German state planning to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice
The north-German state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch to open source software, including LibreOffice, in its administration and schools.
In doing so, the state wants to reduce its dependence on proprietary software, and eventually end it altogether. By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by LibreOffice on all 25,000 computers used by civil servants and employees (including teachers), and the Windows operating system is to be replaced by GNU/Linux.
The necessary steps for this are specified in the planning of the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament (German), as digital minister Jan Philipp Albrecht explains in an interview with c’t (also German – Google Translate version here).
Lothar Becker and Thorsten Behrens from The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice, were invited to a meeting with those responsible (photos below). The focus was on cloud solutions, integration with LibreOffice and other systems, and video conferencing tools.
We at the Document Foundation are pleased that LibreOffice is being used in public institutions, and hope that more federal states, governments and other organisations around the world will join the migration.
(Germany map in banner image: David Liuzzo, CC-BY-SA)
Such an important move. We need to switch schools, universities and government away from Microsoft Office and Teams. The effect this will have is huge. Can’t wait for more states to adapt.
Does that mean they are replacing “Teams” with “Jami” (a GNU package)? https://jami.net/ https://jami.biz/ Thank you
Would like them to succeed 🙂 Libre Office, Nextcloud, Linux. Jitsi is a way to go! Linux has better Filesystems 🙂 compared to desktop Windows. Installations are easier. It can be modified to better suite the needs more so than MS OSes 🙂
Altought I haven’t managed Linux desktops in commercial setting. Not sure how Linux does compare MS Domain environment.
Might as well switch to ARM as well where it makes sense 🙂
Pretty sure they will still need some Windows VMs and endpoints due to Software incompatibility.
wonderful, and brave move!
Other states tried it already and went back (Niedersachsen switched to Linux and back). I will say it is a success if they still use it after 5 years.
🙂 Make this work, and work well! Lead the way for other governments and educational institutions.
Don’t let Micro$oft inveigle their way back in (with bribery) like they did in Milan.
Or in Muncih
Thank you. LibreOffice is awesome.
Very positive news, I assume this will be Windows clients, in my opinion the Windows version is worse than the Linux client, with over 90% of users on Windows platforms I think we should be focusing on making this the premier platform (or at least bringing it to parity with Linux / GTK) for the future.
As these users will be using a ‘ribbon’ like interface will the support team be focusing on making the transition smoother by defaulting to the Tabbed / Notebook bar UI be default as a quick win to aid adoption?
As LibreOffice doesn’t provide a mail client / PIM compared to Microsoft Office is there a recommendation on how this short coming will be filled? Or will the municipality still stay on desktop Outlook?
What is the position / strategy by the document foundation for users that have interaction with Teams and One Note? Is there a substitute recommended or something coming in the future offering equivalent functionality?
I think these are all important questions that should be considered when looking at a transition to make it successful or there will be a calling to return to the previous suite and that doesn’t look great for LibreOffice in the medium term.
Thanks all
Could a mail client / PIM solution be “Betterbird” https://betterbird.eu/?
Could a replacement for Teams be “Jami” (a GNU package) https://jami.net/ https://jami.biz/?
Could a OneNote replacement be “Xournal++” https://github.com/xournalpp/xournalpp?
This can help LibreOffice in the medium-term (and long-term). What do you think? Thank you
I think the reasons for switching back from Libre Office and/or Linux had little to do with usability. The German experiences are well documented.
Hi Gerry, your comment is very cryptic. Which german experiences are you referring to and where is the documentation about them? Would love to learn more.
You can start with the Wikipedia article on Limux, then look at the references for more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux
Thanks for the link!
That’s a really awesome news!
Success is 100% dependent upon the technical support staff understanding of open source software and especially Linux. If that support lags, end user staff will revolt over the poor experience.
Long live Windows 3.1!
It should be interesting to know the other internal changes. Instead of the closed source Microsoft document formats, will which of the opens source formats now be used?
Previously third party developers were v discouraged from the commercial products. Now government and other third parties can contribute to the development.
Libre office would be even better if they adopted Python as the scripting language
But you can use Python for macros:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Macros/Python_Guide/Introduction
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Macros/Python_Guide/My_first_macro
Hopefully it will last. Notice the funny history of Windows/Linux in Munich:
2017: After more than a decade of running Linux-based PCs, Munich city council has decided to switch about 29,000 PCs to Windows 10.
2020: City of Munich Ditches Microsoft Office and Windows for Linux again
Which proves that using Free Software is not a decision based on economics (if you exclude bribery) nor technology actually. It’s based on political grounds.
The political majority changed. So did the software and tech or cost to the tax payer were not part of the equation.
Neither were good management practices BTW as shown by the report produced by Accenture. Free Software was NOT the cause of their problems. Bad management was.
But of course it’s easier to blame the software.
Wow. How Will they centrally manage this computers ? O Bet That in 3 years they’ll be using Microsoft Education again or Google Education.
Update “The Documentation Foundation” in the Text to The Document Foundation 🙂
Fixed – thanks Joe 🙂
Perfectly! I am happy for this.