Mastodawn

avatastic

Jun 9, 2025

@randahl Sadly, Starmer and the UK will see this as "well, that's more for us then!"

@avatastic @randahl that is UK's problem then - just like with brexit they can be very selfharming.

avatastic

Jun 9, 2025

@Ilka4You @randahl I'm there, and very aware...

@avatastic @randahl *hugs* I have friends in UK, it is not easy sometimes.

avatastic

Jun 9, 2025

@Ilka4You hugs received with gratitude and reciprocated, thank you.

I do apologise, I did not mean to snap at you as I did, there was no way for you to know I was commenting from the UK, and it was wrong of me to assume it was obvious.

@avatastic these are frustrating times, no worries, no offense taken. No matter what nationality, what country we live in, we all have to worry the same thing: will democracy win. The specific issues variate, the esentialls are the same. Thank you for the hugs, well recieved and appreciated. 🥰

Rusty Ring Jun 9, 2025

The world has been much too dependent on American goods and services. If we get anything good out of the collapse of the American experiment, let it be coming to grips with that.

The Animal and the Machine Jun 9, 2025

@randahl
All of Europe should have started this long ago.

It’s the beginning of a European golden age. We are going to see some great European projects. They will even sweep into the US as people there wish to leave corporate control.

The Future:
Ukraine 🇺🇦 wins: European Golden Age
Ukraine is abandoned: Fascism in Europe pumped by Russia

#Ukraine matters. It is the pivot point for the world.

Yellow Readis Jun 10, 2025

@taatm @randahl I'm not in europe, but woukd swap to euro versions of tech in a heartbeat.

Kpl Klink Jun 9, 2025

@randahl A very smart move.

Raymond W Gallacher Jun 9, 2025

@randahl
The EU needs to advertise its products and services more.
I use libre office but I find that no one else has heard of it.
Europe has to be more industrially aggressive.

Stefanie Janine Stölting Jun 10, 2025

@RaySF @randahl Seriously? I found Libre Office on nearly all Windows computers that I freed with Linux as these ones are not supported by M$ for Windows 11.

filobus Jun 10, 2025

@RaySF @randahl Europe should give to technological independence even more relevance than to military budget

SufferForMe 🆘Jun 19, 2025

@RaySF

One place to start is in schools... where most people today get weaned on microsoft products. Added bonus, save money not paying for education licenses.

Tip @bert_hubert

@randahl
👍
#unplugtump #Denmark

@randahl well done DK, well done!

Hugh Ferguson Jun 10, 2025

@randahl I'm hoping to see the Government of Canada do something similar. Up to now, I feel that Microsoft has way too much power. They are successful with SharePoint because you don't have to do much thinking to use it.

�Jun 10, 2025

@hfinyow @randahl sharepoint, one-drive, how everything is connected, when your one-drive file is moved to sahrepoint when sending files over teams still scares me more than when i first had touched the linux terminal.

obscurestar Jun 10, 2025

@randahl All governments should do this. Opensource everything and FFS get off Twitter.

Keith Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Honestly I don't know why open source software isn't already a standard in governance. It makes so much sense from a security standpoint, let alone the philosophical implications of opaque and proprietary software in the public sector.

el Celio 🇪🇺 🇺🇦Jun 10, 2025

@kappamu25 @randahl it's about customer service and interoperability

Joe Vinegar Jun 10, 2025

@elCelio @kappamu25 @randahl in a twisted sense, yes. but I think it can be better described as vendor lock-in, monopoly, anti-competitive practices, corporate capture.
"public money, public code" is even part of the law in Italy, but is too easily circumvented. Why? First, going against the status quo is too much added responsibility with no personal advantage for who must decide; second, way less money involved: this implies less lobbying, and also less corruption (again, against the personal interest of the administrative heads). Last, it's a change: implies time, uncertainty, and some minimal training and other associated costs, so there's always "something more urgent" to do first (even though lots of money is wasted in absurd things).

Tom Tom Jun 10, 2025

@joe_vinegar @elCelio @kappamu25 @randahl it's a vicious circle. People train on proprietary software and then think 'proprietary software are so intuitive''. If you add the 'I can't be blamed for choosing the most std product' and the 'in case of problems I'll have a company to turn against' reflexes and inertia, you get the perfect cocktail for today's situation.

Good luck to her. 15 years ago a minister tried to switch open source. The min. he left, everything was switched back to Microsof

Keith Jun 10, 2025

@elCelio @randahl Going open-source doesn't always mean forgoing corporations. The company Red Hat, for instance, does provide customer service for its enterprise customers while delivering products that are largely open-source (I don't think they exclude proprietary third-party microcode or drivers from RHEL). As much as I'd like to decouple the public and private sector, I think that's the best current solution for most government entities. I'm less sure of what you mean by interoperability.

Adam Jun 10, 2025

Smart move. Hard to stay sovereign if you could get the Karim Khan treatment at any moment without warning

lucabianciardi Jun 10, 2025

@randahl é più logico che fare come #Giustino di #radioradicale che fa informazione sulla #Turchia e su #Erdogan e lamenta di essere stato bloccato su #Metà. La scelta degli #oligarchi del web è chiara. Ora sta a noi decidere se accettarla o no

Chu 朱 Jun 10, 2025

I do love that there are countries who would rather breed carrier pigeons than depend on US technology.

Jeffandthekid Jun 10, 2025

@randahl WooHoo!!

Plsik (born in 320 ppm)Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Go, Denmark!

redbr1ck Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Great news. Hopefully everything goes smoothly and there is no need to look back at the Windows.

However, you mentioned iPhones could be next? What would be an alternative, android is as much of US technology as iPhone. Phone market seems to lack real alternatives.

karamazov1879 Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Sho'nuff hope so!

Nicole Parsons Jun 10, 2025

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2018/04/07/Saudi-Crown-Prince-discusses-joint-projects-with-Apple-s-Tim-Cook-

The iPhone removal is prudent considering how much investment the fossil fuel industry is devoting to Apple & its surveillance capabilities.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/24/every-iphone-user-is-tied-to-saudi-business-interests-like-it-or-not

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/09/books/review/mbs-the-rise-to-power-of-mohammed-bin-salman-ben-hubbard.html

Irrsinn Hilft ⚾ 🏈 🏀 🏒Jun 10, 2025

Wenn doch nur in 🇩🇪 mal jemand darüber nachdenken würde...
Diese unglaublich Menge an Lizenzgebühren, die zu sparen wäre.

Fluks Jun 10, 2025

@IrrsinnHilft @randahl
Es ist nicht alles schlecht
https://www.schleswig-holstein.de/DE/landesregierung/themen/digitalisierung/linux-plus1/Projekt
und auch in München geht's wieder ein Stückchen vorwärts
https://www.heise.de/news/Nach-LiMux-Aus-Wie-sich-Muenchen-langsam-wieder-an-Open-Source-annaehert-9980995.html
Wie vielversprechend das alles ist kann ich aber überhaupt nicht einschätzen...

Säulen des digital souveränen Open-Source-Arbeitsplatzes

Projekt

schleswig-holstein.de

Irrsinn Hilft ⚾ 🏈 🏀 🏒Jun 10, 2025

@Fluks @randahl

Das entwickelt bei uns doch nie so eine Entschlossenheit:

https://social.itu.dk/@sebastian/114658561613022200

Sebastian Büttrich @ ITU (@[email protected])

Finally - the Danish Ministry of Digitalization is replacing #Microsoft internally 🤯 Half of employees are supposed to be changing to #LibreOffice and #Linux within the next month or so, and by the fall, all staff of the Ministry should be rid of Microsoft. https://politiken.dk/viden/tech/art10437680/Caroline-Stage-udfaser-Microsoft-i-Digitaliseringsministeriet #Denmark #Danmark #Resilience #autonomy

social.ITU.dk

Northants Greens Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Now if only we can do the same in the uk

Gina Jun 10, 2025

@randahl meanwhile the Dutch gov: "yay we'll soon officially confirm our "Open Source first" agenda.

3 days before confirming: *gov falls* 🤦🏼‍♀️

Janne Moren Jun 10, 2025

@Gina @randahl
To be fair, I get the impression a typical Dutch government couldn't confirm what to have for lunch before they fall.

tyil Jun 10, 2025

@Gina @randahl The Dutch government has been doing half-assed promises of doing more with open source for many many years, sadly.

https://minbzk.github.io/mijn-bureau/

Gina Jun 10, 2025

@tyil @randahl well, we have an OSPO now, so things are finally becoming more serious. They're experimenting with an opensource office suite, called #MijnBureau (MyDesk) which would be cool.

Over Mijn Bureau, Mijn Bureau

Onderzoek naar open source samenwerksoftware voor, door en met overheden.

tyil Jun 10, 2025

@Gina @randahl I didn't hear about that one yet, that looks interesting at least. Now just pray it can be delivered within the next decade, we know how incompetent our government has been with literally any IT project in the last 20 years 😆

I didn't see much about the infrastructure being used to build this platform on the website, though. Will they host it on a USA cloud, undermining their own sovereignty, or will it be hosted on a new EU-based cloud? Or better yet, without a cloud at all?

Gina Jun 10, 2025

@tyil @randahl not sure, will ask when I see them again.

Ach, sometimes I despair Dutch gov IT, but honestly when I look at how well things like DigiD work, I'm kind of proud.

François @Jura Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Way to go Denmark! Special thanks to JD Vance who deserve some credit! Yet another win(dow) for Middle Age Governs America.!!!!

PS: The french Gendarmerie (law enforcement) switched to OpenOffice in 2004. That was huge at the time because Win Office was way ahead and VBA in Excel was still a thing.

Ruth Mottram Jun 10, 2025

@randahl 🥳 at DMI we have always used Linux (for technical work), but now Statens IT has brought everyone into Microsoft world with Teams 🤢 , which interfaces very poorly with a lot of applications in Linux, it's been a source of some friction trying to get administrative tasks done.

I doubt it's going to move quickly across the state, but it's a good start to see how it can be made to work...

(And we have also just this year been given iPhones to access Statens IT on the move - no idea how they could replace those with a non-US product).

Strider_UK - Slava Ukraini Jun 10, 2025

@randahl worth a read.

Ignacio (he) 🇺🇦🇪🇸🇪🇺Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Meanwhile in Spain...

https://www.alimarket.es/electro/noticia/399720/natalia-escobedo--nueva-directora-de-sector-publico-de-microsoft-en-espana

Natalia Escobedo, nueva directora de Sector Público de Microsoft en España

Microsoft ha anunciado el nombramiento de Natalia Escobedo como nueva directora de Sector Público de Microsoft en España y su incorporación al Comité de Dirección de la filial.

Alimarket.es

Tom Binroth Jun 10, 2025

@randahl Well done ❗️

Jay 🇺🇦Jun 10, 2025

@randahl
It's not just our governments; we need to protect ourselves! It's 5min to midnight and most of our sensible personal data and professional resources still lie in the hands of an absolutely unpredictable fascist regime. The Microsoft ICC email affair is kinda dodgy though for the moment, they're in damage control mode.
Meanwhile, rather than running from this ticking timebomb, German police has gone straight to Barad-dûr and bought Palantir access from Peter Thiel.

tunda Jun 10, 2025

@randahl
damn communisten.

Ironic OFF.

Dibs Jun 10, 2025

@randahl but Android, though... Surely Apple is the lesser of the two evils when compared to Google...

bws Jun 10, 2025

@randahl all this during the time when the german army now pays google to setup their "air gapped" cloud infrastructure. 🤡

Epistatacadam Jun 10, 2025

@randahl I wish the UK and NHS in particular could ditch it's MS dependence. The CoPilot and cloud storage default means personal data is not confidential by default. A barmy approach to secure data keeping.
Let's just go Open Source ASAP and save money and build a more secure and targeted system.
Of course Politicians won't as the UK parties are all dependent on big money donations, to keep the populace under wraps and in ignorance...