Its kind of funny to me that by pushing data harvesting of OS’s and office data then selling it to 3rd parties Microsoft has probably become the biggest security threat to the US government, maybe ever. And its all because the US refuses to pass basic consumer privacy protections.
Microsoft knows the government needs something, and is insistent on squeezing as many of your tax dollars from them as possible, or leaving us all vulnerable.
Capitalism is terrorism.
Literally the plot of the new fallout show
oh do I need to watch that?
I would recommend.
Once the government switched to Linux en-masse, Microsoft will have no leverage whatsoever, no solution they can possibly propose will beat free software.
LibreOffice is totally adequate for most government jobs.
It’s not like there’s no precedent, Germany’s government already switched to Linux
The only possible way to generate money is through the use of online document editing services, but Google Docs pretty much cornered the market here.
I just want to clarify that a german state switched. Not Germany.
And, IIRC, it’s just a trial to see if it will work.
Edit: I should have read the article linked in a comment above…
“As spotted by The Document Foundation, the government has apparently finished its pilot run of LibreOffice and is now announcing plans to expand to more open source offerings.”
“In 2021, the state government announced plans to move 25,000 computers to LibreOffice by 2026. At the time, Schleswig-Holstein said it had already been testing LibreOffice for two years.”
So, it seems the trial may be over and they are migrating for good.
Even if libre office didn’t offer those features, I’d be willing to bet the gov could donate 1/100 what they pay Microsoft in a year to have them implemented.
seriously. or just say “America’s gift to the world” and wave their dicks around over in house programmers adding it.
Unfortunately, LibreOffice is still garbage. Microsoft it miles ahead in its apps compared to the Linux equivalent. There isn’t even a good OneNote alternative on Linux.
Nah, Office 97 was the last decent one, Office 2003 is trash due to app menus all messed up. LibreOffice is modelled after Office 97.
sure its fun to shit on public servants being old and not wanting to change from microsoft office. there is more then a little truth in that.
but IT departments are often staffed with techs that cant and dont want to do anything but microsoft, it really doesnt matter how much better linux is.
It’s no IT… it’s what everyone knows and what developers make their software for. Most enterprise software is windows designed, it’s an ecosystem that’s very hard to break away from.
This hits the nail perfectly, as well as users just only knowing Windows because it’s the first type of device you learn most likely through the schooling system.
- IT I do run Linux myself and plan on deploying more Microservices through it.
Most enterprise software is more complex and heavy than it needs to be.
Most enterprise software has to meet constantly shifting goals requirements certifications and regulations.
In most cases it’s complicated because it has to be and because it’s been driven to be complicated over time to meet the complex needs of the business.
The software will represent the business, if the business is too complicated then the software will be too complicated. It’s impossible to separate the software complication from the business in that sense.
Fair.
but IT departments are often staffed with techs that cant and dont want to do anything but microsoft, it really doesnt matter how much better linux is.
Yeah, I’ve met such. When they encounter the need to use Linux, their critique of it is connected to the first link in Google not working by copy-paste.
Well y’all decided that finding and keeping zero-day exploits were more important than contacting the companies to fix them because you looked at both approaches and decided that intelligence gathering scale > cyber security robustness.
Time for linux
No
The US at least has some degree of control over Microsoft. How much worse is that the EU is still not developing an own OS/distro?
There were grassroots movements like the Limux project (Munich using a custom Linux distribution). But that got shut down by Microsoft bribery (not confirmed, but MS did build a new headquarters in Munich…).
Yeah, that was a shame. But I really think we’d need a shared OS for all administration units of the EU (from EU level down to munipiality levels). Would be much easier as the private sector could also adjust to it.
Whoever uses Microsoft products should be aware from the start that security is a low priority for them. If you can accept the risk, fine. If you can’t, think about the consequences.
I feel like they are so close to an epiphany……
Another subscription model, you mean?
Let me explain…the same people that brought you windows 3, 95, 98, 2000, nt, XP, etc now want to obtain everything you type via an AI tool they created.
They would know all your health history, everything you scan, your photos relating to family and work secrets, etc. for the corporate, they would know who from LinkedIn will get the job and who will be fired. They will know about layoffs and about business secrets and success. Etc.
It’s pretty simple. Rather than just a keylogger, Microsoft wants you to use a smart keylogger that they control. How is that not the dumbest thing to ever use at work? It’s gotta be the biggest IT security failure ever.
Duh!
