Switching From Microsoft Office To LibreOffice Saves Toulouse 1 Million Euros 296
jrepin sends this EU report:
The French city of Toulouse saved 1 million euro by migrating all its desktops from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. This project was rooted in a global digital policy which positions free software as a driver of local economic development and employment. Former IT policy-maker Erwane Monthubert said, "Software licenses for productivity suites cost Toulouse 1.8 million euro every three years. Migration cost us about 800,000 euro, due partly to some developments. One million euro has actually been saved in the first three years. It is a compelling proof in the actual context of local public finance. ... France has a high value in free software at the international level. Every decision-maker should know this."
Good to hear (Score:3, Informative)
The French police seem to have had a good amount of success as well: http://www.zdnet.com/french-po... [zdnet.com]
There are probably always going to be use cases for the majority of users to be fine with Open or Libre office. Some specialized functionality in finance might merit excel. There is nothing I've found on Linux that easily replaces Visio or Project ( libre-project is fine for reading, but I've had many issues with creating them). It's what I use at home (lubuntu). At work, I do have to say I prefer Outlook/Exchange for integrated mail and calendar, but I could probably live without Word/Excel/PPT.
Here's to hoping Libreoffice and the other forks can continue to expand and refine their software.
Re:Good to hear (Score:4, Informative)
Most of what I've ever had to use it for was pretty simple so genuinely asking here; is Dia [sourceforge.net] not a good Visio replacement? Are there features in Visio that make it more attractive for even simple stuff or is it that Visio has advanced features that haven't been replicated elsewhere?
Re:And... (Score:3, Informative)
Regarding point 1, I think users are relieved that there is no fscking ribbons in LibreOffice which makes it much easier to transition...
Re:And... (Score:5, Informative)
Well, if you read TFA (no, I'm not new here) they have a sidebar call out that answers your question...
"Software licenses for productivity suites cost Toulouse 1.8 million euro every three years. Migration cost us about 800,000 euro, due partly to some developments. One million euro has actually been saved in the first three years. It is a compelling proof in the actual context of local public finance," says Monthubert.
So about 8K in migration costs vs. 18K in licensing. Assuming another 2-3K of unforeseen support over training issues or missing features that haven't been caught yet it should be a significant savings. And if you factor in the migration cost as a one time payment and assume support costs go down over time as people get used to the new system than the savings become very large indeed after the three years cited in the article.
Re:And... (Score:2, Informative)
In my small company, we all use Linux on the desktop.
I really see no reason for using MS Office if you're a small company.
However, for large companies, collaboration tools, internationalization of documents, corporate-wide style hints, advanced spreadsheet macros, shareable diagram objects, integrated calendars, meeting room tracking, distribution policy enforcement, etc. are important, and just aren't quite there on most of the alternatives. Google Docs does a reasonable job at some of that, but not all.