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A German state is ditching Windows and Microsoft Office for Linux and LibreOffice on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions (www.theregister.com)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Schleswig-Holstein, Germany's most northern state, is starting its switch from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice, and is planning to move from Windows to Linux on the 30,000 PCs it uses for local government functions.

Concerns over data security are also front and center in the Minister-President's statement, especially data that may make its way to other countries. Back in 2021, when the transition plans were first being drawn up, the hardware requirements for Windows 11 were also mentioned as a reason to move away from Microsoft.

Saunders noted that "the reasons for switching to Linux and LibreOffice are different today. Back when LiMux started, it was mostly seen as a way to save money. Now the focus is far more on data protection, privacy and security. Consider that the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) recently found that the European Commission's use of Microsoft 365 breaches data protection law for EU institutions and bodies."

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

Why is that image even there? It's not in the original article unless my adblocker is removing it for some reason.

EDIT: before anyone states the obvious, yes, I know how OG metatags work. What I'm asking is why would they chose that particular image, with the penguins and all, to accompany an article like that, and not, say, just a regular stock image of a German city?

Even stranger, the filename in the URL implies that this was potentially even intended: https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/04/04/shutterstock_kiel.jpg Almost makes me wonder if some intern put an AI image there for shits and giggles to see if anyone notices.

Finally, where exactly do you see any Nazi flags? All I can see is a red, white, and black livery, which ARE the colors that the Nazis used, but not in that arrangement. There are no swastikas anywhere (as far as I can see), so it seems as if this rather the flag of the German Empire, which also used the same colors, but predates the Nazis by a good 60 years.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)

A stock image of Kiel is really not out of place for an article about Schleswig-Holstein, it being our capital and all. It's also a fleet base. And you can find vaguely similar towers there.

What doesn't make sense is the rest: The penguins, the what galleons I think with Imperial livery, Schwarz-Rot-Gold in combination with Imperial livery, what looks like a Lübeck flag (of all cities!) but rotated, and whatever the other flag is supposed to be. This is Kiel's flag, for reference. Oh: Half-timbered houses. Those look like copy+pasted out of Swabia or something.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Okay but the penguins do make sense, right? Penguins are like the mascot of linux

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Penguin, singular. Also none of them are fat and content enough to be Tux but fair point, that's probably how they ended up there.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Its a meta property in the HTML. Viisible to software, but not shown in the article.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Afaik, it was the flag of the Third Reich from 1933 to 1935 (so before the Swastika flag).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago

It's actually way older. It appeared first as official flag in 1867 for the north German federation, was adopted in 1871 to be the flag of the German Empire and was no longer in official use in1919 (albeit nationalist groups kept using it).

After that, you're right.

More Info here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_German_Empire