full type person, huh? Honestly, I admire that attitude. I hope you can keep that.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Imagine them switching to Linux and suddenly shit works

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[–] [email protected] 66 points 1 week ago (6 children)

Just wait for Microsoft to start astroturfing the initiative.

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[–] [email protected] 61 points 1 week ago

Let's hope it sticks when Microsoft backs up the money truck.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 week ago (3 children)

It would be nice to see the European governments start a genuine effort on funding open source development, and start laying the foundation for a migration to their own Linux distro. Microsoft isn't trustworthy. Hell, most American big tech is untrustworthy. Moving your government offices to an in house developed OS is going to be paramount for their security in the future.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I switched to Thunderbird about a year and a half ago.

Last week I had to help a coworker with their Outlook and holy shit is it so much worse than when I dropped it. There is so much AI garbage in every little thing and bad design getting in the way of just sending and receiving emails.

Same thing for the other office products

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (2 children)

It's horrendous. Can't even explain how bad it is now.

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[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Germany has done this multiple times before. Microsoft has historically swept in with some sweetheart deal to lure them back.

Hopefully it sticks this time.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 week ago (26 children)

LibreOffice is a great alternative for 99% of people, but there is that 1% of people who is gonna be disappointment. This is a great step though.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Same goes for any software.

I don't understand why people act like Windows is the holy grail of computing.

It sucks, it barely works for 90% of users, and the rest will use anything else.

Just as Linux will work for 98% of people, and those last ones are due to handful of evil companies.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 week ago (14 children)

If the trend continues then maybe the hacker community will start focusing on Linux. Can you imagine "I don't need a virus scanner, I use Windows, the under dog OS"

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The hacker community it's very focused on Linux since most servers in the world run it. The fly by night script kiddies and botnet creators definitely prefer end user systems though.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 week ago (4 children)
[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Some localities in Germany have been incorporating Linux into their systems for 20+ years.

That may explain why the financial benefits seem low.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 week ago (13 children)

I can't see a reason why Linux distro wouldn't be enough for 99% of office machines. Unless deployment is really that much better and easier with Windows and MS Office. And whatever proprietary apps they use that need running on certain OS.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Those proprietary apps are the really big factor. A lot of stuff is run from a browser these days, but some systems are just too expensive to replace.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago (16 children)

Holy fuck, that's the clearest sign for war prepararion ive seen from Europe yet, they don't want the US in their computers.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

This has been planned for quite some time, so not really.

Also, other states insist on using Palantir so there's that...

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 week ago

In other news: the German military partners with Google to provide the software for their new cloud service...

https://www.heise.de/en/news/Bundeswehr-relies-on-Google-Cloud-10397526.html

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 week ago (8 children)

I sometimes wonder what if everyone who spends money on licensing fees instead takes the same amount of money and puts it into FOSS. Imagine what we could achieve? Likely the money would be used more efficiently because they could donate it to non-profit companies which don't need to pay tax.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (22 children)

That sounds like a ridiculously lowballed amount. Also, working with open source tools should increase productivity and decrease brainrot among workers in the public sector. Using Microshit kills brain cells. Not even joking, I actually think it makes users fucking dumb.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Would love to see further movements towards foss software in many other governments

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

This is great! I hope it succeeds, and shows others that it is possible.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 week ago

LETS GOOOOO

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 week ago (11 children)

I admire the plan, but I doubt the public sector is going to completely acclimate to Linux. The average age of an employee in the public sector is something like 40+.

You might get lucky and get them to use one new program like LibreOffice, but there's no way you're going to completely revamp every desktop PC to Linux. I work in this field, and while everyone has been nice and friendly, they (and the entire system around them) are also hugely resistant to digital change. If they ever make the move to a Linux Desktop environment, the IT support will go through hell.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week ago (4 children)

I know what you are saying, but it is not so bad: First of all, most things people are doing at work is not really related to the OS underneath. So if you are responsible for creating passports, you are using the special government program for passport creation. If you are a policeman, you are using the special police software to do your policework. Yeah, you need additional training, but in the best case your usual software keeps working. Most people are not really interacting with the OS during their work day.

(and let's be honest: Microsofts totally insane UI changes are also requiring lots of training. If you are used to just click on some specific buttons that somebody told you to click on, you're totally lost in Microsofts crazy wonderland of ridiculous UI changes )

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

it is just step 1

we will get rid of all closed source shit.

weak bavarians failed after successfull transistion to "LiMux" (their linux fork) they got bribed with 8k M$ jobs in munich.

but not the state of schleswig-holstein! we will prevail.

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