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public services of an entire german state switches from Microsoft to open source (Libreoffice, Linux, Nextcloud, Thunderbird) (euro-stack.com)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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they will save 188,000 € on Microsoft license fees per year

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[–] 2 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Don't worry. They'll get a big discount on licenses and swap right back again.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago*

    At that scale it starts to be about the cost of support, and if M$ will hold their hands for the installation, configuration and maintenance, at some point that costs the state more to provide for Linux than the M$ licenses... Of course, when they lean so heavily on M$ for keeping their systems running, the temptation for abuse becomes strong...

    If I were "head of state" I would insist on development of homegrown talent to at least maintain the systems, hopefully configure and even build them too, not as a matter of money, but as a matter of security, independence, etc. I would try to pull back before reaching the point of developing locally used systems that aren't used elsewhere, that's not good long term, but if you develop the local talent to run the things, and they naturally build some of their own things, encourage that to be shared with the larger world in addition to leveraging the best shared (locally vetted, secure) tools from elsewhere.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (4 children)

    I dunno, free's still a lot cheaper, once it's setup, it'll be so much more flexible, it'll hardly be worth going back.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (3 children)

    Ain't no such thing as free.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago (2 children)

    Okay.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    When it's just you, on your own PC, and you don't value your time, it's free.

    Just from the license fees here, we're talking what, roughly 2000 employees?

    At that scale, you're going to be paying for support. Whether through a third party, or employing enough people to fix all the things that can go wrong. And not everyone in IT knows enough about Linux to fix broken boxes.

    I once recommended Linux for our customer servers, to be installed hundreds of miles away. And what I found was that employees who knew Linux (and specifically how to fix it when it fucks up) were more expensive than the trained monkeys we sent out to fix things, who at least knew how to copy data off it and reinstall Windows/slap a new drive in it, and that issues were my fault for recommending it. It was also easier to talk customers through some settings in Windows if it falls off the network somehow, than it was to deal with getting them to type things into a command line.

    And that's before you even consider servers and where your stuff all goes. With MS it goes into "the cloud", and you don't need to worry too much about anything other than paying for it. With your own hardware, you very much need to worry because if you don't, then one day it won't be there any more.

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