824

Hurray! This German State Decides to Save €15 Million Each Year By Kicking Out Microsoft for Open Source (itsfoss.com)

submitted 2 months ago by Blaze@piefed.zip to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk

74 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Schleswig-Holstein's migration to LibreOffice reaches 80% completion, with a one-time €9 million investment on cards for 2026.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] cadekat@pawb.social 100 points 2 months ago

I'm always excited by these kinds of headlines! I hope they stick with open source and don't switch back.

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 66 points 2 months ago

The best thing about this is that eventually these organizations are going to want features and fixes that don't exist yet in the open source software they're using, at which point they'll have to invest in development. If this becomes a trend I think it will mean more stability and more functionality in open software in general.

[-] SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone 49 points 2 months ago

Not just that, it's also beneficial to the organization because that can just.. implement it themselves, and then do a pull request, instead of being reliant upon a corporation to care about your desires. Literally a win-win. I hope state actors come to realize that sooner rather than later, it only makes sense

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 25 points 2 months ago

I look forward to EU Linux.

[-] fartsparkles@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago

SUSE, Manjaro, Alpine Linux, CRUX, and NixOS are all technically European (as are many others).

[-] paequ2@lemmy.today 4 points 2 months ago

Guix, btw.

[-] Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Mint is also european (based on Ireland), even though it's based on Ubuntu and Debian, ~~both of which are American (but Debian is FOSS)~~

Edit: Ubuntu is based on London and was founded by South Africans, but has propietary snaps (disabled on Mint). Debian was founded by an American but is FOSS so it operates worldwide.

[-] tomenzgg@midwest.social 4 points 2 months ago

All FOSS operates worldwide; the point of FOSS is that it provides a paradigm that directly counters the false-scarcity that (often capitalist) systems induce.

(not directed at you, of course)

[-] trolololol@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

And Mint has heavily invested in a version that goes to Debian skipping Ubuntu, I think it should have reached stable status by now.

[-] wieson@feddit.org 2 points 2 months ago

Isn't Ubuntu South African?

[-] trolololol@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

The word yes

The company no, it's British or something

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 2 months ago

Sure, but I mean a distro developed/maintained/curated officially by the EU or one of its member governments.

[-] kilgore_trout@feddit.it 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I'm all for it, but I am not sure any more w~~a~~ith the political trend on surveillance.

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 2 points 2 months ago

I'm not overly concerned with an organization trying to build surveillance functions into an open source operating system.

[-] Subdivide6857@midwest.social 4 points 2 months ago

Hard pass. I’m not interested in any software curated by a western government.

[-] GianBarGian@feddit.it 6 points 2 months ago

Or eastern for that matters

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 2 months ago

ah, well then, RedStar OS is for you!

[-] trolololol@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I'm not sure a government can have the agility necessary for keeping a good track of good decisions over a reasonable amount of time.

I'd bet it would take a planification similar to building a nuclear reactor or an airport: over budget, blown over scheduled time, fulfilling specs on paper but not in spirit, and used only when people have no other option ( goes without saying all governments are a monopoly, you can't have 2 bodies having powers over a particular geographic place).

[-] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 1 points 2 months ago

On the other hand, a government organization might do a better job of keeping track of development goals over time. It might be slower than independent open source projects, but it would probably also be more stable than most Linux distros. Enterprise-level software has different requirements and different development cycles from consumer-level software. Having a competing option for Red Hat could only be a good thing.

I’d bet it would take a planification similar to building a nuclear reactor or an airport: over budget, blown over scheduled time, fulfilling specs on paper but not in spirit, and used only when people have no other option

It's not as if they'd be starting from scratch, it would most likely still be Linux. But they might bring more focus to long-term stability and especially cybersecurity implementations to meet government security requirements.

[-] Tja@programming.dev 4 points 2 months ago

Hungary has vetoed that USB stick.

[-] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 months ago

You can help here: https://eu-os.eu/

[-] MrMakabar@slrpnk.net 4 points 2 months ago

They actually seem to run into it pretty quickly. The 20% have not switched, because LibreOffice seems to lack features.

[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 months ago

Which is always a concern .... but at the same time, the more often organizations switch, the more people realize the benefits and eventually, the switch will stick permanently.

[-] kubofhromoslav@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago

I perceive that the ground is prepared well enough for many of those to just stay. And contribute a bit.

this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025

824 points (99.8% liked)

Buy European

9726 readers

551 users here now

Overview:

The community to discuss buying European goods and services.

Matrix Chat of this community

Rules:

Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. No direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments.
Do not use this community to promote Nationalism/Euronationalism. This community is for discussing European products/services and news related to that. For other topics the following might be of interest:
Include a disclaimer at the bottom of the post if you're affiliated with the recommendation.
No russian suggestions.

Feddit.uk's instance rules apply:

No racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or xenophobia.
No incitement of violence or promotion of violent ideologies.
No harassment, dogpiling or doxxing of other users.
Do not share intentionally false or misleading information.
Do not spam or abuse network features.
Alt accounts are permitted, but all accounts must list each other in their bios.
No generative AI content.

Useful Websites