• TCB13@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    So the Germany has been moving back and forth between Microsoft and Linux / open-source.

    When Munich decided to ditch many of its Windows installations in favor of Linux in 2003, it was considered a groundbreaking moment for open source software – it was proof that Linux could be used for large-scale government work. However, it looks like that dream didn’t quite pan out as expected. The German city has cleared a plan to put Windows 10 on roughly 29,000 city council PCs starting in 2020. There will also be a pilot where Munich runs Office 2016 in virtual machines. The plan was prompted by gripes about both the complexity of the current setup and compatibility headaches.

    Do you know what this smells like? Corruption and consulting companies with friends in the govt looking for ways to profit.

    What else can be more profitable for a consulting company than shifting the entire IT of a city or a country between two largely incompatible solutions? :)

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      Do you know what this smells like? Corruption and consulting companies with friends in the govt looking for ways to profit.

      No it doesn’t. It smells like Microsoft has a monopoly on office software, and city employees are not tech enthusiasts. Anyone who used Office at home or in another job is going to complain when they have to learn a new software (regardless of which is “better” - for the average person, different is bad)

      Plus, every document they receive from outside is almost certainly formatted in Office, so if there isn’t 100% compatibility, people will again complain.

      Migrating an entire enterprise to FOSS software is not easy, and in government where leadership changes can be more regular, it’s not shocking to see the pendulum swing back and forth.

        • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Definitely could be both, but I’d posit that it would still happen regardless of corruption, just because they’re taking on the ambitious task of trying something new.

      • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
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        8 months ago

        Plus, every document they receive from outside is almost certainly formatted in Office, so if there isn’t 100% compatibility, people will again complain.

        That’s not like that with governments. Governments are huge clients, they can and should dictate file formats to suppliers.

        If the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil, with a GDP of 2/3 of that of Munich, could transition to Open Document Format almost 20 years ago, Munich can.

        • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          They definitely can dictate requirements, however that means that you’re now making your staff play document format police.

          I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that it’s an additional headache. If I were working in that office, I’d die a little inside each time I have to go back to a consultant/contractor/community member and say “can you please resubmit this, the formatting is broken when I open it in Libre Office”

          Yes, again, they have the authority to do this, and it is technically feasible, but it’s going to be a bad user experience for a long time until everyone is properly “retrained”. Especially if you’re working with partners outside of Germany who have their own document standards.

          I’m not saying this is a bad move, just that I understand why they might be inclined to jump back and forth.

    • fuego@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      That’s possible, but in the past I think Germany stuck with Windows after Microsoft gave them a better deal or something.

      Heck, they may have even paid Germany to keep using Windows.

      • BCsven@lemmy.ca
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        8 months ago

        That is how big companies operate. There was that huge lawsuit / fine of

        1.4 billion corruption

        A large corporation gave cash to companies and Govt officials to migrate to their software products.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      IIRC the last time this made big headlines they tried to roll their own distro and it went very poorly longterm. The TL;DR version was they so thoroughly took the hardest route and made questionable choices that it was almost sure to fail, and then MS swooped in with some great offers and that was that. (This is entirely my dusty recollection of articles I read about it at the time, FWIW.)

      I don’t know whether it was malicious compliance because the folks doing the change didn’t actually want to do it or what, but that effort was as doomed as Firefly was when Fox aired it out of order and with a constantly shifting schedule.

      Hopefully they make some sensible choices this time around (at a minimum not trying to create a custom distro) and it goes better. It would be great to see this become a cascade effect.

      • TCB13@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        they so thoroughly took the hardest route and made questionable choices that it was almost sure to fail

        Typical government move going full malicious compliance while allowing “a few selected friends” from consulting companies to make a ton of money. They could’ve just picked Debian and rolled with it. Let’s face it, nobody develops desktop applications anymore most of the govt work is already done on custom built web platforms, any OS that can run a browser is good enough to address around 90% of the govt daily work.

        Meanwhile China is creating their own distro that will be successful for sure because they’ve plans to move the public sector and whatever private they influence to the thing.

    • Scrof@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      There’s a lot of high level corruption in Germany these days, so I wouldn’t be surprised.

    • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      No.

      Things were very different “back then.” Linux was less friendly at the time. And non-Microsoft products still had noticeable gaps. Web browser office suites didn’t exist.

      The parts I remember reading were just that it took a long time for workers to get used to the system. Back then, home computers were uncommon for the average person. And what computer experience the average person did have was noticeably different from Linux.

      I did not see articles about tech issues such as viruses or data leaks or configuration issues. Please show any if you have them.

    • summerof69@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Because there’s no “Germany” in this movement. Different lands, different governments, different offices, etc.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      What else can be more profitable for a consulting company than shifting the entire IT of a city or a country between two largely incompatible solutions? :)

      See that’s the neat thing SH has (together with HH, HB and ST) its own IT consultancy. Public enterprise, not some public-private partnership, and 5300 staff a quite a bit more than what Munich’s IT department has.

      And yes of course Munich is corrupt what do you expect it’s Bavaria.

      • TCB13@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        So… it’s exactly what I said but with extra steps.

        A way to provide money to the friends and have underplayed govt workers without the benefits and the stability 😂

        • barsoap@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Nah dataport doesn’t make profit, or at least it’s not paying out any to the states. It’s about as close to a ministry as you can get without being required to pay government wages and there’s not many in the industry who’d work for that. They don’t pay as much as FAANG or even SAP but among the wider industry it’s definitely competitive, especially if you don’t plan on job-hopping and dodging lay-offs.