4 ms·

Most of the cost (to the government) for Windows is "support" (in a very general sense) and that cost isn't disappearing with Linux. Especially since it is eas

Most of the cost (to the government) for Windows is "support" (in a very general sense) and that cost isn't disappearing with Linux. Especially since it is easier to find badly underpaid (and not particularly competent) Windows sysadmins than it is to find badly underpaid Linux admins.

fao_ 6mo ago
Ok but the license fees are, what, 50 quid? times say, 3k or 30k people? A 150k or 1.5m injection into the linux ecosystem to develop those would pay for a _lot_ of developers and a _lot_ of developer time.
- skavi 6mo ago
  doesn’t really feel like that much tbh
- repelsteeltje 6mo ago
  From what I heard about NGI-zero, another government sponsorship project (1), the problem so far is primarily finding the projects that need sponsorship. (1) https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/ https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/
  - pabs3 6mo ago
    That doesn't seem correct. Almost all of the projects installed on a standard Linux distro need funding. I just stopped applying to NLnet after getting nothing but rejections.
dbolgheroni 6mo ago
I don't think that cost is what is mostly driving the move from Windows nowadays.
Zetaphor 6mo ago
Are you implying that need for support would go away? If anything the demand would be artificially high at the start of a mass migration, and then presumably level out to something similar to what we see today with Windows. This is basically RHEL's entire business model.
- mixmastamyk 6mo ago
  Not a thing any longer, for the most part. People know how to open a browser on any operating system these days. Go to the menu, run it. Get bored and click the X on the top bar. Source: nearby kids. A few times I've said... "this is Cinnamon, or KDE, or... Windows." "Ok, whatever," (old man) is the response I get. And, you don't have to move 100% of their workflow in a single day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47730137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47730137

fao_ 6mo ago

Ok but the license fees are, what, 50 quid? times say, 3k or 30k people? A 150k or 1.5m injection into the linux ecosystem to develop those would pay for a _lot_ of developers and a _lot_ of developer time.

skavi 6mo ago
doesn’t really feel like that much tbh
repelsteeltje 6mo ago
From what I heard about NGI-zero, another government sponsorship project (1), the problem so far is primarily finding the projects that need sponsorship. (1) https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/ https://nlnet.nl/NGI0/
- pabs3 6mo ago
  That doesn't seem correct. Almost all of the projects installed on a standard Linux distro need funding. I just stopped applying to NLnet after getting nothing but rejections.

dbolgheroni 6mo ago

I don't think that cost is what is mostly driving the move from Windows nowadays.

Zetaphor 6mo ago

Are you implying that need for support would go away? If anything the demand would be artificially high at the start of a mass migration, and then presumably level out to something similar to what we see today with Windows. This is basically RHEL's entire business model.

mixmastamyk 6mo ago
Not a thing any longer, for the most part. People know how to open a browser on any operating system these days. Go to the menu, run it. Get bored and click the X on the top bar. Source: nearby kids. A few times I've said... "this is Cinnamon, or KDE, or... Windows." "Ok, whatever," (old man) is the response I get. And, you don't have to move 100% of their workflow in a single day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47730137 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47730137