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A German state is ditching Windows and Microsoft Office for Linux and LibreOffice on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions (www.theregister.com)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's most northern state, is starting its switch from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, and is planning to move from Windows to Linux on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions.

Concerns over data security are also front and center in the Minister-President's statement, especially data that may make its way to other countries. Back in 2021, when the transition plans were first being drawn up, the hardware requirements for Windows 11 were also mentioned as a reason to move away from Microsoft.

Saunders noted that "the reasons for switching to Linux and LibreOffice are different today. Back when LiMux started, it was mostly seen as a way to save money. Now the focus is far more on data protection, privacy and security. Consider that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently found that the European Commission's use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies."

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Oh hey, I'm from Schleswig-Holstein! That's neat! I mean libre office looks like shit (they probably never saw a UX designer and high DPI scaling has been broken since like forever) but at least its not Microsoft. And if its functionally the same, why not? So yeah, good news!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Writer and Calc look almost identical to ms word and excel on my Debian 12 system... Congratulations by the way, you should be proud of your state!

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago

As someone using LibreOffice at home and MS Office at work (both daily): nope, unfortunately, Calc is pretty shit compared to Excel. It's enough for my personal needs but I wouldn't want to rely on it professionally.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Good to know, maybe it's just the port then and their website (shudders) has been a year or so since I tried it. Yeah, I think it's a good move and if it convinces other States even better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago

Yeah, check it out. I'm not a power user of spreadsheets, so I can't address what the previous commenter said about functionality but the UI looks good on mine and my girlfriend's systems. She's been using Calc to run her catering business for over a year without any complaints, so I would feel good about recommending it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Eh I don't think it's that bad and with the dark theme and breeze icons it looks amazing

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

If you have to tweak it to make it good, it's bad.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

If you go by that logic, most things in FOSS would be considered bad, which is not true.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Well, most things are bad from UX perspective, it's just that people who use FOSS are used to that.

That's why only enthusiasts usually use FOSS.

Before you start throwing around the five or so exceptions that exist, I'm well aware, but it's just that - exceptions.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

If people got used to using windows, they can get used to even something like gimp. As you said, it's a matter of habit. But as someone who's tried to learn how to use windows for the past few months, I struggle to express how counterintuitive, unstable, and barely functioning everything feels

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Damn windows and Mac are dog water then

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago

Both work out of the box really well. Sure, Windows will break inevitably, but it's usually few months before it does. Office looks really good. And that's all that matters.

You don't have to convince me, by the way, I've been using Linux for 15 years. But I've been in IT pretty much all of my adult life.

Until developers make stuff really good looking out of the box, FOSS will be still the ugly thing no one except IT people want to use.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

I use libreoffice on hidpi screen, some even with fractional scaling, and it seems to work fine by default. What are the problems that you have encountered?