Italian Ministry of Defense moves to LibreOffice

[patrick3027]

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/article/italian-ministry-of-defense-moves-to-libreoffice/

Since this was considered news a month ago http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/432667-italian-city-pesaro-went-with-openoffice-ended-up-costing-them-a-lot-more-returning-to-microsoft-office, I guess this is news as well

 

In Rome, the LibreItalia Association NGO, a non-profit group devoted to promoting the LibreOffice open-source office-suite, announced that the Italian Ministry of Defense Information Systems is adopting LibreOffice. This means that 150,000 desktops will be switching from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.

[...]

In addition to switching to LibreOffice, the ministry will adopt the ISO standard Open Document Format (ODF) for official government documents. Last year, the United Kingdom made ODF its official government document format.

Given they are not obcessed with cost-cutting (it isn't mentioned in the article) but seem to do it for idealogical reasons, this transition should be pretty smooth.

[givingtnt]

HAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHA

hahah..

hehe,

aaaaaaaaaaaahhh.........




what a bunch of idiots

[Trik'Stari]

I am also using LibreOffice.

 

I kind of like it.

[Muz]

Attack them while they are weak

[manikyath]

what a bunch of idiots

uhm.. why?

 

please explain why a government using an open standard over proprietary stuff is so laughably bad?

[qwertywarrior]

and its gonna go back to office like spain did

but they used openoffice

[TheSLSAMG]

Given they are not obcessed with cost-cutting (it isn't mentioned in the article) but seem to do it for idealogical reasons, this transition should be pretty smooth.

No, it probably won't be. The city of Pesaro had issues on the fact that OpenOffice wasn't easily compatible with Microsoft's suite. It also required a lot of retraining to use. I can't imagine that the Italian Ministry of Defense will have less issues with the transition to LibreOffice.

[techswede]

I just wish my school would do the same.. 

[givingtnt]

uhm.. why?

 

please explain why a government using an open standard over proprietary stuff is so laughably bad?

because its shitty.

 

 

also. only one departement changes to libre office ?

the others stay with ms office ?

nice compatibility.....

[manikyath]

because its shitty.

still not a viable argument.

 

i personally like libreoffice more than MS office.

[BigDay]

ms office is better

[Trik'Stari]

No, it probably won't be. The city of Pesaro had issues on the fact that OpenOffice wasn't easily compatible with Microsoft's suite. It also required a lot of retraining to use. I can't imagine that the Italian Ministry of Defense will have less issues with the transition to LibreOffice.

I refute those arguments.

 

I am currently using LibreOffice. It has its problems here and there, but I've found it not at all difficult to switch to.

 

Edit: Shit. I forgot that you can't expect people to figure things out on their own. lol

[Sauron]

I'm italian and I didn't know this ^^ I do believe costs have a role in this. Still, that's not a bad thing - less money spent and more open source.

 

what a bunch of idiots

 

What's wrong?

[Toddwjp]

all we need is goverments around the world to decide that text documents are not so specialised that they should have there own propriety file format, eg word having files only word can open. instead it should be made an open standard. then the editor with the best features and ease of use would always win

[patrick3027]

No, it probably won't be. The city of Pesaro had issues on the fact that OpenOffice wasn't easily compatible with Microsoft's suite. It also required a lot of retraining to use. I can't imagine that the Italian Ministry of Defense will have less issues with the transition to LibreOffice.

OpenOffice hasn't received a meaningful update in 4 years. LibreOffice improved compatibilty with M$ Office documents a lot in recent versions (I'd say from version 4.4 on I never had any meaningful compatibilty problems).

Yes, cost will increase in the first two or three years due to the cost of the transition itself and some retraining. But after that, there are only benefits.

[LAwLz]

I refute those arguments.

 

I am currently using LibreOffice. It has its problems here and there, but I've found it not at all difficult to switch to.

A lot of people suffers from "baby duck syndrome". You might not in this case, but a lot of people do.

[manikyath]

so, i'll drop in a very good argument for any organisation to switch to open standards:

 

if you use a proprietary standard, and for whatever reason the company behind that standard dies (unlikely, but it can happen)

or if that company suddenly decides to drop support for that standard (hey, the US military is paying MS to maintain WXP for a reason)

 

all the work with that proprietary standard is suddenly very, very hard to keep going.

 

if -in this example- libreoffice dies, the ODF format isnt lost, because it's fully open to be implemented by any piece of software, meaning their documents are not lost / dont have to be converted to a new format.

--

its a step done now, to avoid being forced to at another, maybe less fortunate moment in time.

[Trik'Stari]

A lot of people suffers from "baby duck syndrome". You might not in this case, but a lot of people do.

I did edit my post to reflect that.

[Sauron]

so, i'll drop in a very good argument for any organisation to switch to open standards:

 

if you use a proprietary standard, and for whatever reason the company behind that standard dies (unlikely, but it can happen)

or if that company suddenly decides to drop support for that standard (hey, the US military is paying MS to maintain WXP for a reason)

 

all the work with that proprietary standard is suddenly very, very hard to keep going.

 

if -in this example- libreoffice dies, the ODF format isnt lost, because it's fully open to be implemented by any piece of software, meaning their documents are not lost / dont have to be converted to a new format.

--

its a step done now, to avoid being forced to at another, maybe less fortunate moment in time.

 

look at all those companies that are struggling to move away from winxp because of crap like this.

[givingtnt]

I'm italian and I didn't know this ^^ I do believe costs have a role in this. Still, that's not a bad thing - less money spent and more open source.

 

 

What's wrong?

 

 

still not a viable argument.

 

i personally like libreoffice more than MS office.

editted

[Hans Christian | Teri]

I just wish my school would do the same.. 

 

Why would you ever wish LibreOffice upon yourself?

[AlwaysFSX]

Ya'll need to get off your "open standards high horse."

 

Having something open or closed isn't the problem. Having a shitty alternative is. I've had many more crashes with LibreOffice, the layout just isn't as good, and it simply doesn't have the vast amount of features that MS Office products have.

 

Whining about closed standards.. as if that's not beneficial to everyone..

---

I've already got a multitude of people replying, scroll down and read instead of replying with something redundant please.

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

I feel like Microsoft Office is just a much nicer program to use. Last time I used LibreOffice was like 3 years ago when I was like "Linux fuk yeah", so it may be better now but my point still stands, Microsoft Office feels like a quality product with some really nice features. Also when I upgraded to MS Office 2013 and started typing I was amazed by how the cursor just slides over when you type and just doesn't pop over to the end of the character, nice little eye candy.

[MoonSpot]

Good luck with sharing and opening powerpoint files...or almost any other office extension for that matter.  Tried open/libre a few times, cost more in time and frustration then just getting office.  Though I'll probably try it again when MS flatout kills local office installs in an attempt to force everyone in to the subscription model.

[manikyath]

look at all those companies that are struggling to move away from winxp because of crap like this.

the winxp is actually a worse train wreck than this, because the issue isnt just document compatibility, but the fact their entire application suite was built onto a base, which then was tossed out the window.

 

it'd be AMAZING for the corporate world if windows would release an "XP-2" basicly providing the winXP platform for software compatibility, but with a more modern backend.

 

but no. they dumped it, and forced most companies in the world to completely re-think their infrastructure.