Post Av5cdWrGh9jkHASGfo by jwcph@helvede.net
(DIR) More posts by jwcph@helvede.net
(DIR) Post #Av5Q6u3SEO0FDEpb8K by gcluley@mastodon.green
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Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Government is phasing out its use of Microsoft Office.. to switch to open source alternatives like LibreOffice instead.Why? Because relying too heavily on a US tech giant for your nation’s digital infrastructure is starting to feel a bit... well, risky.Denmark's relationship with the US is under strain, following Donald Trump's clearly stated ambition to seize control of Greenland, and recent reports of increased spying by the States on Greenland and Denmark.
(DIR) Post #Av5Q8bA9RSkVCPlveK by gcluley@mastodon.green
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You can't blame Denmark for being concerned. Its government's sensitive data is nestled deep within a proprietary cloud on another country. One that is being less than friendly to you. It seems fair to ask - is this sensible?Ultimately it's a question of cost, trust, national security, and digital resilience. I would be surprised if more countries weren't considering a similar move.More info: https://www.thelocal.dk/20250610/why-denmark-wants-to-cut-use-of-microsoft-products-at-key-ministry
(DIR) Post #Av5Tby8lOGl2iuorqa by bontchev@infosec.exchange
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@gcluley At some point of time our government (Bulgaria) was talking about using only open source software on government computers. Dunno what happened with that.I'm no fan of Microsoft, as you know perfectly well but compared to MS Office, LibreOffice is a clunky piece of crap.I've been using Impress instead of PowerPoint for several years already, and while unpleasant, it is at least usable.I've used occasionally Calc instead of Excel, and it is inferior crap, but I don't use Excel professionally, so it mostly does the job for me.Writer, however, is absolute, total crap. I would never be able to use it instead of Word.
(DIR) Post #Av5YUPsUsVrACjQevI by mxe@hessen.social
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@gcluley years ago the #E.U. shared the concerns about #Microsoft and … found a compromise
(DIR) Post #Av5Zf4e4GG6fUYKFNo by stux@mstdn.social
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@gcluley YEAH! 💪 Last weekend, I was talking with someone working at a bank in IT and he kept presisting that LibreOffice wasn't good enough lol..There are plenty of alternatives, with a little investment they could make it work but i have a feeling they dont want to..
(DIR) Post #Av5aRaOTWYw1rGAGh6 by geoffl@mastodon.me.uk
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@gcluley LibreOffice conference this year chose Hungary as the host."...Other prominent rights concerns in Hungary include ongoing unlawful pushbacks of migrants and asylum seekers at Hungary’s border with Serbia, and discrimination against and demonization of LGBT people, women and girls, and minority groups."https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/hungary
(DIR) Post #Av5cMHxKqcPP8Q4WDQ by ingenieur@mas.to
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@gcluley @stux I never understood how governments use such tools anyway.
(DIR) Post #Av5cdWrGh9jkHASGfo by jwcph@helvede.net
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@gcluley - and yet somehow our politicians found it reasonable to *allow US military bases on our soil!*…
(DIR) Post #Av5ePGJ9dDGangp68G by radiofreeme@mastodon.social
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@gcluley I don't blame Denmark at all, and would encourage the move regardless. Microsoft Office needs to be pried away from the de facto standard ... this should have happened 20 years ago.Adjacent conversation, but I can promise that if my country (US) attacks Greenland or Denmark or anyone like it's being feared could happen, the rioting will make LA in the 90s look like Disneyland.
(DIR) Post #Av5es9xqIQzhWWdNho by catavz@mastodon.social
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@gcluley What operating system will the Danish government use the Libreoffice suite on? Let me guess: Windows.😱
(DIR) Post #Av5ftrg1MLl9L6fvKC by gcluley@mastodon.green
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@catavz Reportedly they're also pushing ahead with a switch to Linux...https://uk.pcmag.com/office-suites/158570/denmark-wants-to-dump-microsoft-software-for-linux-libreoffice
(DIR) Post #Av5gAmWjl8dAI5OozY by catavz@mastodon.social
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@gcluley I hope they don't choose Redhat/Fedora. 😉
(DIR) Post #Av5jJbZu8VIKnmmPPk by Npars01@mstdn.social
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@gcluley Business with several US tech companies are risky because of how their investment practices impact the direction of their software development.Embedding unwanted AI spyware like Recall or CoPilot, for example, with no method to shut it off.https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/14/trump-ceos-lunch-saudi-arabia.htmlhttps://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-google-hand-dissident-data-to-saudi-arabia-activists-say-2023-7https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/05/13/trump-tech-execs-riyadh/https://fortune.com/2024/01/08/amazon-microsoft-google-opening-saudi-arabia-hqs/https://mei.edu/publications/beyond-oil-googles-big-bet-saudi-arabias-ai-futurehttps://www.ainvest.com/news/palantir-soars-government-deals-google-partnership-valuation-concerns-2504/https://www.tipranks.com/news/openai-eyes-saudi-and-indian-tycoons-in-40b-mega-funding-push
(DIR) Post #Av5jKQRr0C9sZaPCRk by nobodywasishere@veganism.social
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@gcluley Please stop generating and / or spreading AI generated imagery
(DIR) Post #Av5lVvNkWzbPbe62ts by saja0486@mas.to
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@gcluley Smart
(DIR) Post #Av5saUjBl2AU4CFbsG by pythno@mastodon.gamedev.place
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@gcluley Beautiful. I hope they also donate some money to the devs.
(DIR) Post #Av5vvUPmPsNh2VsKQa by CollaboratoryScience@mastodon.social
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@gcluley Bigly, if true.
(DIR) Post #Av5xOsSsB7Udystnt2 by prefec2@norden.social
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@gcluley the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany is moving in the same direction for a couple of years now. And for two reasons. Take back control and save a lot of money.
(DIR) Post #Av5zxLmPtJyAeebdtw by juhele@cztwitter.cz
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@gcluley To be honest, if EU invested in @libreoffice even a small fraction of money spent on MS Office licenses, all the member countries could have a great office suite - possibly also with custom improvements.
(DIR) Post #Av60gOhLt6TCjkiXGy by f4grx@chaos.social
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@gcluley fuck ai illustrations.
(DIR) Post #Av61qhY8klp03NsyoK by jcfarris@infosec.exchange
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@gcluley I think part of the problem is that a freaking Word Processor is now critical infrastrucutre that can be turned off at a despot's notice. Back in my day, we downloaded Word on floppies and didn't have to worry about getting sanctioned for offending our political leaders.
(DIR) Post #Av6EpVUBQ5AtkjnODo by SpaceLifeForm@infosec.exchange
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@gcluley As I mentioned yesterday, today is a good day to start using free software.#FOSS
(DIR) Post #Av7A9ajjImVVDUmjcO by gcluley@mastodon.green
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@nobodywasishere Hi Margret. You're right. Thank you for your feedback, it was an error of judgement. I will think more carefully about my usage of AI-generated content in future.
(DIR) Post #Av7AFINIU2u60R0ong by juhele@cztwitter.cz
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@bontchev @gcluley The only issue with LibreOffice is that all the people are comparing it with the MS Office - product, where the only developer - Microsoft - even fails with maintaining the backward compatibility with its own proprietary formats. It is very embarrassing that some Word and Excel files open better in LibreOffice than in another version of Word/Excel.
(DIR) Post #Av7AFIuySpqHgsliIC by bontchev@infosec.exchange
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@juhele @gcluley Well, that's an important issue for people who are switching from MS Office to LibreOffice. For me, who has used MS Office for decades, some parts of LibreOffice (especially Writer) are awful in comparison. Maybe it's adequate for people who haven't known anything else - but in this case we're talking about the Danish government switching from MS Office to LibreOffice, right?
(DIR) Post #Av7AFJU4MLunRjBjzk by juhele@cztwitter.cz
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@bontchev @gcluley That's mostly and issue for people using various MS Office versions (not everyone is paying for newest MSO 365). If you are not using macros (definitely not recommended for IT security) then there are just few things which might complicate your work. BTW take in account that the ISO standard is the OpenDocument file and not proprietary DOCX where Microsoft introduced several proprietary and "blackbox" features.
(DIR) Post #Av7AFJsWtPTsfadH7Y by bontchev@infosec.exchange
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@juhele @gcluley I'm using Office 2002. I couldn't stand the change they made in the newer versions - that stupid bar thing at the top.Graham, if he's still reading this thread, is probably laughing his ass off that somebody is lecturing *me* about macros.Users don't give a shit about OpenDocument or OLE2 or whatever document standard or blackbox features - they only care if and how well the product works.
(DIR) Post #Av7AFKJTHF2219En7A by gcluley@mastodon.green
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@bontchev @juhele If anyone can consider themselves holder of all knowledge about macros, it's you Vess!