It has been tried over the years. The question really is how much the employees understand and care about digital sovereignty. If they keep complaining because they have to learn new tools, they will eventually go back to Microsoft...
I doubt the employees will make a difference. It is likely more about the lobbying power of Microsoft and them finding a person at the right level who is receptive to their appeals and has the power to revert the policy.
There are a lot of tech people who appreciate open source software and understand the benefits of digital sovereignty but its rare for them to have the final say in most orgs.
Just about every org in my country uses Microsoft's email including universities, government, schools, businesses. I am sure it has some features that make it a good choice but its is unusual for any product to have practically 100% market share and no competition regardless of technical or usability advantages. Microsoft has huge resources and knows how to win customers.
I am really curious as Microsoft deprecates some of their older proprietary protocols in favor of standards, if there will be a point Exchange can be substituted without Outlook users noticing the difference. Getting people to leave Office products is super hard, whereas the server is something most people do not know they are using.
(Obviously 365 bundles are designed to avoid this. But for a la carte licenses, you can choose one without the other.)
Note a German state (a not very large one of the 16 federal states), not the German state
Bravo to them.
Hopefully some of the savings make it to foundations, hiring of engineers, and other ways of funding improvements!
It has been tried over the years. The question really is how much the employees understand and care about digital sovereignty. If they keep complaining because they have to learn new tools, they will eventually go back to Microsoft...
I doubt the employees will make a difference. It is likely more about the lobbying power of Microsoft and them finding a person at the right level who is receptive to their appeals and has the power to revert the policy.
There are a lot of tech people who appreciate open source software and understand the benefits of digital sovereignty but its rare for them to have the final say in most orgs.
Just about every org in my country uses Microsoft's email including universities, government, schools, businesses. I am sure it has some features that make it a good choice but its is unusual for any product to have practically 100% market share and no competition regardless of technical or usability advantages. Microsoft has huge resources and knows how to win customers.
The employees don't have to care, they will use whatever they're directed to use. It is whether the German government cares about digital sovereignty.
I have read today that Linux users are like vegans of computing.
Vegetarians for those who use a combination of open source and closed source code and applications
I am really curious as Microsoft deprecates some of their older proprietary protocols in favor of standards, if there will be a point Exchange can be substituted without Outlook users noticing the difference. Getting people to leave Office products is super hard, whereas the server is something most people do not know they are using.
(Obviously 365 bundles are designed to avoid this. But for a la carte licenses, you can choose one without the other.)
[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45558635