6d ago

German state gov. ditching Windows for Linux, 30K workers migrating

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/60886715

Schleswig-Holstein, one of Germany’s 16 states, on Wednesday confirmed plans to move tens of thousands of systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux. The announcement follows previously established plans to migrate the state government off Microsoft Office in favor of open source LibreOffice.

27 comments

The article is a year old, fyi.
- Hope more places within EU do this however!

Ah, that's why the penguin island got tariffs, but not Russian. Makes sense.
- @barnaclebutt @chmod755 True, cant have us #Europeans grow a spine, become more assertive, become more autonomous, etc. etc.
  Personally I'm becoming more proud to be European. All in all I think Europe has woken up and started moving.

I hope the switch sticks as other states in germany already went back and forth (munich i think?). I also hope that more states follow and move to linux.
- In Munich "only" the citiy switched to a own Linux distribution named "Limux" with extra software (Wollmux) for Open Office to manage templates for all departments. After a few years and a lot of progress the new mayor spread doubt (e.g. with a study ignoring some costs) about the project and forced to switch back to Microsoft. Coincidental Microsoft Germany moved their Headquarter a few kilometers from outside Munich to the administrative area of the city.
  
  The amount of excuses of things not working/missing functionality under OSS are getting fewer and fewer. For me, the last couple of years have been huge in closing the gap. Switching from Windows to Mac a year and a half ago brought some disappointment towards MacOS - it has more glitches/weirdness than I had thought, coming from the (apparent) Apple UI masters. Installing Debian 12 with GNOME on my old work laptop was a pleasent experience, but still requires some fiddling to get things (mostly apps) the way I want them. I imagine installing a more user friendly distribution would be an even more polished experience.
  My point is, that OSS is better than ever and the excuses are starting to become tiresome.
  
  I mean thats exactly why i fear that it wont take hold. Microsoft has their goons pushing their expensive garbage through lobbyists. The politicians in turn have zero knowledge about operating systems or IT in general so they are influenced easily.

This is the 3rd time, that i remember, that some german state moved to linux. It always ends up with moving back to windows, because:
Corruption/money
The users will complain until death about linux, because now the workflow is different, and they don't like it.
- Not a state, but there was Munich’s LiMux.

German government is forth and back with the decision since the early 2000.
I hope they pull through just like France is doing (referring to the video someone posted here)
- Yes, I remember reading about these huge migrations to Linux in the early 2000s, only for Microsoft to open up shop in the area and start lobbying for a reversal. It was always disappointing to hear cases of returning to MS. Let’s hope they stay the course this time.

I wonder which distro
- Munich (not the same area as mentioned in op but i could be wrong) have ping ponged for over a decade (maybe 2) with LiMux.
  Looks like Debian based.

Someone has to start the tine. Good job!!!!

Alt aber gut!

@chmod755 UK government really needs to follow suit on something similar.

FYI, the Linux trademark, the Linux Foundation and Linus Torvalds are U.S.-based.
- And? The licencing is completely open and not chained to a single country nor single corporation.
  
  Still, it's probably off-topic in the "buy from EU" community. No EU products are involved here.

27 comments