>Schleswig-Holstein, Germany’s most northern state, is starting its switch from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, and is planning to move from Windows to Linux on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions. >Concerns over data security are also front and center in the Minister-President’s statement, especially data that may make its way to other countries. Back in 2021, when the transition plans were first being drawn up, the hardware requirements for Windows 11 were also mentioned as a reason to move away from Microsoft. >Saunders noted that “the reasons for switching to Linux and LibreOffice are different today. Back when LiMux started, it was mostly seen as a way to save money. Now the focus is far more on data protection, privacy and security. Consider that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently found that the European Commission’s use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies.”
  • @Wxnzxn@lemmy.ml
    29•3 months ago

    Let’s see how this will pan out, Munich did something similar, but between conservative opposition, lobbying efforts by Microsoft and people complaining about compatibility issues and changes in workflow, it ended up being reversed. That was a while ago, though, and Linux on desktop only got better since then.

    EDIT: Yeah, they mention that in the article, seems it really is going at it from a different angle this time.

    • @Barbarian@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      19•3 months ago

      According to Investigate Europe, it had nothing to do with opposition or compatibility issues. Was a backroom deal between the mayor and Microsoft to kill the initiative in exchange for their German HQ being moved to Munich.

      Edit: Just double-checked, looks like Munich was considering migrating to Linux again, but critics believe this may just be a negotiating tactic to extract more concessions from Microsoft.

    • @Senseless@feddit.de
      15•3 months ago

      With people after a certain age working in administrative bodies you can be sure of one thing. Someone will whine and complain either “we never did it this way” or “we always did it this way”.

      • @PM_ME_YOUR_ZOD_RUNES@sh.itjust.works
        8•3 months ago

        I’ve noticed this a lot working for the federal government. Some people just can’t be bothered to keep up with the times. They just piss and moan about any changes, even if it’s beneficial and more efficient.

    • @maniclucky@lemmy.world
      8•3 months ago

      If you know English, you know a good bit of German. The sentence structure gets a bit weird (monolingual American here, but I’m trying). Pick up Duolingo and get at it.

      And don’t stop or the owl will kill you.

      I mean, halt nicht an oder sonst bringt dich die Eule an.

      • DerGottesknecht
        6•3 months ago

        Die Eule bringt dich um.

        The owl takes you around the corner to shoot you.

        “Um die Ecke bringen” also equals killing in german.

        Aber sonst komplett richtig.

          • @ahornsirup
            4•3 months ago

            Nicht perfekt, aber komplett verständlich. Wenn du ohne großen Aufwand üben willst, könntest du versuchen gelegentlich einen Streamingdienst oder ähnliches auf Deutsch mit englischen Untertiteln umzustellen. Ähnliches hat mir vor Ewigkeiten sehr mit meinem Englisch geholfen.

          • @ECB@feddit.de
            2•3 months ago

            Hi fellow Ami learning German!

            It took me a number of years to get to fluency but the biggest things that helped me were the following:

            1. uses classes/tools to learn the basic grammar so that you can recognize more or less what is going on (even if you don’t always understand the individual words)

            2. switch as much media consumption as possible to be exclusively German. I spent 6 months watch exclusively German shows/TV, reading German news, listening to German music. Eventually I kind of trained myself to switch my inner-monologue to German whenever I wanted.

            After that it’s just practice practice practice. Also it helped me a ton to stop worrying about getting everything “right” when speaking. Better to speak fluently while occasionally fucking up the der/die/das than to stumble because I’m stressing over every sentence!