So I would love if this would be the case (German gov using open soruce software) but tbh this reads like marketing bs to me, sorry. "Aims to transform public administration", "providing Germany’s public sector with a secure and open-source alternative". Yes, good. Nice. Cool. But are any government agencies are actually using it? I feel like if they wpild be they'd surely name them ...

[–] PoisonedPrisonPanda@discuss.tchncs.de -4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

they tried already using open source in several occasions for smaller administrative municipalities.

all failed and went back then, wasting loads of time and money. so for sure marketing gag

[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Are you sure?

Just about two weeks ago they launched OpenDesk.

https://www.digitale-verwaltung.de/SharedDocs/kurzmeldungen/Webs/DV/DE/2024/10_zendis.html

Element chat is integrated in this suite and is allready vastly used by the federal government, the army,...

I think no government anywhere else has embraced open source as much as Germany does.

The are building their sovereign cloud and different states, Schools, government departments, hospitals... are joining.

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/04/german-state-gov-ditching-windows-for-linux-30k-workers-migrating/#gsc.tab=0

They've put their money where their mout is by creating a sovereign tech fund.

https://www.sovereigntechfund.de/

They move slowly, as governments do, but they have a goal and a plan. It's not easy to switch and running contracts have to reach the end of their term but when these contracts are over the move will be huge.

[–] jlow@beehaw.org 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I'm really having high hopes of Schleswig Holstein doing of right (I'm also being prepared of these hopes being crushed 😸). A Swiss Linux podcast (Captain, It's Wednesday) did an interview with one of the politicians responsible for the project and it sounded like the looked at why these projects have failed in the past and are trying to learn from the mistakes:

https://gnulinux.ch/ciw085-podcast

[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

They started out with sort of a 'fail forward' approach where as German entities were encouraged to try and implement different types of open source software of OS'es. Those experiments have led to a broader understanding and in the meantime they funded the greater project that became OpenDesk.

This year they joined forced with the French government where the were doing the same sort of project with La Suite. The French and the German team joined in a 100 day sprint to deliver somewhere around September.

[–] jlow@beehaw.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

Oh, that sounds nice! I think it would be very smart of Europe to build their own (open-source) infrastructure just in case someone not reliable were to become US president ... Can't hurt to start preparing (better far to late than never ...)

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