German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux & LibreOffice

Following a successful pilot project, the northern German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to move from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to Linux and LibreOffice (and other free and open source software) on the 30,000 PCs used in the local government.

https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2024/04/04/german-state-moving-30000-p cs-to-libreoffice/

or

https://tinyurl.com/mu4kh77c


Jay

... Is 2024 the year of Linux on the desktop?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Northern Realms (21:3/110)

German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux & LibreOffice

Following a successful pilot project, the northern German federal state
of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to move from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to Linux and LibreOffice (and other free and open
source software) on the 30,000 PCs used in the local government.

Interesting, without looking at those links, why are they getting off this platform?

... A PC a day keeps the Apple away!

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Re: German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux
By: Warpslide to All on Fri Apr 05 2024 08:16 am

German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux & LibreOffice

Following a successful pilot project, the northern German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to move from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to Linux and LibreOffice (and other free and open source software) on the 30,000 PCs used in the local government.

I seem to remmeber hearing abotu that. I think it's interesting that they're doing that.

Nightfox
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Re: German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux
By: niter3 to Warpslide on Fri Apr 05 2024 09:36 am

Interesting, without looking at those links, why are they getting off this platform?

They say "the term 'digital sovereignty' is very important here. If a public administration uses proprietary, closed software that can't be studied or modified, it is very difficult to know what happens to users' data."

It sounds like they feel that open-source software is easier to understand, and they don't want to be beholden to proprietary technology that obscures what's going on inside.

Nightfox
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On 05 Apr 2024, niter3 said the following...

German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux & LibreOffice

Interesting, without looking at those links, why are they getting off
this platform?

The TL;DR of the article is that they're focusing on digital sovereignty.

"With open source software, administrations have much more choice where to get the software and support, can fund local developers to make improvements & local governments can maintain full control of the software, study its source code, make changes they require and deploy it entirely on their own infrastructure."

"This follows on from the finding by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) that the European Commission's use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law."


Jay

... I will stop at nothing to avoid using negative numbers

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
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Warpslide wrote to All <=-

German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux & LibreOffice

Following a successful pilot project, the northern German federal state
of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to move from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to Linux and LibreOffice (and other free and open
source software) on the 30,000 PCs used in the local government.

They'll save on licenses for Office, volume licenses for Windows and
they'll probably have enough clout to buy PCs without OEM licenses of
Windows.

Although, you have to appreciate Microsoft's savvy. Switch away from
MS Office and you lose the online tools like Sharepoint, OneDrive, and
the rest. Interesting that the EU has compelled Microsoft to unbundle
Teams, I wonder if that had anything to do with the timing of their
move.

I think back to the early 2000s and realize I did a pretty good job
with collaboration tools. I used IMAP for mail transport, set up an
NNTP server with local groups for collaboration, Jabber for chat and
LDAP for address books. Outlook back then talked to all of them, or you
could use your own tools if you wanted.

All of this was run off a Linux box running Samba, and later on, they
added pretty decent AD support in with it.

The only thing missing was group calendaring - which is a double-edged
sword. I prefer people not put items on my calendar, it's too easy to
abuse the privilege and it's too easy for items that could be handled
in email to require a meeting.




... Germany's official language is Portugese.
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On 05 Apr 2024, niter3 said the following...

German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux & LibreOffice

Following a successful pilot project, the northern German federal sta of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to move from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to Linux and LibreOffice (and other free and open source software) on the 30,000 PCs used in the local government.

Interesting, without looking at those links, why are they getting off
this platform?

Could part be that the German Army made this move a couple years back and is now sharing their knowledge and tailored distros?

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 2022/07/15 (Linux/64)
* Origin: SPOT BBS / k9zw (21:1/224)

They say "the term 'digital sovereignty' is very important here. If a public administration uses proprietary, closed software that can't be studied or modified, it is very difficult to know what happens to users' data."

It sounds like they feel that open-source software is easier to understand, and they don't want to be beholden to proprietary technology that obscures what's going on inside.

Not a bad reason with everything going on in security, hacking, gov spying related things.

... What does it mean to pre-board? Do you get on before you get on?

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
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They'll save on licenses for Office, volume licenses for Windows and
they'll probably have enough clout to buy PCs without OEM licenses of
Windows.

This too!

Although, you have to appreciate Microsoft's savvy. Switch away from
MS Office and you lose the online tools like Sharepoint, OneDrive, and
the rest. Interesting that the EU has compelled Microsoft to unbundle
Teams, I wonder if that had anything to do with the timing of their
move.

Everyone is going this route. I personally hate it. These companies making constant revenue based off subscriptions now... Plus it all sits on their hardware.

I view it as leasing a car...

... A .GIF is worth a thousand .TXT.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
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BY: poindexter FORTRAN (21:4/122)
I am thinking of moving away from microsoft's email service. Im getting some spam that I cant erradicate and I may do betetr just extracating the email box from my life.


--- WWIV 5.9.03738[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

BY: niter3 (21:1/199)

|11n|09> |10Everyone is going this route. I personally hate it. These companies|07
|11n|09> |10making constant revenue based off subscriptions now... Plus it all sits|07
|11n|09> |10on their hardware.|07
Such as the password manager One Password, they want us to lease the software for 33 a year, when i liked my purchased copy i paid 40 each 1.5 years.


--- WWIV 5.9.03738[Windows]
* Origin: inland utopia * california * iutopia.duckdns.org:2023 (21:4/108)

Such as the password manager One Password, they want us to lease the software for 33 a year, when i liked my purchased copy i paid 40 each
1.5 years.

Everything... I will keep focusing my efforts on open source, self hosted whenever and wherever I can for my personal content.

Get off my grass!

... No honey, I can't eat with the family. My computer gets lonely!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Clutch BBS * telnet://clutchbbs.com (21:1/199)

Quoting Niter3 to Poindexter Fortran <=-

Everyone is going this route. I personally hate it. These companies
making constant revenue based off subscriptions now... Plus it all
sits on their hardware.

It does seem like a scam that's for sure. At work they are well and
truely in teh M$ camp. Teams, Onedrive, Outlook and office are all we
use. They do give us the option on web browsers though, we have Chrome,
edge and firefox to choose from.

On my home computers I use Wordperfect office 6.2 for dos. The fingers
just know where all the keys are, and the spreadsheet math is all the same anyway. I will admit I have Libreoffice installed if I need to convert to
a modern format or if I need to deal with modern documents.

One thing we found about Microsoft was Andrea bought office 2016 on her
last computer and that's what she is used to, we were able to login to M$
and deactivate it on the old Dell and they allowed her to re-install it on
her new Laptop. So at least they didn't jack her for $$$ there.

Shawn

P.S, Haven't had coffee yet, re-reading this I'm all over the place but
I'm gonna leave it so everyone can deal with my rambling mind.


... I passed my ethics exam. I cheated, of course.
___ Blue Wave/386 v2.30
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Re: German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux
By: niter3 to poindexter FORTRAN on Fri Apr 05 2024 09:13 pm

Although, you have to appreciate Microsoft's savvy. Switch away from MS
Office and you lose the online tools like Sharepoint, OneDrive, and the
rest. Interesting that the EU has compelled Microsoft to unbundle Teams,
I wonder if that had anything to do with the timing of their move.

Everyone is going this route. I personally hate it. These companies making constant revenue based off subscriptions now... Plus it all sits on their hardware.

What do you mean by "sits on their hardware"? Microsoft does make their own line of computers (Surface), but as far as I know, their cloud-based services like SharePoint, OneDrive, and such can run on any capable hardware. Also, I don't know if Microsoft even makes any server hardware..

Nightfox
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Warpslide wrote to niter3 <=-

"This follows on from the finding by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) that the European Commission's use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law."

I was wondering about that - Microsoft has a US-only cloud for US
government customers, didn't know if they had any accomodations for
data sovereignity or GDPR in other countries.



... Wait, this is a *scene*?
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Tiny wrote to NITER3 <=-

On my home computers I use Wordperfect office 6.2 for dos. The fingers just know where all the keys are, and the spreadsheet math is all the
same anyway. I will admit I have Libreoffice installed if I need to convert to a modern format or if I need to deal with modern documents.

I posted somewhere recently about an alt.history of the web - I'll have
to look it up. Digital Research signed the deal with IBM, but kept the
rights to CP/M, made a GUI with GEM desktop, merged with WordPerfect,
then bought Cello browser and ended up with the market running a GUI,
browser and office suite tied together with the early web in the mid
'90s, around the time Microsoft Windows 95 came out.

In this world, I wonder if Gary Kildall and Digital Research would have
turned out differently from the predatory business practices of Bill
Gates and Microsoft at the time?




... That's what we are to them -- Yesterday's JAM!
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What do you mean by "sits on their hardware"? Microsoft does make their own line of computers (Surface), but as far as I know, their cloud-based services like SharePoint, OneDrive, and such can run on any capable hardware. Also, I don't know if Microsoft even makes any server hardware..

Referring to not being self hosted.

... Computers all wait at the same speed!

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"This follows on from the finding by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) that the European Commission's use of Microsoft

365

breaches data protection law."

I was wondering about that - Microsoft has a US-only cloud for US
government customers, didn't know if they had any accomodations for
data sovereignity or GDPR in other countries.

Or maybe their US government solution is not strict enough by EU
standards.


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Re: Re: German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux
By: Blue White to poindexter FORTRAN on Sun Apr 07 2024 07:56 am

Or maybe their US government solution is not strict enough by EU
standards.

After all the Snowden fuss it actually amazes me that the EU isn't pulling all their IT out of the US.

The EU is bent in placing all of its infrastructure for critical activitities in the hands of untrusted parties. Check the plan for destroying cash, which consists of having everybody use a smartphone digital wallet instead. Such a move places all the burden of sustaining the economy on US softare running on Chinesse hardware.

I am sure it will end well.
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gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
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Blue White wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Or maybe their US government solution is not strict enough by EU standards.

The US solution focused on US government restrictions on geolocation of
data and only limited where they stored government data to US data
centers. I suppose they could do the same in countries where they have
data centers.



... A group of chipmunks is called a Chalupa.
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Hello Arelor!

..Check the plan for destroying cash, which consists of
having everybody use a smartphone digital wallet instead.
Such a move places all the burden of sustaining the economy
on US softare running on Chinesse hardware.

Wasn't it Sweden that undertook a 100% cashless pilot project
for almost a year? I think it failed in some aspects,
especially when there were power outtages.

An interesting article from 2017 though..

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170912-the-surprising- place-where-cash-is-going-extinct

Cashless makes sense when inflationary rates are so high that
you would have to literally carry bags of money for small
purchases.


--

--- OpenXP 5.0.58
* Origin: (} Pointy McPointFace (21:4/106.21)

On 2024-04-07 11:01 Ogg said...

I think it failed in some aspects, especially when
there were power outtages.

See that in context of Elon Musk building Starlink, that will cover 100% online connectivity for all places on earth.

CBDC is much more than digital currency. It is programmable currency.
It is currency, that may have built-in expiration date. If you do not spend your money before deadline, it will simply disappear.
It is currency, that tracks your CO2 output. You may have money on your account, but you will not be able to buy stuff, as you reached your CO2 emission limit.
It is currency, that is marked with what you can purchase. Different money for guaranteed income, different for luxury goods (bonus for good behavior), which is not interchangable.

If you want to read more about this kind of society, please read "Limes Inferior" novel by Janusz Zajdel. This really looks like a prophecy for the coming times.


--
smk
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* Origin: X65.zone (21:1/222)

On 07 Apr 2024, smokku said the following...

If you want to read more about this kind of society, please read "Limes Inferior" novel by Janusz Zajdel. This really looks like a prophecy for the coming times.

only found Polish and Russian versions available - can you point to either an online version (so I can let Google translate for me) or an English translation?

Thank you!

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS

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On 06 Apr 2024 at 09:44a, Nightfox pondered and said...

Everyone is going this route. I personally hate it. These companies m constant revenue based off subscriptions now... Plus it all sits on t hardware.

What do you mean by "sits on their hardware"? Microsoft does make their own line of computers (Surface), but as far as I know, their cloud-based services like SharePoint, OneDrive, and such can run on any capable hardware. Also, I don't know if Microsoft even makes any server hardware..

Oh they do: lots of it, and it's probably very good. It's
what's running in their hyperscale data centers that provide
the backend for all of their cloud-based services (including
Azure).

It's not for sale to the general public, though.

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On 2024-04-07 12:16 k9zw said...

only found Polish and Russian versions available

I'm pretty sure it was translated to english, but I didn't realize it is not available online. :-(

can you point to
either an online version (so I can let Google translate for me)

This should be translatable: https://chomikuj.pl/ravenland/E-Booki/Zajdel.Janusz.A.Limes.Inferior.PDF.PL.EBoo k.Repack.Read.Nfo-iMN,3549205757.zip(archive)

If you do google-translate it to english, could you please share? :-)




--
smk
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* Origin: X65.zone (21:1/222)

The EU is bent in placing all of its infrastructure for critical activitities in the hands of untrusted parties. Check the plan for destroying cash, which consists of having everybody use a smartphone
digital wallet instead. Such a move places all the burden of
sustaining the economy on US softare running on Chinesse hardware.

I am sure it will end well.

Yes, I am as sure as you are. IMHO, for a group that seems intent on protecting peoples' privacy, there are some ways where they really want
to invade it. That digital wallet idea is one of them. Not being able
to pay cash means there are no ways to buy anything without a digital
paper trail.



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* Origin: possumso.fsxnet.nz * telnet:24/ssh:2122/ftelnet:80 (21:4/134)

Re: Re: German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux
By: Blue White to Arelor on Mon Apr 08 2024 08:04 am

Yes, I am as sure as you are. IMHO, for a group that seems intent on protecting peoples' privacy, there are some ways where they really want to invade it. That digital wallet idea is one of them. Not being able to pay cash means there are no ways to buy anything without a digital paper trail.

The term "paper trail" is ironic since a digital wallet and electronic purchases are all done online.

Nightfox
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