SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 28 2018, @12:55PM (25 children)
It should be outright illegal for governments to use proprietary software. It is extremely dangerous for governments to not be able to control or even understand their own computing, or for them to be reliant on corporations.
In general, the fact that the vast majority of computers are essentially black boxes that users ultimately do not control is very worrying to anyone with even a sliver of knowledge about technology. The importance of usability and convenience pale in comparison to the importance of freedom, independence, and education. So, just making Free Software more convenient would not fix the fundamental issue, which is that people need to care about freedom above all else. That's what many "open source" advocates miss.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Saturday July 28 2018, @03:12PM (4 children)
Hello Richard, long time no see, how's the st. ignucius halo doing?
Modded you insightful all the same.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 28 2018, @08:43PM (3 children)
He's correct, even if you don't like it. We all know how *you* work (might makes right), but in the real world, people who have a better grasp of human nature than, for example, the average whelk does of Cantorian transfinite sets, understand these things.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by leftover on Saturday July 28 2018, @09:12PM (1 child)
AH you made me splurt wine into my keyboard again. But thank you, I will reuse that phrase when appropriate.
Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 29 2018, @02:19AM
You weren't doing mathematical analysis in R or anything while imbibing, were you? Alcohol and calculus are a deadly mixture: don't drink and derive!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday July 31 2018, @08:46PM
> you don't like it.
wew lad-y, now I am also pro closed source and 'right "fool" for the job'? one of these days you're gonna paint me as a right wing misogynist, I'm sure.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 28 2018, @03:57PM (3 children)
And what true believers miss is that most people and institutions think of IT as an annoying distraction that should be minimized. If Windows seems less distracting they will use it. With how sh*tty a lot of software is, it's hard to criticize that attitude.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 28 2018, @04:30PM (2 children)
Wrong. We don't miss that. Rather, Free Software advocates recognize the problem and are trying to fix that via education. It's a nearly impossible task, but that doesn't mean we should give up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 28 2018, @07:10PM
Yeah tell me about minimizing distraction. I recall meddling with windows. By the time one win7 station had recognized the network printer I had installed aptosid on the remaining 5 machines.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Saturday July 28 2018, @07:39PM
Which most people only see as yet more annoying distraction to get rid of.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by snufu on Saturday July 28 2018, @08:24PM (9 children)
Funny how Soylent Libertarian champions free market fundamentalism as the solution to everything...until another FOSS option gets dumped on its ass for a superior product. Than its all "Unite comrades, we must force FOSS on the proletariat by government fiat. For their own good."
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday July 28 2018, @08:45PM
No, no, clearly the problem here is a Violently Imposed Monopoly (TM). I mean hell it's even the name of the default editor, Vim! Lower Saxony ought to enter a series of voluntary contracts, because no one ever got screwed dealing with an entity with a hell of a lot more power, money, and legal influence on a contractural basis, as Any Fule Noe.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @04:30AM (4 children)
Decent troll, would read again. You had me at "superior product" :D
(Score: 2) by snufu on Sunday July 29 2018, @09:14AM (3 children)
Free market don't lie.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday July 29 2018, @11:07AM (2 children)
If only we HAD a free* market...
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by snufu on Sunday July 29 2018, @10:07PM (1 child)
What is preventing FOSS from competing in this space? FOSS has been tested time and again by end users and found lacking. They have spoken with their wallet.
(Score: 2) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Tuesday July 31 2018, @07:59AM
Megabucks of advertising/propaganda saying FOSS is a Bad Thing for one. More megabucks pushing sellers into forced bundling of software with hardware for another.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday July 29 2018, @09:44PM (2 children)
I am a free market fundamentalist. The market in which Microsoft operates is not free. If it were free the best product for the price would win.
BTW I am sure by now some crooks have begun pushing their FOSS based solutions with the mere intent of having the taxpayer shell out money for their services. This is not a matter of FOSS vs. proprietary. This is corruption.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by snufu on Sunday July 29 2018, @10:00PM (1 child)
All markets are free...except the ones I deem not free. Those markets should be regulated and proscribed by law.
Similarly all speech is free...except the speech I deem hate. That speech should proscribed by law.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday July 31 2018, @08:53PM
me: If in a mixture of ice cubes and water, the cubes do not rise to the top, then they are not floating freely.
you interpret it as: all mixtures feature ice on top, except for the ones i don't like
funny meatbag.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by exaeta on Saturday July 28 2018, @11:44PM (1 child)
That's not how it works.
Here's what governments think:
"We can trust Microsoft because they know if we catch them doing anything bad we will sick our army of lawyers on them."
Here's how Microsoft thinks:
"How much can we abuse our users before the government or some rich guy sends an army of lawyers at us?"
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 29 2018, @02:03PM
Well, those governments are wrong, because Microsoft is already doing plenty of bad things. Microsoft makes proprietary software. It makes proprietary data formats to lock users into their proprietary software. It spies on users. It disables features that allow the user to disable certain aspects of the spying. And so on.
If those governments think they're going to send an army of lawyers in Microsoft's direction if it does anything bad, they're not doing a very good job of it.
(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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 30 2018, @05:11PM
yes. governments paying for proprietary software with tax payer funds is sedition. hang everyone who tries to do this. if a government can't use FOSS, then it can't offer that "service" digitally.