this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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Some localities in Germany have been incorporating Linux into their systems for 20+ years.
That may explain why the financial benefits seem low.
Certainly not this one: 6 EUR/user/year doesn't cover even Windows
Depends on your relationship with Microsoft.
50 cents per user per month doesn't make any sense: I think for MS it might be cheaper to give products for free than to process these payments
Note that that number (180000) is per year, not per month
I'm guessing it's a really small state with not much IT going on.
As for cheaper to give for free: ABSOLUTELY. But, with free then they don't have their sales guys in there talking with them, they don't have the state "acknowledging the debt" and the legitimacy of their right to charge for their software.
In the 1990s M$ let the world pirate DOS and Windows with wild abandon, they were just happy that people were using their stuff and not others'. After the world was good and hooked, shortly after we all survived Y2K, they started turning the screws - requiring license keys for full functionality, getting serious about demanding payment.
Bill Gates net worth was "only" $30B before they got serious about charging for their software, today I see it's over $200B even after all of Melinda's philanthropy.
A small organization will have higher software license prices per user than a large one.
Also true, and at this kind of rate we can assume the state is doing most of its own IT self-support without a lot of M$ hand-holding.
It actually does now. Your M365 license also includes a windows license.
The cheapest M365 I see is 8 USD/month, not per year
Maybe you responded to the wrong person? I didn't talk about price but yeah M365 is paid monthly. Mostly, you can get annual licenses with a bit of a discount.
But an exchange online license is only $4/month ;)
Mate, are you sure you don't confuse per year and per month numbers? Those 180000 is per YEAR (for 30000 users)
Mate, are you sure you didnt confuse my comment with someone else's? I didn't put any numbers in my comment at all, I was just being cheeky and pointing out that M365 licenses come with a Windows license as well. Or at least business basic and above.
I am not German, and I don't know what licenses or how many accounts the German government has. That is irrelevant to my comment.
Yes, I am 100% sure: you responded to my comment where I say that 6 EUR/year/user won't cover even Windows. I wasn't talking about license capabilities (what's included and what's not), purely regarding the cost.
Yes, but for $6/user/month you get licensed windows then it seems that $6/user/month does in fact pay for windows...
But I am talking about 6 EUR per YEAR, not per month - that's what's written in the original post: EUR per YEAR. I checked, that municipality has about 30000 employees. So 6 EUR per user per YEAR, which is completely unrealistic.