You can't have Sovereignty without Sovereign IT

I should work in advertising

Prost!

From long and very bitter experience these are the key issues that will prevent the plan.

If they have managed to move to Outlook365 (which is the logical move) then they may have a chance. But there is (still) no direct like for like desktop replacement.

Best of luck though.

"From long and very bitter experience these are the key issues that will prevent the plan."

Not really. Exchange of course is a pile of garbage, but most of today's non-Windows/non-Microsoft email/calendar applications can handle it, and have been able to do so for a while.

"If they have managed to move to Outlook365 (which is the logical move) "

What exactly makes you think that moving to Outlook 365 (which is what, Outlook in the browser?) the "logical move"? Especially when using MS365 has been found to be a breach of European data protection laws for EU institutions?

You also forget that the whole world doesn't use Exchange, MS365 or MS Office. For example, most of the U.S. tech sector relies on Google Workspace while hardly anyone cares for MS Office and Outlook.

And Google Workspace is just one of several alternatives, almost all of which are way more reliable than the infernal duo of Exchange and Outlook.

"then they may have a chance. But there is (still) no direct like for like desktop replacement."

That's only really the case where businesses have enslaved themselves to dodgy software solution which rely on MS Office/Outlook. Because as an email client, Outlook has been mostly unreliable shit for a long time, and that was before MS foisted it's latest crap shot called 'New Outlook' onto its users. And that's true even for most basic stuff like the shit search which often fails to find emails that are direct under its nose.

If you think Outlook is great, I shudder to think about what you'd consider 'poor' software.

But the problem of brown envelopes.

And as we know from [1]Bernie Ecclestone , even if caught, the penalty for his sort of behaviour in such jurisdictions, is to give more of the same to court.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-28656050

Considering the billions which are at stake, it could be a lot more than brown envelopes.

If one large organisation can make the successful transition then the rest of the world could follow suit, but as far as I'm aware no one has yet done this with desktops completely. I'm amazed that the NHS hasn't, considering their size.

If I was one of the key players in this transition I think I'd make it very clear that I've not been having any suicidal thoughts.

I mean if someone about to testify in a Boeing court case could suddenly succumb, then why not some German?

I'll take my tin-foil hat off now.

But seriously, next year *could* be the year of Linux on the desktop!?

Watch out for Windows.... those that open out onto a long drop. We have seen how opposition can be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

"If one large organisation can make the successful transition then the rest of the world could follow suit, but as far as I'm aware no one has yet done this with desktops completely. I'm amazed that the NHS hasn't, considering their size."

Really not sure why this is a cause for amazement! NHS big IT projects are often a failure, and in this case they would have to train millions of staff (many of whom have much more important things to be doing) in new systems.

They already have to train millions of staff, in the software that's running on the desktop. The actual operating system GUI isn't really all that different. It would be a huge undertaking of course, but it would save them huge amounts of money on licensing. Although I expect they know this and therefore get a pretty hefty discount.

But yeah, NHS big IT projects are often a failure. I worked on one 20 years ago (not my fault it failed).

However, surely they would save themselves hundreds of millions every year. That could pay for quite a big team of smart people who could surely figure a way of making it work.

Although I could imaging the headlines in the Daily Mail... "IT workers paid more than doctors to implement " bla bla bla.

Last time I was in an NHS hospital they were still using out of support windows 7 on many of their machines.

... and then they wonder why they get ransomware attacks!?

Could probably run a slim modern linux on the very same hardware. Perhaps not.

Any hardware happy running W7 should be fine with a 5.15 LTS based linux and that's good for a few years yet. 10 year hardware refresh cycles cause far less of an issue with Linux than MS.

If the NHS is already pulling staff from duty to train on MS software then the change in software is just that - a change. I'd expect that (like most) the employees just pick up MS as they go along, that and from using it in School/College which obtained cheap 'educational' licenses, aka getting the punters hooked early...

Now, if schools exposed pupils to different systems in an attempt to provide generic 'IT' and not just 'MS' then the training issue would largely go away over time, they're already using Android/IOS for most personal computing these days.

"Now, if schools exposed pupils to different systems in an attempt to provide generic 'IT' and not just 'MS' then the training issue would largely go away over time, they're already using Android/IOS for most personal computing these days."

Those same Android and iOS devices people are using for personal computing is what many, many schools are already using day to day because both have a large fleet management ecosystem in place and education devs are targetting both with their wares. Many schools have deployed Chromebooks and iPads to their staff and pupils across the U. I've been peripherally involved in a couple of massive rollouts of both, each of which numbered in the 10's of 1000's of devices.

Now let's see how long they resist the "economic incentives" to switch back.

I applaud their determination to embrace the paperless office. Because good luck getting Linux to print, Schleswig-Holsteiner/erinnen

"recently found that the European Commission's use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies."+

Yes, let's just switch over to App... no wait.. Goog... no wait...

"Hey, secretary, which European IT company actually delivers modern services?"

The answer is zero. EU regulators can cry all they want about "Microsoft not being GDPR compliant" but there's no real alternative alive today.

I imagine the userbase will be a challenge. Having worked with users, anything new that does not look and operate exactly like their previous gui will be classified as rubbish and blamed for anything that goes wrong. Most users will be very familiar with Outlook and the MS Office apps, and will not be keen to move away. Good luck to them with the project, and I hope they do succeed.

As if Windows and Office don't play "hide the function / button" with every version!

Leave the old codgers in the dark world of Microsoft.

That'll be the same users that complain and "can't do work" every time that MS changes and "upgrades" things, including entire look and feel, never mind swapping menu items around and relatively regular basis. Personally, I don't actually see a great deal of difference between switching from one GUI based OS to another and having a supposedly consistent GUI based OS changed from under me by updates and upgrades.

The main change should be making the use of libre office mandatory.

Then, find multi platform open source solutions for all the apps used. The active directory replacement is user transparent, nobody will notice it

Then, the move to Linux is not an issue, most people will easily adapt within a week

Upgrading to Open Source really isn't the huge leap it used to be : more like skipping over a few stepping stones.

"Computer operators" have got used to using other-than-Micro$oft offerings on their devices since 2007 and, if statistics are taken at face value, increasingly prefer to do so.

So all the buttons are perhaps in different places... so what?

They spend more time with focus groups of fashion designers than looking at how real people get real work done.

Comingsoon:a large Microsoft office opening in Schleswig-Holstein.