Mastodawn

kontrollierterWahnwitz 19h ago

Not only is one German state moving from Microsoft to LibreOffice, but the whole federal government is committing to move to open standards by 2027: https://blog.documentfoundation.org/blog/2025/04/29/germany-committing-to-odf-and-open-document-standards/

Germany committing to ODF and open document standards - The Document Foundation Blog

Digital sovereignty is of vital importance for data freedom. If governments and organisations use proprietary or pseudo-standard formats, they limit the tools that citizens can use to access data. So we’re happy to see that the IT Planning Council in Germany is committing to move to the Open Document Format – a fully standardised format […]

The Document Foundation Blog

Kerfuffle 22h ago

@libreoffice Excellent! Not just because they're moving to LibreOffice, but because they're doing the exercise of moving in the first place. A major reason why organizations stick with bad tech is because they don't know how to lift & shift.

Dan Neuman 🇨🇦16h ago

@kerfuffle @bjornqc @libreoffice Training costs a lot, both in money and productivity lost.

UnitedWeStand🇪🇺🌻16h ago

@dan613 @kerfuffle @bjornqc @libreoffice
thats true. so does training for Microsoft or data loss to US clouds.

Kerfuffle 16h ago

@dan613 @bjornqc @libreoffice True. But doing nothing may end up costing more.

Dan Neuman 🇨🇦15h ago

@kerfuffle @bjornqc @libreoffice That's definitely true now, but in the past it made less sense to move.

@dan613 Yes. In the past, I supported MSOffice. Now I'm using Libre Office and I can find all the functions again at the right and fixed places, a concept that was abandoned by Microsoft. It learns much faster than I expected. I think everyone will like it, the old style.

Dan Neuman 🇨🇦14h ago

@fenixmaster I should have said *retraining* costs a lot. Incoming staff may indeed have an easier time, and the German government might put some resources towards improvements and stability. And yes, switching to the ribbon interface was a nightmare for me. I haven't used MSOffice since 2013, so if there's been more chaos I'm fortunate to have missed it.

Toran "Torspedia" Shaw 22h ago

@libreoffice just wish my university would let us submit assignments in .ODF format, as we can only really use Word... and as a Linux user that means Word Online, which is slow and clunky.

LibreOffice 22h ago

@toran Oh no! Ask your uni why they won't accept standardised formats, and force students to use specific software. It's the exact opposite of what unis should be doing. If they say "We use Microsoft Office/365", point out that Microsoft also supports ODF so they should at least accept documents in that format!

karlggest 22h ago

@libreoffice
Microsoft support to odf is poor.
@toran

@karlggestd @libreoffice @toran Microsoft's support for ISO OOXML (“their own open standard”) is also poor. So, what?

⊥ᵒᵚ Cᵸᵎᶺᵋᶫ∸ᵒᵘ ☑️18h ago

@PatrikSchoenfeldt @karlggestd @libreoffice @toran Microsoft's support for older .doc(x) is poor too!

Toran "Torspedia" Shaw 21h ago

@karlggestd @libreoffice it's even poor for saving LO Writer files as .docx.. as the last time I tried it came back as 'corrupted'.

HTTP 418 6h ago

@karlggestd
That's by design.
@libreoffice @toran

Toran "Torspedia" Shaw 21h ago

@libreoffice I'll try, ta... they're heavily invested in the MS ecosystem, as we're given 365 accounts on sign up.

Didn't know that Word also opens .odf files, so will ask them about it. Ta! 🙂

𝕽𝖔𝖇𝖔 17h ago

@toran can't you use LibreOffice to save the document in .doc/.docx format? I used to do that when I was in University.

Jeremy List 9h ago

@neurob @toran @libreoffice that's what I did in first year and then in second year my math and humanities classes started wanting assignments in PDF and my computer science classes started wanting assignments in LaTeX.

Gal also works 16h ago

@toran @libreoffice i don't mean to sound sarcastic but can't you just export as .docx or .doc? IIRC LibreOffice supports it

Jeremy List 9h ago

@Sir_Ga1ahad @toran @libreoffice I hear that such documents don't always look exactly the same when opened in MS office, but the vast majority of the time it's close enough that you don't need to worry about it.

Bill Zaumen 13h ago

@toran @libreoffice If you are just submitting a class assignment, is there any reason why you can't send them a PDF file---libreoffice can export a document in that format. I'd presume what you submit is read-only.

Bart Knubben 22h ago

@libreoffice Thanks. Can you also share a reference to the source document that contains this decision?

LibreOffice 22h ago

@bartknubben It's linked to in the blog post: "More information (in German) on this page."

Dominik 22h ago

@libreoffice
Thank you in the interests of all, except the overpowering large corporations! ✌️ 🍀

Petra van Cronenburg 22h ago

@libreoffice That's fine. But let's hope that the new government doesn't pull out ... (the paper is from March, the new government will be installed in May.)

@NatureMC @libreoffice Interesting that the paper was published in the interim period after the general elections but before chancellor vote and appointment of new ministers.

Petra van Cronenburg 21h ago

@hopfgeist This is completely normal: the old government is in office until the new one officially enters the Bundestag. @libreoffice

@NatureMC @libreoffice Sure, the old government remains in office until the new one is elected/appointed, but it is still interesting to craft a policy paper when you don't know if the incoming government will honour it. When in fact, you have good reason to suspect that they won't, because they are traditionally rather biassed towards big corporations. Not saying they couldn't or shouldn't do it, but conspicuous timing, nonetheless.

Petra van Cronenburg 20h ago

@hopfgeist No, it's normal.
If you only decided things every time that you thought another future government would approve, politics would no longer be possible. Every government utilises its term of office until the last day, especially as steps backwards are often costly and not so easy. It is common practice.

abcde1234 21h ago

@libreoffice ils ont mis du temps avant de comprendre

@wmpv4321 @libreoffice mieux vaut tard que jamais. Autant nous en réjouir. En France nous n'avons aucune leçon a donner quand on coït le nombre de postes informatiques dépendants des GAFAMs

abcde1234 19h ago

@seyfr @libreoffice ce que je ne comprend pas c'est qu'ils y vont en tatonnant alors que ca parait evident

@wmpv4321 @libreoffice ça la dessus on est d'accord. Mais j'imagine que pour les vieillards qui commandent c'est tout nouveau et ils ne sont pas rassurés 🤣

abcde1234 18h ago

@seyfr @libreoffice pr les gouvernants , oui il faut commencer avec l'utilisation de la souris comment on déplace le curseur , c'est pas évident ^^

@wmpv4321 @libreoffice un oeil sur l'écran, un oeil sur le clavier !

abcde1234 19h ago

@seyfr @libreoffice pour la france y a les dépôts de code et la mise en avant des projets opensource mais pour les postes il faudrait viser une entreprise informatique qui fait du logiciel opensource

@wmpv4321 @libreoffice dans les faits la plupart des logiciels utilisés (dans la fonction publique au moins niveau universités et Région pour ce que je sais de ma propre expérience) sont a minima propriétaires, bien souvent américains. Le libre et made un EU bien que "promu" par le ministère du numérique n'est installé quasiment nulle part.

abcde1234 17h ago

@seyfr @libreoffice pour l'université , j'ai noté moodle et roundcube , apres on a pu toucher libreoffice pour la rédaction , et pour la presentation , l'éditeur de code en opensource évidemment , à continuer ainsi.

@wmpv4321 @libreoffice intéressant. L'UFR avec lequel je travaillais était peut-être un peu plus hermétique malgré le nombre de libristes parmi nous.

abcde1234 17h ago

@seyfr @libreoffice et ubuntu pour l'os

digituba 21h ago

@libreoffice this is great, I really hope the rest of the world follows. Thanks for doing what you do!

@libreoffice is the "Standardisierungsboard" thats tasked with enacting this framework @FITKOfoederal?

Speaking of which: @FITKOfoederal's Wikipedia page is only in German, https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%B6derale_IT-Kooperation, this could really use some translation into other languages!

Föderale IT-Kooperation – Wikipedia

@libreoffice Wait until the new German government is in place, then re-check. I have a nagging feeling this change might be stopped soon.

How is #OpenDocumentFormat interoperability these days? The last #odfplugfest was 8 years ago.

https://odfplugfest.org

ODF plugfest homepage

Robert Berger 21h ago

I will believe it after it is done.
Not before.

guenther 14h ago

@Robbe_Duesseldorf @libreoffice

yeah this is just some council that doesn't decide shit and in the end we'll just spend millions of tax euros on Microsoft 365 and possibly google cloud, like always.

Enea Lecas 20h ago

@libreoffice Great stuff! Way to go!

@libreoffice which means, they will stick with MS and just change the default format ...

@leyrer @libreoffice We're also very likely in for a rush of basest anality, unfettered cronyism and apocalyptic incompetence. Wouldn't bet on anything at the moment.

Błażejko (ProxyDark)20h ago

@libreoffice or just maybe They don't have enought money to continue using Microsoft apps ? Just got this in my mind. In poland some hospitals also using Libre and it is really bad to work with. And this is just because they dont't want to buy. Not because of security or other major problems. Just because of money.

nicole mikołajczyk 20h ago

@proxydark @libreoffice You can continue using Microsoft Office while switching to Open Document Format (supported since 2009), which would be reasonable in such a case where public administration workers are most likely familiar with it.

Błażejko (ProxyDark)20h ago

@mkljczk @libreoffice but the problem is simple .. converting documents are not 100% same , diference between .docx and .odt are quite big and mostly crashes documents or making huge changes.

Błażejko (ProxyDark)20h ago

@mkljczk @libreoffice albo mówiąc prościej. Jak w szpitalu użyją .odt .. potem idą z tym do Dyrektora placówki , który ma Worda często gęsto wszystko się rozjeżdża :)

nicole mikołajczyk 20h ago

@proxydark @libreoffice Pamiętaj że poza użytkownikami MS Office i paroma nerdami trzymającymi się LibreOffice są też np. osoby używające Google Docs. Wydaje mi się że przenośność ODF między różnym oprogramowaniem wygląda jednak dużo lepiej niż przy O„O”XML

Błażejko (ProxyDark)19h ago

@mkljczk @libreoffice też fakt :)

08956495 20h ago

@libreoffice I really hope that as they make the move they are also donating to the Open Source alternatives they are using.

Konstruct 20h ago

@libreoffice I love you LibreOffice !

Northants Greens 19h ago

@libreoffice If only the UK government does the same.