

German government shifts 11,000 desktops to open source - razorburn
http://www.osor.eu/news/de-foreign-ministry-cost-of-open-source-desktop-maintenance-is-by-far-the-lowest

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randomwalker
It isn't 1999 anymore! Open source isn't the hot new thing. Nor is this
slashdot. There are millions of open source desktops around the world
(especially outside the U.S.). A few thousand more isn't news, not nearly.
Besides, this is just an annouced migration by a government ministry. These
things take ages to actually happen.

~~~
bootload
_"... It isn't 1999 anymore! Open source isn't the hot new thing. Nor is this
slashdot. ..."_

The message is still trickling through government departments. Why for
instance is MS Office products still mandated by Aus. government departments?
The argument goes _"but we need MS Office because all our legacy documents are
MS format... it's easier to use... IT maintenance costs..."_ ... ad.
infinitum.

These kinds of stories need to be repeated in the press ( _"and maybe here to
remind ourselves that our mindset is quite different from other groups who use
software and computers"_ ) highlighting the cost savings & advantages of FOSS.

------
maximilian
When I was at the university there I was impressed to see how many of the
computers there were running linux. All the faculty run it, and many of the
students I met ran it. A lot of the computers available to students were quite
old and linux was the obvious choice.

