8 ms·

That is a flat out lie. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/13/munich_committee_says_all_windows_2020 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/13/munich_committ

by maximus1983 7y ago

That is a flat out lie. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/13/munich_committee_says_all_windows_2020 https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/11/13/munich_committee_sa... > Hübner said the city has struggled with LiMux adoption. "Users were unhappy and software essential for the public sector is mostly only available for Windows," she said. > She estimated about half of the 800 or so total programs needed don't run on Linux and "many others need a lot of effort and workarounds". > Hübner added, "in the past 15 years, much of our efforts were put into becoming independent from Microsoft," including spending "a lot of money looking for workarounds" but "those efforts eventually failed." https://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-deploying-linux-was-a-disaster-going-back-to-windows/ https://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-dep... > https://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-deploying-linux-was-a-disaster-going-back-to-windows/ https://www.neowin.net/news/munich-germany-realizes-that-dep... Looks like the open source equivalents for the software didn't deal well enough with different file formats.

sascha_sl 7y ago
This is not flat out wrong, it's just the officially given reason. Not the entire story. The source is in German, but EN Wikipedia sums it up nicely: "In 2018, journalistic group Investigate Europe released a video documentary via German public television network ARD, wherein it is claimed that the majority of city workers were satisfied with the operating system, with council members insinuating that the reversal was a personally motivated decision by lord mayor Dieter Reiter. Reiter denied that he had initiated the reversal in gratitude for Microsoft moving its German headquarters from Unterschleißheim back to Munich." This is also worth a read: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2017/02/14/statement-by-the-document-foundation-about-the-upcoming-discussion-at-the-city-of-munich-to-step-back-to-windows-and-ms-office/ https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2017/02/14/statemen... In short, it _was_ MSFT lobby grease.
- maximus1983 7y ago
  So you link a biased source against Microsoft to prove that Microsoft were conspiring with the council. They're reason to exist is to make Microsoft look bad.
jacquesm 7y ago
The hell it is. Really, if you want to argue this please at least do your homework and have a read on the effort MS put in to get into the good graces of the Munich authorities. I don't doubt that there were issues with 'different file formats', .docx and .xslx right up front (open standards that they are one wonders how there could have been an issue). https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-germany-moves-into-a-new-headquarters/ https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-germany-moves-into-a-new-h... Probably has a lot more to do with it than file formats ever did.
- maximus1983 7y ago
  Yes different file formats are big deal. I've run into problems with just Doc files if they have forms embedded. I've had to deal with quite a lot from different councils in the UK. A lot of gov / HR departments etc have embedded forms in things like word documents and PDFs. The same problem with alternative PDF viewers, they don't do PDF forms well if at all. You don't know the requirements of the different departments and saying "this free alternative works fine when writing a doc" doesn't cover their use cases. The Linux community like to think that Microsoft is the "big evil" that is trying to thwart them at every turn. I know quite a few people in Microsoft and they tell me that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. So sorry I think it is a conspiracy theory and as someone that earns his living processing documents from Office I know that incompatibilities exist between Libre Office (which is a fork of Open Office) and MS Office.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    So, to summarize: vendor lock-in is a thing and the best way to get there is to create closed stuff that open source then has no chance to properly deal with. You can use this to strong-arm all kinds of entities to deal with you on your terms. > The Linux community like to think that Microsoft is the "big evil" I really don't think I speak for the Linux community but I do think that MS is still the big evil, just in slightly nicer packaging. Fantastic PR, crappy company.
    - maximus1983 7y ago

sascha_sl 7y ago

This is not flat out wrong, it's just the officially given reason. Not the entire story. The source is in German, but EN Wikipedia sums it up nicely: "In 2018, journalistic group Investigate Europe released a video documentary via German public television network ARD, wherein it is claimed that the majority of city workers were satisfied with the operating system, with council members insinuating that the reversal was a personally motivated decision by lord mayor Dieter Reiter. Reiter denied that he had initiated the reversal in gratitude for Microsoft moving its German headquarters from Unterschleißheim back to Munich." This is also worth a read: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2017/02/14/statement-by-the-document-foundation-about-the-upcoming-discussion-at-the-city-of-munich-to-step-back-to-windows-and-ms-office/ https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2017/02/14/statemen... In short, it _was_ MSFT lobby grease.

maximus1983 7y ago
So you link a biased source against Microsoft to prove that Microsoft were conspiring with the council. They're reason to exist is to make Microsoft look bad.

jacquesm 7y ago

The hell it is. Really, if you want to argue this please at least do your homework and have a read on the effort MS put in to get into the good graces of the Munich authorities. I don't doubt that there were issues with 'different file formats', .docx and .xslx right up front (open standards that they are one wonders how there could have been an issue). https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-germany-moves-into-a-new-headquarters/ https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-germany-moves-into-a-new-h... Probably has a lot more to do with it than file formats ever did.

maximus1983 7y ago
Yes different file formats are big deal. I've run into problems with just Doc files if they have forms embedded. I've had to deal with quite a lot from different councils in the UK. A lot of gov / HR departments etc have embedded forms in things like word documents and PDFs. The same problem with alternative PDF viewers, they don't do PDF forms well if at all. You don't know the requirements of the different departments and saying "this free alternative works fine when writing a doc" doesn't cover their use cases. The Linux community like to think that Microsoft is the "big evil" that is trying to thwart them at every turn. I know quite a few people in Microsoft and they tell me that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. So sorry I think it is a conspiracy theory and as someone that earns his living processing documents from Office I know that incompatibilities exist between Libre Office (which is a fork of Open Office) and MS Office.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  So, to summarize: vendor lock-in is a thing and the best way to get there is to create closed stuff that open source then has no chance to properly deal with. You can use this to strong-arm all kinds of entities to deal with you on your terms. > The Linux community like to think that Microsoft is the "big evil" I really don't think I speak for the Linux community but I do think that MS is still the big evil, just in slightly nicer packaging. Fantastic PR, crappy company.
  - maximus1983 7y ago