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Another German state plans switch back from Linux to Windows
The German state of Lower Saxony plans to follow Munich's example, and migrate a reported 13,000 users from Linux back to Windows.
Apparently undaunted by the cost of the Munich switch (which we reported in January could be as much as €100m), Lower Saxony is considering making the change in its tax office. The state seems to expect a much cheaper transition, with Heise (in German here) reporting the first-year budget is €5.9m, and another €7m further out.
The tax office argues its decision is driven by compatibility: field workers and teleworkers overwhelmingly use Windows, while the OpenSUSE variants are installed on its office workstations. The office workstations are also ageing and due for replacement, something that helped open the door for Windows.
Related: Linux Champion Munich Takes Decisive Step Towards Returning to Windows
Munich Switching From Linux to Windows 10
German Documentary on Relations Between Microsoft and Public Administration Now Available in English
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Sunday July 29 2018, @03:22PM (2 children)
When people buy a toaster, a pair of pants, a car, or a radio concerns about freedom and privacy don't cross their minds. So as much as it hurts us all that they don't think about freedom when buying computers, it's not really a surprise.
And convenience is every bit as important as freedom. I'm an FSF member, but usability is a critical component to this that the FSF doesn't weigh as heavily as it deserves. If I give someone a free software computer that doesn't boot because of missing drivers, I might as well have told them they can run all the programs they want on a box of bricks. The Free Software Foundation is often like a libertarian telling the starving homeless "you are free to buy all the food you could possible want". They have the freedom, but not the capability and without the capability the freedom is worthless.
I don't have the answer. But we have two problems to solve and both are equally important: 1. educating the world that free software is critical and 2. making free software that can meet all of the world's uses, not just piles of source code and bits you need fifteen years of IT tinkering experience or formal education to run.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @06:53PM (1 child)
FLOSS devs in particular reek of a particular brand of elitism. Internalized, unreflected identification with Dilbert tropes seems to be a common character trait among FLOSS devs, which gives insight into their perspective on perceived status and rank within a software project. I can get behind hating on the PHB manager types that add nothing to the product but deciding when everyone has to do mandatory crunchtime/sprints/.
But these dev types often look also down on every software specialist working in a non-coding position. In particular, pixel pushers doing interface/UX design seem to be regarded as redundant, overpaid bullshit-jobbers, dead weight - after all, a real programmer can easily create any desired UI by drawing geometric shapes by coordinates. Right?
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Tuesday July 31 2018, @11:45AM
I would adjust your statement to say "some" or at most "many" FLOSS devs have the elitism you describe. I've run into many FLOSS devs that are fantastic people and have no such elitism or contempt for others. But the jackasses give the rest a bad name, and we need to (prepare for the flames) enforce more of some kind of code of conduct.
I barely contribute anything to FOSS but I'm a software developer. I don't have any contempt for UI specialists, work in that area is every bit as hard as work elsewhere. I just find it less interesting personally than solving data-oriented problems. Yes, many UI experts can't do my job - but neither can I do theirs.