5 ms·

Do the americans exclusively use MS Office in government computers?

by pixelpoet 3y ago

lrvick 3y ago
Yes. Most schools too. Microsoft has incredible political power here.
- croes 3y ago
  Even after CISA's review of the summer 2023 Microsoft Exchange online intrusion? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39929246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39929246
  - dewey 3y ago
    There's stories like this for every big vendor. This rarely has any impact.
  - trelane 3y ago
    The phrase is, "nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft." It's descended from the same phrase, applied to IBM, when they were the power.
    - croes 3y ago
      But the impact is deeper nowadays. What was the worst that could happen when you bought IBM back then?
      - Liquix 3y ago
        I think the sentiment is less that something catastophic can't happen by depending on M$ - it's more that you personally will never be blamed for their servers going down. Whereas if you advocate for a smaller/more open solution and that blows up in the company's face, it's your ass on the line.
        croes 3y ago
        But that could change after the last couple of mistakes by MS. Do maybe it's still in the head of the people but it could backfire.
- jofaz 3y ago
  Not as much as it used to be, now that they can do most of what they need with Google's free apps
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
deaddodo 3y ago
What do you mean by "exclusively" and "government"? Outside of the DoD/US Military (where hardened Linux has quite a few uses), I'm pretty sure the US Federal govt is fairly Microsoft-centric as they offer them the guarantees and concessions needed to sign contracts. It's not that the Fed thinks Windows or Office is better than the open source alternatives, as much as it is that if/when they do fail they have a direct point of contact with strict SLA guarantees to get things fixed and they have full control of all of their software to do so without hindrance. Local and state govts usually follow suit, as it makes sense that what works for the Fed will work for them. But I've seen plenty of open source softwares being used in various municipal and state offices. LibreOffice and CentOS would probably be the most common alternatives. So, to answer your question, no it's not exclusively Windows. It's almost exclusively Windows in the Federal govt as there are mandates there, but otherwise it's a hodgepodge of what works/can be afforded throughout all other levels of govt.
- graemep 3y ago
  > It's not that the Fed thinks Windows or Office is better than the open source alternatives, as much as it is that if/when they do fail they have a direct point of contact with strict SLA guarantees to get things fixed Does MS provide SLAs? Are there no suppliers who will provide similar SLAs for FOSS software? > and they have full control of all of their software to do so without hindrance. That puzzles me. How can you have more control over proprietary software than over open source? If you mean MS have full control, how does that benefit their customers?
  - deaddodo 3y ago
    > Does MS provide SLAs? Are there no suppliers who will provide similar SLAs for FOSS software? Gotta love how internet commentators feel like picking a statement apart in isolation somehow validates their point. Yes, they offer SLAs and have full control of their software and its release cycle. So can offer guarantees and stand by them. > That puzzles me. How can you have more control over proprietary software than over open source? "They" is Microsoft. > If you mean MS have full control, how does that benefit their customers? It means they don't have to wait for Linux (or a plethora of other open source softwares) for upstreaming or need to fork / manage an independent branch. It means that they aren't at the whims of a community who decides to abandon projects willy-nilly or replace them with brand new implementations at the drop of a hat. Or commercial entities built on top of those projects that can only offer surface level guarantees. No one here is saying Windows (or proprietary software) is intrinsically better. What they're saying is that what Microsoft offers to certain large-scale/enterprise entities is clearly better. If you disagree, have at it. I don't care. The fact that people continue to sign with Azure, Microsoft, Office, etc makes it self-evident.
severino 3y ago
It's reasonable. What would be strange is that they relied on Chinese or Russian software to run their government. That's sort of what we, the Europeans, do when we use Microsoft tech in our governments.
ghnws 3y ago
Not just Americans. MS Office is the standard (at least) in the western world.
spogbiper 3y ago
America is a very big place with federal, state, city standards. I'm not sure it is possible to say "exclusively" about anything. That said, I've been in the IT world for 3 decades and I haven't worked for/with a government agency that used anything other than MS Office since the WordPerfect and Lotus 123 days.

Do the americans exclusively use MS Office in government computers?

lrvick 3y ago

Yes. Most schools too. Microsoft has incredible political power here.

croes 3y ago
Even after CISA's review of the summer 2023 Microsoft Exchange online intrusion? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39929246 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39929246
- dewey 3y ago
  There's stories like this for every big vendor. This rarely has any impact.
- trelane 3y ago
  The phrase is, "nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft." It's descended from the same phrase, applied to IBM, when they were the power.
  - croes 3y ago
    But the impact is deeper nowadays. What was the worst that could happen when you bought IBM back then?
    - Liquix 3y ago
      I think the sentiment is less that something catastophic can't happen by depending on M$ - it's more that you personally will never be blamed for their servers going down. Whereas if you advocate for a smaller/more open solution and that blows up in the company's face, it's your ass on the line.
      - croes 3y ago
        But that could change after the last couple of mistakes by MS. Do maybe it's still in the head of the people but it could backfire.
jofaz 3y ago
Not as much as it used to be, now that they can do most of what they need with Google's free apps

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

deaddodo 3y ago

What do you mean by "exclusively" and "government"? Outside of the DoD/US Military (where hardened Linux has quite a few uses), I'm pretty sure the US Federal govt is fairly Microsoft-centric as they offer them the guarantees and concessions needed to sign contracts. It's not that the Fed thinks Windows or Office is better than the open source alternatives, as much as it is that if/when they do fail they have a direct point of contact with strict SLA guarantees to get things fixed and they have full control of all of their software to do so without hindrance. Local and state govts usually follow suit, as it makes sense that what works for the Fed will work for them. But I've seen plenty of open source softwares being used in various municipal and state offices. LibreOffice and CentOS would probably be the most common alternatives. So, to answer your question, no it's not exclusively Windows. It's almost exclusively Windows in the Federal govt as there are mandates there, but otherwise it's a hodgepodge of what works/can be afforded throughout all other levels of govt.

graemep 3y ago
> It's not that the Fed thinks Windows or Office is better than the open source alternatives, as much as it is that if/when they do fail they have a direct point of contact with strict SLA guarantees to get things fixed Does MS provide SLAs? Are there no suppliers who will provide similar SLAs for FOSS software? > and they have full control of all of their software to do so without hindrance. That puzzles me. How can you have more control over proprietary software than over open source? If you mean MS have full control, how does that benefit their customers?
- deaddodo 3y ago
  > Does MS provide SLAs? Are there no suppliers who will provide similar SLAs for FOSS software? Gotta love how internet commentators feel like picking a statement apart in isolation somehow validates their point. Yes, they offer SLAs and have full control of their software and its release cycle. So can offer guarantees and stand by them. > That puzzles me. How can you have more control over proprietary software than over open source? "They" is Microsoft. > If you mean MS have full control, how does that benefit their customers? It means they don't have to wait for Linux (or a plethora of other open source softwares) for upstreaming or need to fork / manage an independent branch. It means that they aren't at the whims of a community who decides to abandon projects willy-nilly or replace them with brand new implementations at the drop of a hat. Or commercial entities built on top of those projects that can only offer surface level guarantees. No one here is saying Windows (or proprietary software) is intrinsically better. What they're saying is that what Microsoft offers to certain large-scale/enterprise entities is clearly better. If you disagree, have at it. I don't care. The fact that people continue to sign with Azure, Microsoft, Office, etc makes it self-evident.

severino 3y ago

It's reasonable. What would be strange is that they relied on Chinese or Russian software to run their government. That's sort of what we, the Europeans, do when we use Microsoft tech in our governments.

ghnws 3y ago

Not just Americans. MS Office is the standard (at least) in the western world.

spogbiper 3y ago

America is a very big place with federal, state, city standards. I'm not sure it is possible to say "exclusively" about anything. That said, I've been in the IT world for 3 decades and I haven't worked for/with a government agency that used anything other than MS Office since the WordPerfect and Lotus 123 days.