I want to push my city council to use libre office
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If your office uses Excel your idea is fucked.
Again, I specifically want to leave the power users alone, but my experience in business/industry is that 90% of folks with Excel on their machine don't even know how to write a function. There's no sense paying lavish amounts of cash for those particular people to have Excel when LibreOffice will likely suit their needs.
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Again, I specifically want to leave the power users alone, but my experience in business/industry is that 90% of folks with Excel on their machine don't even know how to write a function. There's no sense paying lavish amounts of cash for those particular people to have Excel when LibreOffice will likely suit their needs.
Valid point. Good luck with your journey!
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My city has a budget shortfall of $400,000 and they're looking at cutting firefighter positions, arts funding, and parks funding to make up the shortfall. They also, incidentally, spent over $400,000 on just Microsoft office licenses last year, which doubled in cost from the previous year. My goal is to fix the budget shortfall, or at least take a big bite out of it, by switching all users who can't specify what advanced (see: VBA) features they use from MS Office onto LibreOffice, since it provides all the same basic functionality and interoperable file formats. As a stretch goal, I'd love to persuade them to get on Linux, but that might be a bridge too far for most folks at the city.
Does anyone have any advice to help me persuade the city to cut bullshit MS office licenses instead of firefighters? The city does have an IT dept that I've considered reaching out to, but I'm worried that they may fight that proposal because:
A. I hear that MS lobbies city IT relentlessly
B. They may not have the capacity to do the switch.
As for Linux, I'd love to get the machines that are W10 dependent switched to Linux, but that feels like a big reach. People tend to have a "NERD!" reaction to Linux, like mentioning tabletop gaming.
$10 says the cops got a budget increase though
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$10 says the cops got a budget increase though
wrote last edited by [email protected]Nah, the cops are losing some positions too. Our council is pretty good compared to some others, (and, honestly, our PD is pretty good too. They've worked really hard to keep a good working relationship with the community) but they're definitely hitting a bunch of stuff that nobody wants to see cut either. It's pain across the board. I guess if we have to make cuts, that's how to make them, but I'd like it if Microsoft took one for the team too, here.
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Is LibreOffice calc much worse? And, again, I feel that most users of office suite software are fairly basic users. I want to specifically leave MS Office power users alone, let them keep their licenses, but if people are just using the basic features, there's no reason for us to be paying outrageous amounts for MS Office licenses for them. Yeah, I'm aware that this is going to increase the load on the IT dept, but I'm hoping that the targeted user base are basic enough users that they can be onboard with an orientation video for most cases.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Most users of word & powerpoint are fairly basic users, but if you're using excel for work then there's a surprisingly high likelyhood you're using a sheet written by a wizard with arcane skills in it with the number of VB macros, pivot tables, and things most people don't even know exist.
Even if you're just a user and not creating them, and their functionality would better work in a dedicated program or a database, chances are it'd still break unless you're very lucky.
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Most users of word & powerpoint are fairly basic users, but if you're using excel for work then there's a surprisingly high likelyhood you're using a sheet written by a wizard with arcane skills in it with the number of VB macros, pivot tables, and things most people don't even know exist.
Even if you're just a user and not creating them, and their functionality would better work in a dedicated program or a database, chances are it'd still break unless you're very lucky.
Oh, yikes, that's problematic. I was afraid of that. It really doesn't feel good to look at that and say "and therefore, sorry firefighters, we need to pay Microsoft half a million a year to let us have Excel", but I guess I get it.
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Again, I specifically want to leave the power users alone, but my experience in business/industry is that 90% of folks with Excel on their machine don't even know how to write a function. There's no sense paying lavish amounts of cash for those particular people to have Excel when LibreOffice will likely suit their needs.
Honestly even most Excel users would be fine transitioning to LibreOffice Calc. I was very impressed with how most of my spreadsheets just worked on recent Calc versions. Formulas and charts were mostly all fine. Even pivot tables worked. I had one formula that had to be changed (it was specific to Excel, but there was an equivalent option in Calc), and one external data pull that I had to figure out. That was across 4 pretty involved spreadsheets.
The main problem will be users who are so ingrained with the specifics of navigation that they can't easily adapt to a new menu system. The same happened when Microsoft changed from the old toolbars to the ribbon. And that will be an issue across all the apps.
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Oh, yikes, that's problematic. I was afraid of that. It really doesn't feel good to look at that and say "and therefore, sorry firefighters, we need to pay Microsoft half a million a year to let us have Excel", but I guess I get it.
Yeah, it's a classic of locking you in and hiking up the prices, and the people capable of porting those sheets are probably way too overworked dealing with supporting the vast majority who have no idea how they work to spend time on it (or getting fired by Elon for not doing anything while being the single block that supports the tower)
It sucks, but I wouldn't give up on trying to get them to convert, just be aware that it's very possible that this will be one of the biggest technical (as opposed to administrative) blocks.
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My city has a budget shortfall of $400,000 and they're looking at cutting firefighter positions, arts funding, and parks funding to make up the shortfall. They also, incidentally, spent over $400,000 on just Microsoft office licenses last year, which doubled in cost from the previous year. My goal is to fix the budget shortfall, or at least take a big bite out of it, by switching all users who can't specify what advanced (see: VBA) features they use from MS Office onto LibreOffice, since it provides all the same basic functionality and interoperable file formats. As a stretch goal, I'd love to persuade them to get on Linux, but that might be a bridge too far for most folks at the city.
Does anyone have any advice to help me persuade the city to cut bullshit MS office licenses instead of firefighters? The city does have an IT dept that I've considered reaching out to, but I'm worried that they may fight that proposal because:
A. I hear that MS lobbies city IT relentlessly
B. They may not have the capacity to do the switch.
As for Linux, I'd love to get the machines that are W10 dependent switched to Linux, but that feels like a big reach. People tend to have a "NERD!" reaction to Linux, like mentioning tabletop gaming.
Follow up: I called the IT dept and spoke with them. Apparently they already get the "low cost" licenses with Microsoft for users who don't need access to office (which is the overwhelming majority of them) and just basically get them an email address. The cost increase is really down to the city having added more staff, which means more licenses, since they've got a fixed rate contract locked in with MS. It sounds like moving non-power-users into LibreOffice would have negligible benefit and cause more disruption than not. Ah, well, swing and a miss. Thanks for the support, everyone!
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If I wanted to do this, I think I would start by getting to know the IT staff. This would:
- Help me to understand the challenges they face in getting their work done: what's problematic for them, what's helpful, what skills they already have, etc. This would eventually guide me in how to approach suggesting changes with minimal friction.
- Make me a familiar person to them, and allow opportunities to build trust in my skills, knowledge, and judgment. If this is established before I ever suggest a change, it could avoid some of the doubt and resistance that would surely come if a stranger walked up and pushed for changes. I want to be a friend, not a foe.
- Potentially identify an ally within IT: Someone who might already want to make the switch (perhaps because they're tired of Microsoft's BS) or at least agree that it would make sense. An ally on the inside would not only make it easier to get others to seriously consider the change, but also potentially help gather information about how MS Office is currently being used so that I could prepare equivalent LibreOffice workflows for users who need them.
I suggest taking your time, and saving Linux for later so that it doesn't create more friction against moving to LibreOffice.
Just wanted to say that I took your advice, and posted an update to this thread. It turns out that moving to LibreOffice would have virtually no benefit in any regard whatever according to the city IT manager. Thanks for the advice!