10mo ago

German state moving 30,000 PCs to Linux and LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Blog

blog.documentfoundation.org German state moving 30,000 PCs to LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Blog

Following a successful pilot project, the northern German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein has decided to move from Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office to Linux and LibreOffice (and other free and open source software) on the 30,000 PCs used in the local government. As reported on the homepage...

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the government has given the go-ahead for the first step towards complete digital sovereignty in the state, with further steps to follow.
The term digital sovereignty is very important here. If a public administration uses proprietary, closed software that can’t be studied or modified, it is very difficult to know what happens to users’ data:
We have no influence on the operating processes of such [proprietary] solutions and the handling of data, including a possible outflow of data to third countries. As a state, we have a great responsibility towards our citizens and companies to ensure that their data is kept safe with us and we must ensure that we are always in control of the IT solutions we use and that we can act independently as a state.
Digital sovereignty seems to be the primary impetus, so this might go far. Saving money is secondary.
- digital sovereignty is among the best reasons to switch, good on them!
- There were also previous notes about public tax dollars should not feed private corporations, but stay within a public system
  
  Lol. Geez in America this would be radical ideas haha.
  Seems nice not to have tax dollars going to private companies at a glance. However, I do not trust the government to get the job done right by themselves either in many cases.
  
  Wouldn’t be government anyway.
  I’ve worked on both public and private sectors, and they’re both run by people with the same potential for good and bad decisions and performance. I’ve seen great things coming from public organizations and terrible things coming from successful private organizations. Don’t buy into the narrative that government = bad.
- Saving money is secondary.
  Weird how that's always the case in a capitalist society.

143 comments