RE: https://gruene.social/@Gerbsen/116052492129846084
Money transfer from the German Federal Administration to Microsoft:
2023: 274.091.361,75 Euro
2024: 347.665.579,71 Euro
2025: 481.369.660,77 Euro
(Source: German Parliament 21/4006 page 96 https://dserver.bundestag.de/btd/21/040/2104006.pdf )
Daniel asks what #FreeSoftware #OpenSource could have been procured and developed with such sums and how you feel about when you see those numbers. He also fears this trend will continue.
@kirschner @Gerbsen and if Germany would have spent that on free software the rest of the world could have saved also a lot of public money because that software would likely be also useful in other countries.
Też bym szukał alternatyw jakby mi opłaty stałe tak szybko rosły...
@kirschner I think it has no choice but to to continue unless there people are forced to switch. Otherwise they will naturally go with what they know.
The downside to open hardware is that I think it will always favor whoever has the most money despite ideas that it will produce innovation. At this point I think the only way to combat that would be for governments to give an equal amount of the MS costs to legitimate open source developers.
@kirschner Not to say that we should go back to closed system but tech monopolies have been allowed to go on to long. Ex: opening up the iPhone to other browsers will likely just add to the Chrome dominance which is worse than the Safari lock-in imo.
So, I think we just need to accept the only likely way to fight the dominance is money at this point.
@fds The problems with monopolies is also the reason why we are in front of the European Court of Justice against #Apple: https://fsfe.org/activities/apple-litigation/apple-litigation.en.html
What the actual Dickens??!!
@kirschner With 1T Euro you could build a lot of infrastructure, subsidize a lot of free/open software projects. It would not be an easy transition.
@kirschner ReactOS would've been finished AND caught up with Windows 11 in terms of compatibility :D
@kirschner A more visual representation of how #DigitalSovereignty is going:
@kirschner And Microsoft will obviously not lower their prices now they have the customer onboard in their system. When it is extremely difficult and costly for your customer to leave you can basically ask any price you want.
@kirschner Seeing this only as an open source /free software issue is missing the football, in my opinion. Most of that money won't be on software but on cloud services, servers and support. You may replace MS for open source versions but I doubt the costs would go down considerably and I am not sure how many companies would be able to step in at that level. The Government may have to do it by itself (which is possible, but would take time and serious investment).
@jesusmargar it is often the argument when dealing with monopolies that they are too big to be replaced by another company. That is exactly the problem, and you have to start implementing strategies so there can be more competition by splitting up different components.
@kirschner Jaw Dropping big number lol. The financial Markets is Shocked
@kirschner Whats all the payments for? They look more like covert donations in support of some dark agenda
Imagine the lies of all the open source projects if they got just a few pennies from all that money
Utterly ridiculous indeed... imaging the amount of software, infrastructure, knowledge and jobs this could have led to in Europe... time for change!
@kirschner Brilliant question to be asking. And lays bare the lie of "build versus by".
@kirschner
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227390419_Against_Intellectual_Monopoly
Supporting intellectual monopoly which includes the likes of Microsoft, is supporting externalities which have devastating consequences for society.
@kirschner that will be 1B in 2 years time, wow. It doubles every 2 years.
Und sie benennen nicht die telemetry data die Microsoft bekomen hat gratis und was verwendet und verkauft wird..
Genau, ein von die ursache das Denmark und Schlesswig-Holstein ihre behorden von Microsoft abholen und Open-source gehn.
Auch in Frankreich sind die 600K Gendarmerie schon auf open-source.
Die regierung had in 2024 ein open-source project gestarted und ab ende 2027 mussen 2.5 million beambten gewechselt haben. Source: https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/
@kirschner I figured it would be a big number but WTF!
