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The French city of Lyon has taken a major step toward digital sovereignty by officially starting a move away from Microsoft software. . The city is gradually set to replace Microsoft Office with open source alternatives like ONLYOFFICE and switch from Windows to Linux-based operating systems to reduce dependency on proprietary offerings.
never heard of ONLYOFFICE, any good?
It's entirely web-based (their desktop app uses electron). It is quite good, has no problems with editing Microsofts shitty formats and offers a feature set on the level of office 356 web.
Downside: made by a Russian company which has since re-incorporated in Singapore I think.
It's an open source product, in case you have concern about possibility of malicious code embedded within it.
Question for the tech savvy, why Linux instead of FreeBSD? China's KylinOS started out as a FreeBSD fork before switching gears to Linux. Wouldn't the FreeBSD license be better suited to governments?
FreeBSD does not have support for multiple drives, so there may be problems on government computers.
In itself, they will have several drawbacks when moving to Linux because it does not act the same as Windows or macOS.
FreeBSD does not have support for multiple drives
What really? Isn't Freenas a Freebsd distro? Isn't ZFS like something you can only do efficiently on BSD?
There's a recent user video that explains the advantages, disadvantages, and unique features of FreeBSD.
I hope it helps.
FreeBSD does have uses in industry, because large companies use it and receive donations, although not as many as the Linux Foundation.
The problem is that it doesn't have as widespread support from various sources as Linux, let alone Windows, so installing FreeBSD on newer hardware can be difficult if you don't have a technician to help you.
In addition, there isn't enough native software, although that could be covered by using a compatibility layer with Linux and/or Wine. You could also use virtual machines. However, you may not need to do that if the software can run on the operating system without any problems despite not having official support.
But FreeBSD is very stable, has its own package, which is quite intuitive, and has a file system called ZFS and security.
Support is another issue, but this problem is shared by less popular and less widely used Linux distributions and other operating systems that aren't widely used. Hiring someone to solve a problem that's affecting you can be very expensive, and there are three options.
Good. We should all do it
I'm sure this is common knowledge but Lyon's worker uprising in the 19th century is the origin of the word 'sabotage'. The workers were protesting against semi-automated loom weaving machines that used punch cards like primitive computers. When the managers weren't looking the workers would through their shoes (which were called "sabos") into the mechanism to break it.
Just got back from a holiday in Lyon. Super interesting place! I got the impression that the quality of life was good for the locals. Met a bunch of friendly Lyonnaise at a music festival and they were extremely generous sharing their party supplies.
Edit: I believe Lyon workers movement were also originators of slogans like "workers of the world unite"
Bon courage!
Nice!
Not Nice, Lyon
Yeah, Nice would never! 😂
I see what you did there
In my tired daze I mistakenly read ONLYOFFICE as OpenOffice and was about to yell No!
The article does well and links to their other article on the OO 9.0 release, which explains why it's probably a smarter choice for this office situation when compared to LibreOffice:
ONLYOFFICE is one of two options that comes to mind when I think of a solid Microsoft Office alternative on Linux, the other being LibreOffice. Both offer a range of useful features and support a wide range of document formats. What sets ONLYOFFICE apart, though, is its focus on collaboration and generally reliable compatibility with Microsoft Office files.
Add also the Calligra Suite, above it's from the EU (KDE), full compatible with MS Office files apart of the OpenDocument format (Linux, currently no stable Windows version)
I mean yeah, it exists, but have you tried using calligra for anything productive? It is missing so many basic features and has lots of annoying bugs.
Hope more will follow.
So 2025 is the year of the Linux desktop?
I have a linux desktop
welcome! there are dozens of us!
I waited 20 years for this.
I've heard this "year of the Linux desktop" thing for 20 years in a row, to the point that it has become a meme. Even if the recent events bump Linux market share up by just a single percent, I'm still happy.
Seems like it.
No one is too big to fail. Always remember that.
History is littered with bones of empires who thought themselves eternal.
I live in Lyon, and I'm soooo happy to hear about this ! 🤩
Les lyonais c'est des bons. Bisous de belgique
Yeah you can be proud of your city for such a thing.
Je vis à Genève et j’adorerais qu’on suive votre chemin en la matière.
The US government flaunting its effective tyrannical control of its tech companies are, somewhat ironically, helping the EU get away from that control by being encouraged to swap to Linux and FOSS.