German state gov. ditching Windows for Linux, 30K workers migrating

[usonian]

Schleswig-Holstein looks to succeed where Munich failed.

Schleswig-Holstein, one of Germany’s 16 states, on Wednesday confirmed plans to move tens of thousands of systems from Microsoft Windows to Linux. The announcement follows previously established plans to migrate the state government off Microsoft Office in favor of open source LibreOffice.

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.

As announced on Minister-President Daniel Gunther’s webpage this week, the state government confirmed that it's moving all systems to the Linux operating system (OS), too.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/german-state-gov-ditching-windows-for-linux-30k-workers-migrating/


If my low-tech brother can do it, anyone can. With windows, all his peripherals broke monthly when a patch came out.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Hmmmm ... any specific distro ? I'm particularly curious about Manjaro Linux.

Europe-based enterprise, but based on Arch Linux, not Ubuntu.

[usonian]

2. Didn't say. Just that migration is in the works (auf Deutsch)

Sechs Säulen des digital souveränen IT-Arbeitsplatzes

Die Bestandteile des digital souveränen IT-Arbeitsplatzes werden in Schleswig-Holstein in insgesamt sechs Projektsäulen aufgebaut:

Umstieg von Microsoft Office auf LibreOffice
Umstieg des Betriebssystems von Microsoft Windows auf Linux
Kollaboration innerhalb der Landesverwaltung und mit Externen: Nutzung der Open Source Produkte Nextcloud, Open Xchange/Thunderbird in Verbindung mit dem Univention AD-Connector zur Ablösung von Microsoft Sharepoint sowie Microsoft Exchange/Outlook
Konzeption eines Open Source basierten Verzeichnisdienstes zur Ablösung von Microsoft Active Directory
Bestandsaufnahme der Fachverfahren hinsichtlich Kompatibilität und Interoperabilität mit LibreOffice und Linux
Entwicklung einer Open Source basierten Telefonie-Lösung zur Ablösung von Telekom-Flexport

They noted the failure of Linux in Munich to take hold. Users were not consulted, involved, nor guided much.
Also that Vienna's Wienux flopped.

It takes a lot of user guidance to make a transition.
People don't realize how much brainwashing and community support that Windoze users get over time. It's not intuitive at all.

Long ago some people were asked to comment on DOS versus early MacOS.
"But DOS is so much more user-friendly"

NOT

Familiarity is not user-friendliness.

[Best_man23]

3. I'm in the process of planning a new system build

Currently running dual boot Ubuntu/Win 10 (I have a couple of Windows applications for work that don't run well under Linux, even in a VM). Looking at possibly moving over to Zorin Linux on the new build. While Zorin is built in Debian/Ubuntu, the available UIs look super clean and you can make the UI closely resemble Windows, Mac, or a Linux distro. What intrigues me about Zorin, is they've closely integrated Wine and an app called Play On Linux. May try it on a spare laptop I have here before going full in (been a Ubuntu user for about 10 years now).

https://zorin.com/os/

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Not the first time I've seen Zorin recommended, but it looks like the newest version has some significant ...

advantages I wasn't aware of before. Maybe this is what will finally get me to switch my Mom's old computer away from Windows. She doesn't want to adjust to a new OS, and the emphasis in Zorin seems to be to preserve whatever GUI you're used to using. She doesn't use many apps at all, so LibreOffice and Firefox should do just about everything she needs.

Thanks, I find it hard to keep up with what's out there. I tend to find something I like and keep using it for as long as possible without change. But I never liked Windows anyway and I like the prospect of Windows upgrades even less.