Skip to content

Danish Ministry Replaces Windows and Microsoft Office with Linux and LibreOffice

Technology
22 16 135
  • 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

  • Pirate Software "Stop Killing Games" Drama

    Technology technology
    9
    37 Stimmen
    9 Beiträge
    49 Aufrufe
    V
    Crazy how big of a following he has after the drama with Only Fangs at the beginning of he year.
  • 2k Stimmen
    214 Beiträge
    2k Aufrufe
    M
    the US the 50 states basically act like they are different countries instead of different states. There's a lot of back and forth on that - through the last 50+ years the US federal government has done a lot to unify and centralize control. Visible things like the highway and air traffic systems, civil rights, federal funding of education and other programs which means the states either comply with federal "guidance" or they lose that (significant) money while still paying the same taxes... making more informed decisions and realise that often the mom and pop store option is cheaper in the long run. Informed, long run decisions don't seem to be a common practice in the US, especially in rural areas. we had a store (the Jumbo) which used to not have discounts, but saw less people buying from them that they changed it so now they are offering discounts again. In order for that to happen the Jumbo needs competition. In rural US areas that doesn't usually exist. There are examples of rural Florida WalMarts charging over double for products in their rural stores as compared to their stores in the cities 50 miles away - where they have competition. So, rural people have a choice: drive 100 miles for 50% off their purchases, or save the travel expense and get it at the local store. Transparently showing their strategy: the bigger ticket items that would be worth the trip into the city to save the margin are much closer in pricing. retro gaming community GameStop died here not long ago. I never saw the appeal in the first place: high prices to buy, insultingly low prices to sell, and they didn't really support older consoles/platforms - focusing always on the newer ones.
  • Signal – an ethical replacement for WhatsApp

    Technology technology
    235
    1
    1k Stimmen
    235 Beiträge
    1k Aufrufe
    V
    What I said is that smart people can be convinced to move to another platform. Most of my friends are not technically inclined, but it was easy to make them use it, at least to chat with me. What you did is change "smart people" with "people who already want to move", which is not the same. You then said it's not something you can choose (as you cannot choose to be rich). But I answered that you can actually choose your friends. Never did I say people who are not interested in niche technologies are not smart. My statement can be rephrased in an equivalent statement "people who cannot be convinced to change are not smart", and I stand to it.
  • 493 Stimmen
    154 Beiträge
    810 Aufrufe
    Q
    Lets see.
  • 300 Stimmen
    71 Beiträge
    335 Aufrufe
    T
    Time to head for greener pastures.
  • 691 Stimmen
    140 Beiträge
    614 Aufrufe
    H
    Maybe I don't want you to stop, big boy.
  • 202 Stimmen
    15 Beiträge
    79 Aufrufe
    A
    If you are taking business advice from ChatGPT that includes purchasing a ChatGPT subscription or can’t be bothered to look up how it works beforehand then your business is probably going to fail.
  • Telegram partners with xAI to bring Grok to over a billion users

    Technology technology
    36
    1
    38 Stimmen
    36 Beiträge
    167 Aufrufe
    R
    So you pay taxes to Putin. Good to know who actually helps funding the regime. I suggest you go someplace else. I won't take this from a jerk from likely one of the countries buying fossil fuels from said regime, that have also supported it after a few falsified elections starting in 1996, which is also the year I was born. And of course "paying taxes to Putin" can't be even compared to what TG is doing, so just shut up and go do something you know how to do, like I dunno what.