City Of Barcelona Will Soon Be Using Linux

[ZesPak]

buggalugs said:

Can you imagine if Microsoft did Office 365 for Linux? There’s a reason they don’t! Sad fact is they’re dominant and they’re going to make sure that that doesn’t happen.

Nothing in this statement is right.
Ms would do it if it was viable. They are the biggest software seller for OSX. Office is available on all the big platforms.

This is not the ms of two decades ago. They've embraced omni platform like no one else.

If you want to point your fingers for counter competition and monopoly abusing practices, point them away from Redmond and towards Cupertino.

[Jimmy Recard]

ZesPak said:

Nothing in this statement is right.
Ms would do it if it was viable. They are the biggest software seller for OSX. Office is available on all the big platforms.

This is not the ms of two decades ago. They've embraced omni platform like no one else.

If you want to point your fingers for counter competition and monopoly abusing practices, point them away from Redmond and towards Cupertino.

I agree. I think that most Linux users would prefer software like LibreOffice as a matter of principle and therefore wouldn't buy Microsoft Office - that's the reason it doesn't exist for Linux, in my opinion

[ZesPak]

Jimmy Recard said:

I agree. I think that most Linux users would prefer software like LibreOffice as a matter of principle and therefore wouldn't buy Microsoft Office - that's the reason it doesn't exist for Linux, in my opinion

Couldn't it just be a matter of market share?
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-ma...

That said, office 365 works really well in multiple browsers. So everyone can actually use it.

Edited by ZesPak on Sunday 14th January 10:10

[Jimmy Recard]

ZesPak said:

Couldn't it just be a matter of market share?
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-ma...

That said, office 365 works really well in multiple browsers. So everyone can actually use it.

Edited by ZesPak on Sunday 14th January 10:10

Reading my comment back, I think I meant "Collectively, what you say and what I say are the reasons."

I think that market share of the OS is the main reason, and the secondary reason is the market share that Microsoft would be able to get within Linux+office software users (probably only a tiny share of the market within the tiny share of the market that Linux has)

I have no experience of Office 365 but that's good news. I don't really have any need for office software at all but I have LibreOffice installed on my Windows laptop for the rare occasion it's useful to me.

I think the last version of Microsoft Office I used was 2007

[ZesPak]

Agreed, I've always had access (no pun intended) to MS Office through work. But for family members I've used LibreOffice for years.
In a business environment I've never encountered anything but Office for Word/Excel purposes.

[Jimmy Recard]

Yes, at work we use Windows and Office but I don't use a computer myself at work. It's a mix of Windows 7 and 10, and I assume Office 365.

The one thing I miss is Outlook. I laughed at the unintended Access pun!

Since my use is just typing up occasional shopping lists and letters, it wouldn't be worth paying just to get Outlook!

[buggalugs]

ZesPak said:

buggalugs said:

Can you imagine if Microsoft did Office 365 for Linux? There’s a reason they don’t! Sad fact is they’re dominant and they’re going to make sure that that doesn’t happen.

Nothing in this statement is right.
Ms would do it if it was viable. They are the biggest software seller for OSX. Office is available on all the big platforms.

This is not the ms of two decades ago. They've embraced omni platform like no one else.

If you want to point your fingers for counter competition and monopoly abusing practices, point them away from Redmond and towards Cupertino.

It's not my finger mate how many times has Apple been sued for monopolistic practices and how many times has Microsoft.

Give an average user a Linux desktop with a Libre Office Writer icon and they'll be like WTF is this how to I print a file. And you'll go it's file, print and they'll be like shut up and give me Word I'm calling my boss, they may literally cry.

Give them a Linux desktop with an MS Word icon on it and they'll be happy, doubly so if there's an Outlook one next to it. MS won't do this because it looses them the stranglehold that Windows gives them over the PC market.

As for your comment on MS embracing the omni platform - since when was MS's modus operanti not embrace, extend, smother, destroy. These people aren't philanthropists they're in the share dividend business.

Ps - OSX isn't a competitor to Windows because the NHS or a big bank isn't going to suddenly say hay I've got a great idea let's start replacing our machines with ones that do the same job but cost three times as much and that nobody knows how to support and manage at this scale.

Edited by buggalugs on Sunday 14th January 22:39

[Duke of Kidderminster]

this is just political nonsense. other Spanish local governments tried it in the past and they all switched back to Windows. The Madrid government uses Microsoft so the regional Barcelona government is choosing Linux simply because they want to do the opposite and make some noise.

The mayor in Barcelona looked at this years ago and rejected the idea because of the cost of switching all of their other services and platforms.

It's a monumental waste of public funds because of this ongoing independence dispute. It won't happen in the long run on anything other than a few token devices.

[TonyRPH]

ZesPak said:

<snip>
This is not the ms of two decades ago. They've embraced omni platform like no one else.
<snip>

Indeed they have - to wit the "Windows Subsystem for Linux" which enables you to run Linux commands natively now as well.

Quite amazing really - instead of fighting against Linux they have embraced it (but then they have little or nothing to lose by doing so anyway).

[Penelope Stopit]

There is one thing for certain if barcelona does make the change. Yesterday I updated Debian Linux and there was no waiting for an update server connection, all the updates downloaded and installed very quickly without failed failed failed........ appearing anywhere
Barcelona could save many hours

Edit - Perhaps someone will be along in a moment to inform me that windows 10 updates without problems

[randlemarcus]

Penelope Stopit said:

There is one thing for certain if barcelona does make the change. Yesterday I updated Debian Linux and there was no waiting for an update server connection, all the updates downloaded and installed very quickly without failed failed failed........ appearing anywhere
Barcelona could save many hours

Edit - Perhaps someone will be along in a moment to inform me that windows 10 updates without problems

It absolutely does for me. All machines on the home network are set to share updates with each other, they are all configured with working hours, and it seems to obey those. YMMV.

[ZesPak]

Penelope Stopit said:

There is one thing for certain if barcelona does make the change. Yesterday I updated Debian Linux and there was no waiting for an update server connection, all the updates downloaded and installed very quickly without failed failed failed........ appearing anywhere
Barcelona could save many hours

Edit - Perhaps someone will be along in a moment to inform me that windows 10 updates without problems

Laugh as much as you want. I've ran all sorts of OS, but considering the sheer volume of Windows machines that just work...

Not to mention this exact point (government going to Linux), it has been tried several times before. Often costing millions, very often not leading to anything or seemingly not more economic than machines using MS licenses.

[SystemParanoia]

Linux is awesome

I run arch on my laptop with i3 and its the best thing ever

YMMV

[Duke of Kidderminster]

Linux being a great/crap/amazing/terrible operating system is purely subjective - one person likes it, another doesn't. But at the end of the day it will fail because they'll be using some highly critical software somewhere that doesn't run on Linux. This is why it failed when they last looked into doing it: they had Windows based apps they couldn't source alternatives for and also their user base struggled to get to grips with it and there was no budget for training them all.

The politicians and senior civil servants that spout out all the nonsense this news is based on won't be the ones that actually have to get it working. And I'll bet that they never really conducted much of a feasibility study in the first place. This is just another attempt to try and prove to the world that they are an independent nation with no need to pay any attention to the country's actual government.

[SystemParanoia]

mah.. Just run it through WINE

[Rawwr]

Penelope Stopit said:

There is one thing for certain if barcelona does make the change. Yesterday I updated Debian Linux and there was no waiting for an update server connection, all the updates downloaded and installed very quickly without failed failed failed........ appearing anywhere
Barcelona could save many hours

Edit - Perhaps someone will be along in a moment to inform me that windows 10 updates without problems

I think your problem - as highlighted by most of your combination of pro-Linux and anti-Microsoft posts - is that you have a very narrow view, perhaps only thinking of a single system. There are some very experienced Systems and Infrastructure guys on here and I'm fairly confident that the majority of them will accept that there's a place for everything; you use the right tool for the job.

A single home user using a single installation of Debian is one thing. A company or organisation having to manage tens-of-thousands of clients across many different locations all over the world and having to account for every variation of OS you can imagine, is quite another.

You have to be agnostic in this game or you'll ultimately drive yourself insane trying to come up with arguments to defend pointless tribalism.

[gavsdavs]

Rawwr said:

I think your problem - as highlighted by most of your combination of pro-Linux and anti-Microsoft posts - is that you have a very narrow view, perhaps only thinking of a single system. There are some very experienced Systems and Infrastructure guys on here and I'm fairly confident that the majority of them will accept that there's a place for everything; you use the right tool for the job.

A single home user using a single installation of Debian is one thing. A company or organisation having to manage tens-of-thousands of clients across many different locations all over the world and having to account for every variation of OS you can imagine, is quite another.

You have to be agnostic in this game or you'll ultimately drive yourself insane trying to come up with arguments to defend pointless tribalism.

Good post. Except Solaris, which is awesome if you're into that kind of thing

[TonyRPH]

gavsdavs said:

Good post. Except Solaris, which is awesome if you're into that kind of thing a masochist

ftfy

[Rawwr]

gavsdavs said:

Good post. Except Solaris, which is just f*cking bullsh*t

EFA

[sgtBerbatov]

Duke of Kidderminster said:

Linux being a great/crap/amazing/terrible operating system is purely subjective - one person likes it, another doesn't. But at the end of the day it will fail because they'll be using some highly critical software somewhere that doesn't run on Linux. This is why it failed when they last looked into doing it: they had Windows based apps they couldn't source alternatives for and also their user base struggled to get to grips with it and there was no budget for training them all.

The politicians and senior civil servants that spout out all the nonsense this news is based on won't be the ones that actually have to get it working. And I'll bet that they never really conducted much of a feasibility study in the first place. This is just another attempt to try and prove to the world that they are an independent nation with no need to pay any attention to the country's actual government.

Or it could be just the thing to revitalise their tech industry. Put the contract out to replace those non-Linux software with Linux software built by Spanish developers from Spain. If done right it would be a marvellous thing, and stick two fingers up to greedy Redmond in the process.

And as someone who made the switch to Linux full time 10 years ago, when the only way to get WiFi working on a laptop was to get the Windows driver and suffer with ndiswrapper, where there is a will there is a way. In the case of Munich, the brown envelopes from Redmond got just too attractive to turn down.