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I agree with you that they probably will not save money and I also agree with you that Word and Excel are the better products. However, I do like that there is

I agree with you that they probably will not save money and I also agree with you that Word and Excel are the better products. However, I do like that there is money going from government to Open Source software. I know a lot will get stuck in consulting firms but this is bound to improve LibreOffice and I believe it's better to use public money to improve open source projects than it is to pay Microsoft and keep getting sucked into their ecosystem. Public money should be spent on open (source) software. File formats should be exchangeable and switching providers shouldn't be intentionally difficult.

moonchrome 11y ago
>Public money should be spent on open (source) software I agree but only if the costs are reasonably comparable. For example if there's a commercial product that would cost 10x to replace then I don't think that's appropriate use of public money. But if the costs are similar then OSS should always be prefered because it creates new value for other users and while a commercial entity can't necessarily capitalize on that value governments don't need to.
- jimktrains2 11y ago
  What's the cost of having fixing critical bugs 20 years from now when that company's folded?
  - moonchrome 11y ago
    Meh, most software isn't going to be used 20 years from now and the one that will can be licensed with source code - doesn't have to be OSS.
    - jimktrains2 11y ago
      Software lasts a good long while in some organizations, even 10 years would have worked in my example (or 5!). You can only have a license with source if you think about it ahead of time.
rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
The software may be open source but the support isn't. One of the reasons that Microsoft's office suite has been such a successful product over the years is because it just works. One of the few correct statements Ayn Rand ever made was that when the age of money ends, it will usher in the age of pull. If you support someone that advocates a technological overhaul and it doesn't pay off, then you'll be left holding the bag. Not all politics in government happens on Capitol Hill.
- mjevans 11y ago
  Part of that 'just works' is polish. However it is disingenuous to discount the uncounted thousands of hours of training //per worker// in products with nearly identical look and feel (prior year's versions). This is a result of the /monopoly/ that they have had for decades.
  - rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
    How would that be any different from training people to use any other system?

moonchrome 11y ago

>Public money should be spent on open (source) software I agree but only if the costs are reasonably comparable. For example if there's a commercial product that would cost 10x to replace then I don't think that's appropriate use of public money. But if the costs are similar then OSS should always be prefered because it creates new value for other users and while a commercial entity can't necessarily capitalize on that value governments don't need to.

jimktrains2 11y ago
What's the cost of having fixing critical bugs 20 years from now when that company's folded?
- moonchrome 11y ago
  Meh, most software isn't going to be used 20 years from now and the one that will can be licensed with source code - doesn't have to be OSS.
  - jimktrains2 11y ago
    Software lasts a good long while in some organizations, even 10 years would have worked in my example (or 5!). You can only have a license with source if you think about it ahead of time.

rm_-rf_slash 11y ago

The software may be open source but the support isn't. One of the reasons that Microsoft's office suite has been such a successful product over the years is because it just works. One of the few correct statements Ayn Rand ever made was that when the age of money ends, it will usher in the age of pull. If you support someone that advocates a technological overhaul and it doesn't pay off, then you'll be left holding the bag. Not all politics in government happens on Capitol Hill.

mjevans 11y ago
Part of that 'just works' is polish. However it is disingenuous to discount the uncounted thousands of hours of training //per worker// in products with nearly identical look and feel (prior year's versions). This is a result of the /monopoly/ that they have had for decades.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
  How would that be any different from training people to use any other system?