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posted by martyb on Thursday August 02 2018, @09:24PM   Printer-friendly
from the ...wants-to-be-free dept.

As part of its move to Free and Open Source Software, the city of Rome, in Italy, has begun to phase in LibreOffice as the only available suite of office productivity tools on its desktops. Those city employees who currently use productivity software one hour per month or less are in the first group to migrate. Heavier users will follow in the near future. Eventually around 14,000 desktops in all will be addressed.

In April, Rome completed the installation of LibreOffice alongside the proprietary alternative on all of its 14,000 PC workstations. This means that city staff can try out LibreOffice and gradually get familiar with the office suite. Staff members who use the proprietary office suite intensively will not be forced to switch.

As part of the change management approach, the city is partly relying on 112 staff members who are in favour of free and open source. This means that, on average, the city has two such innovation champions per department. They help explain the reasons for the change to LibreOffice, and encourage their colleagues to find out more by pointing them to a Moodle-based eLearning portal. Last month, the champions received a two-day training course to boost their LibreOffice expertise and prepare them to help train their colleagues.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @11:35PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @11:35PM (#716489)

    Some high executive from Microsoft sales departmen is taking his plane in this moment with a shiny briefcase filled with very respectable figures.

  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday August 03 2018, @04:58AM (4 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Friday August 03 2018, @04:58AM (#716560) Journal

    It is not so easy this time.
    The mayor, Virginia Raggi, is from the populist movimento 5 stelle. As such the media, which were silent when the roman mafia practically ran the place, are keeping her under scrutiny. The moment a MS exec drops one penny towards the second cousin of some bureaucrat's household pet, they will report it as SCANDAL - RAGGI PROSTITUTES HERSELF IN FRONT OF BILL GATES.

    Which is how democracy should have worked all this time, but didn't.

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    • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Friday August 03 2018, @10:36AM (1 child)

      by Gaaark (41) on Friday August 03 2018, @10:36AM (#716609) Journal

      But Microsoft will use money to oust her and put THEIR person into power, like they did in Germany (Berlin? I believe???)

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      --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday August 03 2018, @04:12PM

        by Bot (3902) on Friday August 03 2018, @04:12PM (#716773) Journal

        > But Microsoft will use money to oust her
        That's a crowded market they are entering.
        Pick a number to oust a cinquestelle with whatever excuse. Your number is 10342

        Really if this time too the axis lega/cinquestelle is controlled opposition, the rabbit hole is deeeeeeep.

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    • (Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday August 03 2018, @01:10PM (1 child)

      by urza9814 (3954) on Friday August 03 2018, @01:10PM (#716672) Journal

      You sure Microsoft can't convince the papers to spin it as a scandal no matter what they do?

      If they switch back, you could get the anti-Microsoft slanted scandal of accepting "bribes" from MS execs in the form of better licensing agreements and such...that's far from the worst option though since the government could spin it as a good negotiation tactic.

      If Microsoft convinces them to switch back and is thinking ahead, they'll also work to convince the media that any scandal is in the wasted time and effort of deploying LibreOffice just to switch back a few months/years later. Surely they can cook up some FUD to show that the switch was more expensive than just paying for the Office licenses.

      But even if they never switch back, the papers could probably be convinced to call that a scandal too, just find some government employed Microsoft fanboy to go off about how the government isn't willing to pay for the software and support that they "need" to get their job done. Or, again, the usual M$ FUD about the transition costs exceeding licensing costs by comparing the transition cost to a one year license or something.

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Friday August 03 2018, @04:02PM

        by Bot (3902) on Friday August 03 2018, @04:02PM (#716770) Journal

        Indeed, I am pretty sure leaving MS is like leaving the mafia. They tend to take it personally.

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