True. Software and computers don’t even exist to save money. A lot of problems stem from the weird idea of MBAs that a computer, digitalization or even cloud are there to save money.

I hope Holstein prepared the switch well and kill off any Microsoft stuff as quick as possible. Nothing is worse than co-existence with something hostile which doesn’t want to be compatible.

   * No Dual-Booting
   * No VM
   * Especially no WINE (your ducked with every odd update)
   * And by the love of god, hit everyone with a bat which tries to ship incompatible files (MS-Office, ppt, xls, pst…) to you. Links to “Microsoft Teams”? Hit harder and show no mercy :)

What to do, minimal list:

    * Make plan.
    * Used standards wherever possible.
    * Switch file-formats and external platforms before. Use a standard distribution and DO NOT MAKE YOUR OWN DISTRIBUTION. If you have a big IT department with hundreds of employees, maybe an own repository with your custom software.
    * Enforce all suppliers hard to support Linux natively! If not? Drop them. Search a honest company which gives you also the source.
    * Avoid the usual mistake like “this a local support company” or “their offer is cheaper”
    * Don’t purchase shitty hardware. ThinkPads are a good start, but we speak about printers, NFC, label writers, scanners and so on.

If your answer doesn’t include either Debian, Red Hat, Canonical or Suse it is probably the wrong choice. You need support.

    The remaining 20 percent of workplaces are currently still dependent on Microsoft programs such as Word or Excel, as there is a technical dependency on these programs in certain specialized applications. According to Schrödter, however, the successive conversion of these remaining computers is the stated goal.

A red flag. Soft migrations work only, if both side cooperate. If not, hard migration. Short pain is better than long suffering.

PS: And don’t repeat Munich! Munich is “HOW NOT”. Three distinct IT-Departments. And the next major was “convinced ” with tax money and a Microsoft Headquarters. Result, it is worse than before.

▲ jimnotgym a day ago | parent | next [-]

>dependent on Microsoft programs such as Word or Excel

This kind of suggests that they have a bunch of VBA scripts in the tax department and the legal team are dependent on sharing 'track changes' in contracts. It will do the world a favour if the VBA is forced out. Don't know what they will do about 'track changes', it is ubiquitous in the contract world. Hopefully they will force government suppliers onto the libre alternative.

	▲	ho_schi 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yep. That’s a hell. A hell to maintain. And searching the web for “Excel government failure…” is an adventure. Excel is a shell script containing data. Minus well defined syntax and a proper change log. I see the nice point behind using Excel, it is a “visual” shell script containing data.

▲ GoblinSlayer a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Apparently their tax administration has some extensive automation with Excel spreadsheets and VBA.