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Danish Ministry Replaces Windows and Microsoft Office with Linux and LibreOffice

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  • Xlsx is actually an open standard, but only if you use strict mode, which Microsoft conveniently does not make the default option when saving. You have to choose it explicitly when saving.

    It's only open in name.

  • Shouldn't be too bad. It'll take a while, but you grab an example you have now in word, tweak it until it works in libreoffice and you're done. The biggest issue I've had was constant transitions between the two. If you just move to one it's a rough start moving, but once you're there you just edit as always. Word isn't even that great at keeping it's own formatting, so it won't be anything new except for learning a new program. it might get difficult once you get to links and embedding, I haven't tried that in libreoffice so I can't speak to whether it's harder or not.

    Beyond that, you should be pdf-ing any finalized documents anyway.

    Word isn’t even that great at keeping it’s own formatting

    To put it mildly.

  • Which is exactly what many have warned about for 20 years. The Microsoft lock-in is insane.
    It's better to get out sooner rather than later.
    But considering most of EU is planning similar transitions, I'd be surprised if they don't cooperate on making better import of MS formats in Libre Office.

    The Danish government is also planning to make guidelines to make a smooth transition easier. Which will be available for private companies too.

    Something that may make it easier is that it's been law for more than a decade, that ALL documents from public services must be made in open standards.

  • Anyone know what Linux distro? I assume Ubuntu...

    I don't think so, because Ubuntu is also controlled by a private company, and Ubuntu has issues with open source, making everything they do dual license, meaning they can choose to switch away from open source to proprietary on everything developed within the Ubuntu framework.

    So choosing Ubuntu would be incredibly short sighted. Debian is a much stronger candidate. Or an in house distro based on Debian, until a common EU distro is ready, which is already planned.

  • Xlsx is actually an open standard, but only if you use strict mode, which Microsoft conveniently does not make the default option when saving. You have to choose it explicitly when saving.

    I know this phrase gets trouted out a lot (possibly to the point of being fatiguing to hear), especially when it comes to MS, but this is a textbook case of their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish mantra.

    Have an open standard (Embrace)... add a bunch of non-open components (Extend)... to fuck over compatibility with competitors and prevent them from gaining market share (Extinguish).

  • Anyone know what Linux distro? I assume Ubuntu...

    Most likely one of the commercial ones that offer support and contractual guarantees of security patches, uptime, service, helpdesk support, etc.

    So likely Ubuntu, SUSE, or RHEL.

    Any of which would be a very welcome change and a benefit to the Linux community compared to using Windows.

  • I know this phrase gets trouted out a lot (possibly to the point of being fatiguing to hear), especially when it comes to MS, but this is a textbook case of their Embrace, Extend, Extinguish mantra.

    Have an open standard (Embrace)... add a bunch of non-open components (Extend)... to fuck over compatibility with competitors and prevent them from gaining market share (Extinguish).

    That's what I meant. Microsoft created the Office Open XML format as an open standard, but they don't follow their own standard and make their "extended" version of the standard as the default.

    Other Office suites like Libre Office support this format via strict mode, which is not selected by default when you save these files using the Microsoft Office suite.

    Technically even Google does this with Chrome: Open standard JS but they also use custom components, sites that use these components break on other browsers.

  • Full text due to weird cookies banner

    The Danish Ministry of Digitization is to completely abandon Microsoft in the coming months and use Linux instead of Windows and switch from Office 365 to LibreOffice. Minister Caroline Stage (Moderaterne) announced this in an interview with the daily newspaper Politiken. It comes just a few days after the country's two largest municipalities initiated similar steps. This summer, half of the ministry's employees will be equipped with Linux and LibreOffice. If everything goes as expected, the entire ministry will be free of Microsoft by the fall, Politiken summarizes.

    The Ministry of Digitalization's move away from Microsoft is therefore taking place against the backdrop of a new digitalization strategy in which the Kingdom's "digital sovereignty " is given priority. According to newspaper reports, the opposition is also calling for a reduction in dependence on US tech companies. Just a few days ago, the administration of the capital Copenhagen announced its intention to review the use of Microsoft software. The second-largest municipality, Aarhus, has already started to replace Microsoft services. Stage has now told Politiken that they should cooperate and that it is not a race. All municipalities should work together and strengthen open source.

    When asked how her ministry would react if the changeover was not so easy, Stage replied that they would then simply return to the old system for a transitional period and seek other options: "We won't get any closer to the goal if we don't start." So far, she has only heard from employees who welcome the move. But in her ministry, which is mainly concerned with digitalization, she expects a lot of interest anyway. She also assured them that the initiative is not about Microsoft alone, as they are generally far too dependent on a few providers.

    As background to the move, the article also refers to the events at the International Criminal Court, where an email account operated by Microsoft was disconnected. This caused an uproar across Europe. In Denmark, there is also the fact that the new US President Donald Trump has been announcing for weeks that his country wants to take over Greenland. The island in the North Atlantic is a self-governing part of Denmark, and the outrage at Trump's proposal is huge. The desire to reduce dependence on US companies is therefore evidently even greater there than in the rest of Europe.

    Good move!
    Yet at the same time they’re buying Palantir software for the police and turning DK into a surveillance state nightmare 🥲

  • Most likely one of the commercial ones that offer support and contractual guarantees of security patches, uptime, service, helpdesk support, etc.

    So likely Ubuntu, SUSE, or RHEL.

    Any of which would be a very welcome change and a benefit to the Linux community compared to using Windows.

    Only SUSE is European, right? So either that or a lesser known one

  • Only SUSE is European, right? So either that or a lesser known one

    Isn't Ubuntu a UK company?

  • 15 years ago, maybe. But I haven't had any compatibility issues in many years.

  • Isn't Ubuntu a UK company?

    Russia is European too 😄
    Sorry about the imprecision, I meant EU company

  • More users will hopefully mean more people finding and reporting edge cases which will lead to better software. Open source is great because anyone can improve it and everyone has the changes if accepted by the developers.

  • Full text due to weird cookies banner

    The Danish Ministry of Digitization is to completely abandon Microsoft in the coming months and use Linux instead of Windows and switch from Office 365 to LibreOffice. Minister Caroline Stage (Moderaterne) announced this in an interview with the daily newspaper Politiken. It comes just a few days after the country's two largest municipalities initiated similar steps. This summer, half of the ministry's employees will be equipped with Linux and LibreOffice. If everything goes as expected, the entire ministry will be free of Microsoft by the fall, Politiken summarizes.

    The Ministry of Digitalization's move away from Microsoft is therefore taking place against the backdrop of a new digitalization strategy in which the Kingdom's "digital sovereignty " is given priority. According to newspaper reports, the opposition is also calling for a reduction in dependence on US tech companies. Just a few days ago, the administration of the capital Copenhagen announced its intention to review the use of Microsoft software. The second-largest municipality, Aarhus, has already started to replace Microsoft services. Stage has now told Politiken that they should cooperate and that it is not a race. All municipalities should work together and strengthen open source.

    When asked how her ministry would react if the changeover was not so easy, Stage replied that they would then simply return to the old system for a transitional period and seek other options: "We won't get any closer to the goal if we don't start." So far, she has only heard from employees who welcome the move. But in her ministry, which is mainly concerned with digitalization, she expects a lot of interest anyway. She also assured them that the initiative is not about Microsoft alone, as they are generally far too dependent on a few providers.

    As background to the move, the article also refers to the events at the International Criminal Court, where an email account operated by Microsoft was disconnected. This caused an uproar across Europe. In Denmark, there is also the fact that the new US President Donald Trump has been announcing for weeks that his country wants to take over Greenland. The island in the North Atlantic is a self-governing part of Denmark, and the outrage at Trump's proposal is huge. The desire to reduce dependence on US companies is therefore evidently even greater there than in the rest of Europe.

    GOOD lets chance of spAIyware on there

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    What do they do with Monero? buy other things with it exchange for cash through the black market This exact same thing happens w/ a lot of other things, such as: US dollar (or perhaps Euro) transactions in countries that manipulate their currency drug smuggling - the drug dealer "launders" the money to whatever currency they want Basically, the same thing that works for illicit transactions protects activists, political dissidents, etc in authoritarian regions. All privacy coins provide is a convenient digital medium of exchange, how that gets turned into another medium of exchange is up to the merchant. For things like utilities, authoritarian regimes tend to be pretty corrupt, and they already do under-the-table transactions. Using Monera vs drugs, foreign currency, etc isn't going to change that. I wouldn’t be surprised if your transactions would be less private with monero than a bank payment (because of Monero’s unlicensed nature). How so? Monero explicitly hides transaction details, so even if a large actor like the Russian, Chinese, or US government wanted, they can't track transactions, even if they compromise one end of the transaction. The wallet ID you use when buying something is ephemeral, the protocol creates a ton of misleading transactions so tracking down the correct one is very difficult, and even if they did, they'd have to break the crypto to link two transactions from the same wallet. Transactions are also very inexpensive, generally costing under a penny, so even if you wallet gets compromised, you can inexpensively move it to a new wallet. The only way Monero would be less private than a bank is if government regulations make it so and under-the-table transactions are blocked effectively. But that would require a heavy surveillance state, and the heavier the surveillance state is, the more attractive under-the-table transactions become. Privacy coins get pushback from governments because they're effective at protecting privacy. It turns out, governments like spying on transactions, and would get rid of cash if they could get away with it. They get used a lot for illicit transactions because they're effective at it, and that's why governments have started to restrict their use (i.e. banning Monero from exchanges). I'm not a crypto fan boy by any stretch, and I don't think anyone should "invest" in them because they don't generate any form of value (I feel the same about precious metals). But I do think privacy coins have a place in society as a digital cash replacement, because I'd really rather not have my transaction details spied on by governments. If you want practical reasons for this, look no further than the Mastercard/Visa scandal w/ porn gaes on Steam and other platforms.
  • No bias, no bull AI

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    xxce2aab@feddit.dkX
    That's very sensible of you.
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    exists() is just a hashtag or other type of information lookup. The information is either there or it is not.
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    roofuskit@lemmy.worldR
    Amazon cuts lots of jobs constantly. They have turnover requirements for pretty much all departments. They are notorious for firing people of they think they could replace with anyone higher performing, including people undergoing cancer treatment. In the industry being fired from Amazon is often seen as a right of passage.
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    My wife, when she's not wearing her prosthetic corneal lenses.
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    I use it for my self hosted apps, but yeah, it's rarely useful for websites in the wild.