Munich Migration to Linux - Update

[parnote]

Trouble I have with this approach is the fact that Microsoft is a standard. When municipalities and the like develop away at will, there will be soon compatibility problems among them, proving once more Microsoft was "better" as many of the microfiles working at their machines will happily point at.

Contrary to what Microsoft would have you believe, it is NOT a standard. Standards are not set by the biggest corporate bully on the block using unfair trade practices to gain a virtual monopoly over an industry. Standards are set by international committees who are charged with such tasks.

It was the ISO committee that appointed the Open Document format (which is what LibreOffice and OpenOffice use) as the official standard, much to the chagrin of the folks in Redmond, WA.

[bicol_willem]

Trouble I have with this approach is the fact that Microsoft is a standard. When municipalities and the like develop away at will, there will be soon compatibility problems among them, proving once more Microsoft was "better" as many of the microfiles working at their machines will happily point at.

Contrary to what Microsoft would have you believe, it is NOT a standard. Standards are not set by the biggest corporate bully on the block using unfair trade practices to gain a virtual monopoly over an industry. Standards are set by international committees who are charged with such tasks.

It was the ISO committee that appointed the Open Document format (which is what LibreOffice and OpenOffice use) as the official standard, much to the chagrin of the folks in Redmond, WA.

Ja ... but "Microsoft Office" for example IS in reality the standard in most offices, businesses etc., even the various versions has no standard and even without ODF. THAT kind of (non)standard I am talking about.

[kjpetrie]

Yes, there will inevitably be a transitional period while various bodies move from the ubiquitous to the official standard, but it will have to come because ISO compliance is a big reputational issue for most governments and businesses, and it gives Munich the clout to insist on it. Once people start insisting on it MS's dominance of the market will be gone, and they know it, which is presumably why the latest Windows is designed for tablets rather than office systems.

[parnote]

Yes, there will inevitably be a transitional period while various bodies move from the ubiquitous to the official standard, but it will have to come because ISO compliance is a big reputational issue for most governments and businesses, and it gives Munich the clout to insist on it. Once people start insisting on it MS's dominance of the market will be gone, and they know it, which is presumably why the latest Windows is designed for tablets rather than office systems.

+1. Microsoft has a strong reputation of bastardizing standards and not adhering to standards. It's part of their plan to monopolize the market and lock users into using THEIR software. If everyone would insist on only using software that is ISO standards compliant, Microsoft's future would be very, very bleak.

[Reb]

Parnote said,
"+1. Microsoft has a strong reputation of bastardizing standards and not adhering to standards. It's part of their plan to monopolize the market and lock users into using THEIR software. If everyone would insist on only using software that is ISO standards compliant, Microsoft's future would be very, very bleak."


As with Linux adoption in general, it has been, and still is a long slow process.
But what is important, is it is slow but steady.
when these big cities and large international banks switch over, then the workers are exposed to the OS's and software, this will then filter down to the workers at home (for compatibility with work), then when the stability and reliability is noted, friends family etc etc.

As more cities and corps notice the savings, and that it wasn't a complete disaster for the early switchers, they will follow.

M$ is on the back foot, possibly for the first time (for real), it does not know how to fight against foss.
M$ can bad mouth foss, spread fud against foss, but foss just keeps coming !

As Bruce lee once said, the worst opponent to face, is one that wants to bite your left ear off.
no matter what you do to them, they keep coming.

foss is that opponent to M$.

It is just a matter of more time, and I for one can wait patiently