I'm always excited by these kinds of headlines! I hope they stick with open source and don't switch back.
this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2025
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The best thing about this is that eventually these organizations are going to want features and fixes that don't exist yet in the open source software they're using, at which point they'll have to invest in development. If this becomes a trend I think it will mean more stability and more functionality in open software in general.
Not just that, it's also beneficial to the organization because that can just.. implement it themselves, and then do a pull request, instead of being reliant upon a corporation to care about your desires. Literally a win-win. I hope state actors come to realize that sooner rather than later, it only makes sense
I look forward to EU Linux.
SUSE, Manjaro, Alpine Linux, CRUX, and NixOS are all technically European (as are many others).
Mint is also european (based on Ireland), even though it's based on Ubuntu and Debian, ~~both of which are American (but Debian is FOSS)~~
Edit: Ubuntu is based on London and was founded by South Africans, but has propietary snaps (disabled on Mint). Debian was founded by an American but is FOSS so it operates worldwide.
All FOSS operates worldwide; the point of FOSS is that it provides a paradigm that directly counters the false-scarcity that (often capitalist) systems induce.
(not directed at you, of course)
And Mint has heavily invested in a version that goes to Debian skipping Ubuntu, I think it should have reached stable status by now.
Isn't Ubuntu South African?
The word yes
The company no, it's British or something
Guix, btw.
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Hungary has vetoed that USB stick.
They actually seem to run into it pretty quickly. The 20% have not switched, because LibreOffice seems to lack features.
Which is always a concern .... but at the same time, the more often organizations switch, the more people realize the benefits and eventually, the switch will stick permanently.
I perceive that the ground is prepared well enough for many of those to just stay. And contribute a bit.
Linux ecosystem is very solid, I donโt get why governments would prefer proprietary code, specially after all NSA debacle.
Because when something goes wrong they can know nothing, call someone and say 'fix it now' and they would. That support line is gone. Ideally they should have a few of these people on staff. Well see.
If external professional support is needed they could just buy it too. One of the bigger Linux companies, SUSE, is even from Germany, and still operates out of Nรผrnberg (or "Nuremberg" for people who are more familiar with the anglicized name).
RHEL exists... linux isnt just for sweaty nerds in basements, it's also for sweaty enterprise desktop end users....
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Support contracts aren't always a thing for FOSS projects, and companies need support contracts to get support from the source when dealing with P1 outages and the like.
Great, but they should donate some of the saved money to open source projects they are using to make sure they stay updated.
And states like bavaria are hard prone on windows because Sรถder has a small prick and "is not like those northeners"
More likey they are prone on it, because they get a cut from it. There is a big Microsoft office in Bavaria.
Didn't that one just "accidentally" happen when Mรผnchen started building their LiMux distribution, and after Steve Ballmer went to visit them personally?
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While the biggest state in Germany decided to make a deal with Microsoft for an estimate of 1000 Million Euros:
(Article is in German) https://www.heise.de/news/Vertrag-soll-bis-Jahresende-stehen-Bayern-will-in-die-Microsoft-Cloud-11066618.html
Bayern is a bit of a conservative shithole if you ask me. Since 1957 the CSU party has always won the leadership of the state executive. They are constantly hindering green energy production and they suck BWM-cock regarding internal combustion engine cars. It does not surprise me, that they are shit on this question too.
Edit: Ups, wahrscheinlich hรคtte ich dir das nicht erklรคren mรผssen, wenn du ja deutsche Heise Artikellinks postest... Ich lasse es jetzt aber fรผr andere Leser stehen.
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Many more governed could and should inspire!
Bravo Deutschland!!!
Fantastic news, the more of these we have the easier it becomes
Schleswig-Holstein is shaking out to be such a good example of Proven Track Record โข๏ธ for use of FOSS software in public administration, or any large organization really.
Anybody advocating for other public administrations to migrate can point loudly at Schleswig-Holstein that it's been done before and how to do it right. No more "that would never work" from the proprietary nay-sayers
I saw you can run old versions of Microsoft office via wine for free, is that technically legal such that they can do that?
Depends on the license and version. I do know some old office versions are "forever" use since it was before madness became standard practice. Now how useful old office versions would be? No idea, however Libreoffice is up to date, useful and open.
It's not one that you previously bought, it just appears as an option in the software manager.
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