Windows and Microsoft Office are being replaced with Linux and LibreOffice in this German state

[midian182]

What just happened? It's not just China that is replacing Windows on government PCs. Germany's most northern state, Schleswig-Holstein, has begun moving from the popular OS to Linux while also switching from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. The state's Minister-President Daniel Gunther said the move from proprietary to open-source software was being made to ensure independence, sustainability, and security.

"In addition to improved IT security, cost-effectiveness, and data protection, the use of open-source software also enables seamless collaboration between different systems," officials said. "Alongside open-source software development, the goal is to release future development results of the country under free licenses."

The 30,000 employees of Schleswig-Holstein's local government will be moving to Linux and LibreOffice as the state pushes for what it calls "digital sovereignty," a reference to non-EU companies not gathering troves of user data so European firms can compete with these foreign rivals.

LibreOffice developer The Document Foundation celebrated the move with a post that highlighted the use of the term digital sovereignty, noting that proprietary, closed software can't be studied or modified, meaning it is very difficult to know what happens to users' data.

The Document Foundation added that with open-source software, local governments maintain full control, study its source code, make changes they require, and deploy it entirely on their own infrastructure. The organization also questioned why local governments should use taxpayers' money to buy proprietary software from a single vendor.

Question! Why should local governments use taxpayers' money to buy proprietary software from a single vendor? And what happens to citizens' data? A solution is to move to free software like Linux and LibreOffice – which is what Schleswig-Holstein is doing: https://t.co/P7cQJwEP7u pic.twitter.com/OuIHPlSteV

– LibreOffice (@LibreOffice) April 4, 2024

Schleswig-Holstein's email servers, directory, and telephony software is also going open-source, with plans to use Nextcloud, Open Xchange/Thunderbird, and the Univention Active Directory (AD).

Speaking about the restrictions associated with proprietary software, the state's government said that "We have no influence over the operational processes of such solutions or the handling of data, including the possibility of data outflows to third-party countries."

The plans to go open-source were drawn up by Schleswig-Holstein back in 2021. At the time, one of the several reasons for the switch was Windows 11's hardware requirements. The jump to LibreOffice had a deadline of 2026 – there was no date set for ditching Windows.

The move could see other government agencies in Germany and the rest of Europe also drop propriety software for open-source alternatives, particularly as the European Commission recently found that its use of Microsoft 365 infringed several key data protection rules.

Munich, the capital of German state Bavaria, switched from Windows to Linux-based LiMux in 2004, though it switched back in 2017 as part of an IT overhaul. Wanting Microsoft to move its headquarters to Munich likely played a part in returning to Windows, too.

The move comes soon after China introduced new guidelines that will phase out US processors and software, including Windows, from its government computers and servers.

Last month saw Andres Freund, a PostgreSQL developer at Microsoft, discover malicious code that could break sshd authentication, potentially posing a huge threat to Linux. Thankfully, it was caught early.

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Windows and Microsoft Office are being replaced with Linux and LibreOffice in this German state

 

[WhiteLeaff]

I tried Libre office once. It's not that intuitive or practical to use, I'm sure if it was given as the only option you could get used to it. But I wouldn't recommend it tbh

in fact he is holding the company back.

 

[RedGuard]

Isn't Germany one of the least digitalized countries around? With people paying cash more often than not?

 

[yRaz]

I tried Libre office once. It's not that intuitive or practical to use, I'm sure if it was given as the only option you could get used to it. But I wouldn't recommend it tbh

in fact he is holding the company back.

I used LibreOffice(open office at the time) all through high-school and college and never had an issue jumping from MS office on the school computers and open office on my home computer.

On a different note, I like how entire government agencies are getting tired of MS's crap with Windows. They nailed it with windows 7, messed up with windows 8, almost nailed it with windows 10 then proceeded to f*** it up for several years and then they released windows 11 which noone asked for and has governments concerned. Then there is talk of windows 12. All their attempts at adding features are pushing users away

 

[toooooot]

I am guessing people there will still quietly use Windows and Office. They will just add a second installation.

 

[cawopid]

I used LibreOffice(open office at the time) all through high-school and college and never had an issue jumping from MS office on the school computers and open office on my home computer.

On a different note, I like how entire government agencies are getting tired of MS's crap with Windows. They nailed it with windows 7, messed up with windows 8, almost nailed it with windows 10 then proceeded to f*** it up for several years and then they released windows 11 which noone asked for and has governments concerned. Then there is talk of windows 12. All their attempts at adding features are pushing users away

be prepared to teach all 40 years old employees, linux and open office again .

 

[Dimitriid]

I think people are really over-estimating the kind of word and capabilities an average office employee does, let alone a bureaucrat working on a German government agency: Do you really think 99.99% of them will really miss their Excel macros or might complain that Premiere doesn't quite works on Linux for video editing?

These are going to be mostly basic data entry tasks, most of which by now should be 100% web based so as long as the people installing Linux can make sure the printer works and Firefox or Chromium open for the employees to write down a few things on a web form and check a few web-based reports they're all going to be just fine in Linux, they might not even notice anything is all that different even.

And for people who might want to actually create some more advanced reports that for some reason are still excel based, they'll probably just open office 365 on their browser window, adjust for like 2 or 3 days to the web based interface and get their reports done just he same.

The big pull is to actually get most of the IT guys to know how to install Linux, set up their user policies and network settings correctly and troubleshoot for when someone's PC doesn't works so that's the cost but the trade off which should be not having Microsoft routinely break functionality due to their ever changing OSes and updates it's gonna be taken care of: I don't know if you've notice but Debian doesn't really change all that much so it's ideal for 'Must always work' kinda computers.

 

[yRaz]

be prepared to teach all 40 years old employees, linux and open office again .

Going from windows to Linux is easier than going from windows to Mac at this point. I haven't had to use console commands since probably 2011 and if the same commands worked in windows I'd probably use them there.

People seem to think I'm lying when I say Linux has a learning curve of 2-4 hours these days. I spend more time trying to fix things MS breaks after an update than what it would take someone to learn Linux from scratch.

 

[masaaya4]

From an economical perspective this makes sense. Microsoft increases prices every time the contract period ends, and once municipalities are heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, they can't say "no thanks, we're not pay in 20% more the next 3 years."

hopefully more go down this path it will benefit the tax payers greatly.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

be prepared to teach all 40 years old employees, linux and open office again .

I gotta reteach them how to use chrome every time it updates anyway. Teaching them to use windows 11's file manager is just pure pain.

Doesn't matter what you use when the bonobos in charge can't handle an etch-e-sketch, let alone a personal computer.

 

[Uncle Al]

Changed to Linex and LibreOffice years ago and never looked back. Hard to believe so many people out here haven't investigated the offerings, especially with MicroSludge pulling some of their more recent stunts .....

 

[WhiteLeaff]

From an economical perspective this makes sense. Microsoft increases prices every time the contract period ends, and once municipalities are heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, they can't say "no thanks, we're not pay in 20% more the next 3 years."

hopefully more go down this path it will benefit the tax payers greatly.

I'd say you'll hardly get any significant benefit, because on the other side, the German government is making so many terrible decisions for the country's economy and future. Soon you'll be dealing with the weakest and most unproductive generation of people ever.

 

[fps4ever]

Being a system admin myself I applaud them for the effort and reasons why but that is a huge logistical nightmare to switch like that. First is hiring the experienced engineers and IT staff required to run totally different systems. Sure some can be retrained but...then all the gotchya's of converting/migrating/training users for the software. Costs are going to balloon for the foreseeable future.

 

[LemmingO]

Germany's done this quite a few times (for that past 20 years, in fact) and always partly rolled back their adoption of Linux and open-source alternatives in most use cases because users struggled with the training and getting work done afterwards...

 

[Underdog]

Several years ago France made similar decisions, mostly for security reasons. Since then I have noticed lots of Apple desktops turning up in government offices and on doctors' desks. When it is a case of government data they just don't trust the "behind closed doors" agreements between Microsoft and the USA. 365 was banned in schools a few years ago.

 

[Impudicus]

I've been using libre office for years. I only do basic stuff so it works great for everything I do. And when it comes to opening basic excel files, it performs much better than excel.

 

[Axeia]

Several years ago France made similar decisions, mostly for security reasons. Since then I have noticed lots of Apple desktops turning up in government offices and on doctors' desks. When it is a case of government data they just don't trust the "behind closed doors" agreements between Microsoft and the USA. 365 was banned in schools a few years ago.

Why would Apple, another US company with a closed source OS be any better? Not to mention suddenly you can't convert a system from Windows to OSX. You need new hardware, expensive hardware.

Out of all the options Apple is the worst one. You gain nothing and have to replace the hardware and have to retrain people.

From experience it doesn't take people long to adjust to Linux if it's setup properly for them. Most don't do much more than use a webbrowser and perhaps office. Put the relevant icons on the desktop and in a prominent place in the startmenu and if you told them is windows 12 they would believe you .

 

[Ecurb]

Breaking out of the lock-in to a product system is tough, but doable. I got off of Office decades ago but with Google Docs. The last few years I converted my servers to Linux and this year my primary desktop PC. So much daily technical drama has disappeared by dropping Microsoft products. I still need windows for my financial apps, but I run them in a virtual machine on my Linux desktop. Plus, the rise of the AI bots has made tweaking Linux at the command line almost effortless (almost).

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Why would Apple, another US company with a closed source OS be any better? Not to mention suddenly you can't convert a system from Windows to OSX. You need new hardware, expensive hardware.

Out of all the options Apple is the worst one. You gain nothing and have to replace the hardware and have to retrain people.

From experience it doesn't take people long to adjust to Linux if it's setup properly for them. Most don't do much more than use a webbrowser and perhaps office. Put the relevant icons on the desktop and in a prominent place in the startmenu and if you told them is windows 12 they would believe you .

Because Apple publicly tells the US to screw off on data requests? MS meanwhile is wel and truly in bed with the feds. Their data scraping is a privacy nightmare compared to Apple.

 

[fps4ever]

Because Apple publicly tells the US to screw off on data requests? MS meanwhile is wel and truly in bed with the feds. Their data scraping is a privacy nightmare compared to Apple.

LOL China would like to join the chat telling you how misinformed you are. Apple is no better than MS or Google.

 

[amghwk]

I changed to Linux and LibreOffice and never looked back. Both at home and my office.

Licensing Win-dohs and its oh-fish is a filthy expensive affair for commercial use.

If you're used to MSOffice, you can train yourself or your staff to use LibreOffice in no time. In fact, my staff now know better how to use LibreOffice than myself, who first introduced it to them!