5 ms·

It reminds me http://xkcd.com/934/ http://xkcd.com/934/ for most simple users. What a government officer do at his/her workstation? They probably have every ser

by CSDude 12y ago

It reminds me http://xkcd.com/934/ http://xkcd.com/934/ for most simple users. What a government officer do at his/her workstation? They probably have every service through web pages, almost nobody builds native programs anymore. And for the most cases LibreOffice is not perfect, but adequate to do simple jobs. So it is very logical to use something free for these tasks, to replace Windows+Office and save money.

jeffgreco 12y ago
Heck, I'm impressed all the web software they use is compatible with something other than IE<8.
ams6110 12y ago
If (most) everyone is using LibreOffice that probably causes much fewer issues than a mixture of MS Office and LibreOffice.
brusch64 12y ago
I really wonder if LibreOffice is not totally adequate for the users in the city of Munich. I know that it has its problems if you want to use it with Word generated documents, and it obviously has problems with add-ons developed for Word. But I could really think that it works quite nice, if all your documents are generated for LibreOffice. I am using Open / LibreOffice since nearly 10 years exclusively at home and I don't have any problems using it - but my needs are VERY modest. Basically I am using it as an WYSIWYG typewriter.
- wirrbel 12y ago
  the only problem that I can think of is that of exchanging word documents over the "city lines".
- waps 12y ago
  I think this is really sad. As someone who went through university when the last wave of centralized unix died off, then the move to decentralized windows, and to decentralized linux (because they couldn't really figure it out mostly). I found that move to decentralization and the availability of compilers and tools and dev. environments and easy ways to get admin privileges, well I credit that with my learning how to code/admin/... and to my succes later in life. These computers, I've heard from a friend, are LOCKED down. As in, try to compile anything against a GUI library is a complete non-starter. Compiling anything under linux without root is almost impossible. Add to that that even the development environments that do exist on linux are ... well sorry to say but let's be honest here ... far inferior for learning to code and to writing simple games than the ones available on windows. Nobody's going to learn how to use computers, how to program and how to improve their situation on these linux machines. And that sucks. But hey, easier on the admins ! (not that it's anywhere near as bad as SAAS though)
  - datashaman 12y ago
    FUD. Try to get anything done in a Windows group policy environment. Same problem, different OS. The serious IDEs are (mostly) available on all platforms, except for Visual Studio (naturally). The machine is installed to be used by a regular user, why would you want it to be developer-friendly? Regular civil servants need to compile applications?
  - VMG 12y ago
    Creating a simple game on a Linux machine: nano awesomewebglgame.html
  - pjc50 12y ago
    Compiling anything under linux without root is almost impossible This is bizarre, and very much not true. If you have a C compiler and sufficient disk space you can build whatever you want in your home directory. It might take a while, but most things that use autoconf will accept `--prefix=/home/user/stuff/` and target that location. Not having a C compiler is rare as it tends to be deep in the requirements chain of other packages. For other languages, I believe Python is mandatory on Redhat and Perl on Debian, if you don't mind old versions.
- gburnett 12y ago
  I use LibreOffice in an environment where almost every other user uses Microsoft Office tools. I've had difficulty with some documents in the docx format. Most of the documents will turn out to be ok but when certain types of formatting are included problems start to appear. Most of the problems come from, I think, unnecessary features. For example a footer for the author's name on each page.
  - izacus 12y ago
    Really? A footer with a value from variable is "unnecessary" feature?
    - gburnett 12y ago
      In this case, yes. It was definitely unnecessary to remind me of the author's name on each page.
xorcist 12y ago
What a strange view of what a "government officer" does. If you include all civil servants (which the definition listed by wikipedia does) you will find police officers, national economists, sociologists, intelligence officers, surgeons, traders and many many more professionals there. All the specialists will of course require domain specific software. In anything involving economics or statistics you will probably find SAS or R, someone tasked with planning mobile spectrum would have GIS applications etc.
- nmrm 12y ago
  Yes, but for every person who needs specialized software to do their job, there are many who don't. For instance, even most police officers in the area where I live don't need special software. Some do, but most use a few web apps and java apps to do their paper work. It's like a non-tech mid-sized business, really. All the management and many of the employees don't need anything more than word processing. And then there are people in technical roles whose needs are served on an individual basis (or, in good environments, their manager is handed a budget and told "have you people get what they need")
- mimiflynn 12y ago
  In my time working for financial firms (~4 years), I can tell you that there are a lot of proprietary applications being developed with web technologies.
perlgeek 12y ago
The problem is usually interacting with other agencies; those don't have well-defined data formats for data interchange, instead they often work with forms in Word documents, and require the document to be edited with a very specific version of MS Word. Of course that makes interaction harder. The technical lead of the LiMux project told a story once about a German federal agency that required documents to be submitted in a very specific, unusual font that basically everybody had to buy first.
- RobAley 12y ago
  As you note, these requirements tend to be with specific versions of Word, and so libreoffice and co present no more of an impediment that using other/current versions of Word.
- chrisBob 12y ago
  I am sure that requirements like this aren't that unusual (the NIH requires grants to be submitted in one of 3 fonts), but an arbitrary rule shouldn't be confused with a compatibility issue.
andyjohnson0 12y ago
"...almost nobody builds native programs anymore." Outside of the HN echo chamber there are thousands of companies building native applications, which are used by millions of organisations around the world. Not everything is delivered via the web.

by CSDude 12y ago

jeffgreco 12y ago

Heck, I'm impressed all the web software they use is compatible with something other than IE<8.

ams6110 12y ago

If (most) everyone is using LibreOffice that probably causes much fewer issues than a mixture of MS Office and LibreOffice.

brusch64 12y ago

I really wonder if LibreOffice is not totally adequate for the users in the city of Munich. I know that it has its problems if you want to use it with Word generated documents, and it obviously has problems with add-ons developed for Word. But I could really think that it works quite nice, if all your documents are generated for LibreOffice. I am using Open / LibreOffice since nearly 10 years exclusively at home and I don't have any problems using it - but my needs are VERY modest. Basically I am using it as an WYSIWYG typewriter.

wirrbel 12y ago
the only problem that I can think of is that of exchanging word documents over the "city lines".
waps 12y ago
I think this is really sad. As someone who went through university when the last wave of centralized unix died off, then the move to decentralized windows, and to decentralized linux (because they couldn't really figure it out mostly). I found that move to decentralization and the availability of compilers and tools and dev. environments and easy ways to get admin privileges, well I credit that with my learning how to code/admin/... and to my succes later in life. These computers, I've heard from a friend, are LOCKED down. As in, try to compile anything against a GUI library is a complete non-starter. Compiling anything under linux without root is almost impossible. Add to that that even the development environments that do exist on linux are ... well sorry to say but let's be honest here ... far inferior for learning to code and to writing simple games than the ones available on windows. Nobody's going to learn how to use computers, how to program and how to improve their situation on these linux machines. And that sucks. But hey, easier on the admins ! (not that it's anywhere near as bad as SAAS though)
- datashaman 12y ago
  FUD. Try to get anything done in a Windows group policy environment. Same problem, different OS. The serious IDEs are (mostly) available on all platforms, except for Visual Studio (naturally). The machine is installed to be used by a regular user, why would you want it to be developer-friendly? Regular civil servants need to compile applications?
- VMG 12y ago
  Creating a simple game on a Linux machine: nano awesomewebglgame.html
- pjc50 12y ago
  Compiling anything under linux without root is almost impossible This is bizarre, and very much not true. If you have a C compiler and sufficient disk space you can build whatever you want in your home directory. It might take a while, but most things that use autoconf will accept `--prefix=/home/user/stuff/` and target that location. Not having a C compiler is rare as it tends to be deep in the requirements chain of other packages. For other languages, I believe Python is mandatory on Redhat and Perl on Debian, if you don't mind old versions.
gburnett 12y ago
I use LibreOffice in an environment where almost every other user uses Microsoft Office tools. I've had difficulty with some documents in the docx format. Most of the documents will turn out to be ok but when certain types of formatting are included problems start to appear. Most of the problems come from, I think, unnecessary features. For example a footer for the author's name on each page.
- izacus 12y ago
  Really? A footer with a value from variable is "unnecessary" feature?
  - gburnett 12y ago
    In this case, yes. It was definitely unnecessary to remind me of the author's name on each page.

xorcist 12y ago

What a strange view of what a "government officer" does. If you include all civil servants (which the definition listed by wikipedia does) you will find police officers, national economists, sociologists, intelligence officers, surgeons, traders and many many more professionals there. All the specialists will of course require domain specific software. In anything involving economics or statistics you will probably find SAS or R, someone tasked with planning mobile spectrum would have GIS applications etc.

nmrm 12y ago
Yes, but for every person who needs specialized software to do their job, there are many who don't. For instance, even most police officers in the area where I live don't need special software. Some do, but most use a few web apps and java apps to do their paper work. It's like a non-tech mid-sized business, really. All the management and many of the employees don't need anything more than word processing. And then there are people in technical roles whose needs are served on an individual basis (or, in good environments, their manager is handed a budget and told "have you people get what they need")
mimiflynn 12y ago
In my time working for financial firms (~4 years), I can tell you that there are a lot of proprietary applications being developed with web technologies.

perlgeek 12y ago

The problem is usually interacting with other agencies; those don't have well-defined data formats for data interchange, instead they often work with forms in Word documents, and require the document to be edited with a very specific version of MS Word. Of course that makes interaction harder. The technical lead of the LiMux project told a story once about a German federal agency that required documents to be submitted in a very specific, unusual font that basically everybody had to buy first.

RobAley 12y ago
As you note, these requirements tend to be with specific versions of Word, and so libreoffice and co present no more of an impediment that using other/current versions of Word.
chrisBob 12y ago
I am sure that requirements like this aren't that unusual (the NIH requires grants to be submitted in one of 3 fonts), but an arbitrary rule shouldn't be confused with a compatibility issue.

andyjohnson0 12y ago

"...almost nobody builds native programs anymore." Outside of the HN echo chamber there are thousands of companies building native applications, which are used by millions of organisations around the world. Not everything is delivered via the web.