Why and how the Austrian Military moved to LibreOffice (Part 1) - TDF Community Blog
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Many government departments around the world are moving away from vendor lock-in by tech giants, and switching to free and open source software like LibreOffice. This helps with privacy, security, and digital sovereignty. One such example is the Austrian Military (Bundesheer), which has moved 16,000 PCs from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. We talked to them, to find out why and how they did it… When did all of this start? When were the first decisions made? It began in 2020, with the trend toward running software increasingly in the cloud and less on-premises on devices within companies. At that time, we examined what guarantees existed for running software – specifically Microsoft Office – directly in the workplace without any cloud connection. So the review and preparation began in 2020. In late 2022 and early 2023, the decision was made to switch to LibreOffice. The goals were to ensure that data never leaves the company and that the Office applications can be used without external dependencies. Who made the decision? The decision was structured in such a way that our “corporate leadership” – that is, the Federal Ministry of Defence – could decide, based on the information compiled regarding future software
  • walden@wetshav.ingEnglish
    7·
    4 days ago

    Cool. The article mentions a 15 minute crash course on the differences. I wonder if something like that is available to the public?

    I also wonder if that government is going to donate to the project.

    • sensorfailure@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7·
      4 days ago

      The Austrian military is about as defensively oriented only a military as you get. No foreign adventures, no overseas territories, strong constitutional limits, no reports of human rights abuses, etc.

      I don’t understand being reflexively against them. How else do you propose Austria keeps its people safe from external threats?

      • comrademiao@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        3 days ago

        Firstly, what threatens Austrian’s safety? Secondly, I don’t trust any state military force. Thirdly, the Austrian armed forces were very happy to turn fascist which hardly went away in Germany. Can Austria say the same? Fourthly, does any country use its military solely for defensive purposes? Doubtful.