Post by @fasnix
@bms@bsd.cafe @schymans@mastodon.social @dangillmor@mastodon.social
I would like to point out two important things:
-
Important for the workflows of many companies and orgs alike: MS products are perfectly "speaking" to each other.
For example:
Create a meeting in Outlook Calendar, automatically mail invitations to participants, incl. links to conferences in Teams.
Which (independent from each other!) F(L)OSS products are connected on that level?
Or is there a comparable OpenSource software suite that offers that functionality? -
Ask blind users, if they could use any Linux or BSD with their assistive technology.
Unfortunatel, the most likely answer is "No".
It's easy to state that "Nobody has to use Windows", without specifying and addressing individual needs.
@fasnix @bms @schymans @dangillmor
Part of the problem is that Microsoft achieves that level of integration by leveraging their market power and proprietary protocols. There are viable alternatives (nextcloud for instance), but they require a bit of technical know how and could do with better marketing.
@tomdoehler @fasnix @bms @dangillmor Of course, MS is leveraging everything they can, incl. lobbying power, to make us and particularly companies as dependent on their services as possible. This is probably the fundamental difference to any non-profit foundations, e.g. The Document Foundation. There are lots of free FOSS alternatives to MS out there, but of course they are not advertising aggressively, so it is up to us to go and find them. Other than that, they are as user-friendly as MS.
@schymans @fasnix @bms @dangillmor Well said, could not agree more. The problem is - how do we educate non-profits to not buy into vendor lock-in in the first place?
@tomdoehler @fasnix @bms @dangillmor I think pointing to free, as in #FOSS alternatives whenever we complain about the many lock-in and dependence traps set out by #microsoft , #Apple and the likes would be a good start.
@schymans @fasnix @bms @dangillmor Thanks for sharing, a few alternatives here that I did not know about!
@fasnix @bms @dangillmor I have been using Linux professionally and almost exclusively since 2011, and I did not miss any MS functionality. My current employer switched to MS for calendars etc. a few years ago, but privately, I use nextcloud and the functionality you mentioned is all there, or even in local email clients like Thunderbird. Nextcloud has loads of functionality I haven't explored yet.
@fasnix @bms @schymans @dangillmor
Nextcloud can do 1.: https://docs.nextcloud.com/server/stable/user_manual/en/talk/calendar_integration.html
For 2. I hear that most blind users strongly recommend Debian, as they actually care about accessibility.
If you are not encumbered by legacy applications, then there is no inherent problem in switching to open solutions. Many large organizations have already demonstrated that.
@fasnix @bms @schymans @dangillmor Disabled users do still struggle, KDE and GNOME are making some progress on Wayland, but for some things disabled users need to stick to the likes of Accessible Coconut, which runs on Ubuntu MATE, because MATE offers the most comprehensive accessibility features as of yet.