they will save 188,000 € on Microsoft license fees per year

  • cotlovan@lemm.ee
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    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.

  • TheLastOfHisName@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    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.

  • Wolf@lemmy.today
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    7 days ago

    I’m more surprised that a city in Germany didn’t switch to Linux a decade or more ago.

    Late to the party is still showing up, good for them.

    • Dr. Unabart@sh.itjust.works
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      6 days ago

      Too busy faxing each other. Germany is Luddite Land, by choice.

      Source: moved here 7 years ago. Germans are a weird bunch. Change is not welcome in just about any form.

      Nice to see them adopt the open source apps, though. They can probably get some screaming deals on some US Robotics 56k modems on eBay Local.

      🤪😘

  • kolorafa@lemmy.world
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    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… 😍

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    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. 🙄

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      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.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        Blender got ported to Linux in 1998, to Windows in 1999. The modal interface and key command language is no accident, it literally is a 3d vi.

        Linux is generally strong when it comes to 3d graphics workstations, it inherited IRIX’ market share, plenty of artists around, especially in the film industry, who’d go on a strike if you took away dragging windows with alt+LMB. Graphics, that is, CAD is dominated by Windows as CAD started out as 2d sketch software which ran on cheap DOS machines.

        Houdini is also Unix-native and Blender’s only surviving competitor (considered by features, not industry inertia), Maya started out as cross-platform IRIX+Windows.

  • driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br
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    8 days 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.

    • Shayeta@feddit.org
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      8 days ago

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

      • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        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.

        • bcovertigo@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

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

          • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            “competency” in IT is more about your skills with the tools your company is using. My current company only has one super minor server running Linux so even if someone so advanced with Linux they make Richard Stallman look like a M$ shill wouldnt be a competent engineer in my infrastructure.

            I do get what you’re saying though and I wish more things would move to Linux in general. It’s much nicer to manage.

          • SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org
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            8 days ago

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

          • BassTurd@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            I hope so. I would have loved the opportunity to be in that position, and if I was still working as a sys admin, I’d still live it.

        • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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          7 days ago

          Or way worse, what you said but senior techs.

          Microsoft has been at this long enough that there is an army of old guys whose only - but extremely specialized - skillset is navigating arcane GUIs for group policies and AD administration. But drop them in a bash terminal and they’re like a fish dropped on a tennis court.

      • Barbecue Cowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        I feel like most of the items aren’t going to be real troubleshooting.

        It’s been a good bit since I worked the support desk, but even with generic microsoft updates, most of the ‘questions’ were basically the worst users finding a way to say ‘It used to be this and I want it to be this way, hold my hand for an hour while telling me its not this way anymore until I get tired and then complain to someone else’.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          7 days ago

          'It used to be this and I want it to be this way, hold my hand for an hour while telling me its not this way anymore

          Yeah, but that already happens every time Microsoft does a major version “upgrade”.

          • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            And imagine how much more handholding it’ll require when you fundamentally change everything about their computer lmao

    • daw@feddit.org
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      8 days ago

      Imagine them switching to Linux and suddenly shit works

      • youmaynotknow@lemmy.ml
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        7 days ago

        Lol, I was thinking the same thing. “plug it in, OK, done”. No drivers and none of that shit.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          7 days ago

          Mostly because the FOSS community doesn’t have a single point of leadership that is maniacally focused on becoming a total monopoly.

          And that’s a good thing

    • gamer@lemm.ee
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      8 days ago

      Didn’t the Trump admin suspend enforcement of foreign anti-bribery laws? Microsoft just has to write a check to the right person to kill this.

      • Tuukka R@sopuli.xyz
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        8 days ago

        Breaking anti-bribery laws of a country is illegal, no matter whether they are enforced in some other country or not. Of course Microsoft can break the law and then keep paying large fines until they decide to no longer break the law.

  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    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.

    • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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      7 days ago

      Hard to catch fish if you see the fish as dumb idiots, for some reason the fish don’t seem to respond well to it idk.

      • MangoCats@feddit.it
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        7 days ago

        The German IT fish keep coming back for the bait - never bothering to avoid the hook.

  • gedaliyah@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    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

      • maniclucky@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Yup. I switched to linux on my home computer and now the more time I spend with it, the more I pity my work computer for the cancer it has to deal with.

      • Noir@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        I have an Outlook account from when I decided to use it specifically to receive and interact with clients as a freelance artist.

        My freelance gig didn’t launch, so I kinda forgot about it. This week I remembered that account and logged on… Only to find the most disgusting interface a user has ever seen! There are (almost) no shortcuts, not a gram of intuitiveness to be found…

        Horrible horrible platform