Comment on Criminal court ditches American software giant– Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?

• aprazeth@feddit.nl ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  Ah right right. Please do tell me, what university do you work for? In what field again?

  • Do you have experience in supporting researchers working under strict grant provisions that entail (at times) specific requirements in terms of data-format, reproducibility, output, methods, software used, etc.?
  • Do you have experience supporting environments where exams are given, and thus require highly locked down, monitored, reproducible, environments in the terms of hundreds if not thousands workplaces at, potentially, the drop of a hat? Even if exams are generally planned well in advance, there can be last minute alterations due to weather, incidents, etc.
  • Do you perhaps have experience supporting a piece of software that was used for research several decades ago, that interfaces with a piece of equipment that’s now old enough to vote and drink?
  • Have you ever had the conversation with a researcher where you had to tell them that due to privacy, technical or legal requirements you have to upgrade the software and thus pretty much set them back if not ruin their entire research?
  • Have you ever had to support thousands of students doing their research/study/course that requires HPC capabilities on a shoestring budget?
  • Have you ever had to have a conversation with an ISV and get them to provide intricate detail on all of their libraries/dependencies used because of legal/technical/moral requirements?

  So let me ask you again, is it really that easy to just “require all documents to be either odf or pdf?” in such an environment to achieve ehm… what was it again you wanted to achieve? Achieving some moral high-ground so that universities don’t use Microsoft’s format that is so entrenched in all of society, at all levels, companies and organizations and thus by not supporting/using it all of the students are put at risk of not being prepared for their future careers? Which is kind of the points people get an university degree.

  But sure, I’ll see if I can get it added to the agenda in the next all-hands IT meeting.

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  • Damage@feddit.it ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    The article is talking about officeware, so documents, file sharing, chat and e-mail. My comment was about documents specifically. I’m sorry if your work is frustrating, but as a non-academic, what am I supposed to do, except vote for candidates that promote education? That’s been my priority from when I was old enough to cast a ballot.
    Your university’s leadership failed you in the decades before today when they went for closed-source, foreign-controlled options. I cannot describe the stupidity of hosting research data on American services, a choice that to me points either to stupidity or bad faith.

    But the crux is still this: the best time to switch was the previous 30 years, the second best is now. Saying “we can’t do it!!” only lets the tumor grow and grow. Nobody’s expecting change overnight, what should be expected, though, is action.

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