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The state of Schleswig-Holstein is consistently relying on open source

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597 points doener | 4 comments | 07 Dec 25 13:21 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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input_sh ◴[07 Dec 25 14:30 UTC] No.46181911[source]▶
I hate when switches like these get advertised first and foremost as some huge cost-cutting measure, further solidifying open source ecosystem as some cheap knock-offs of their commercial alternatives.

How about instead you donate the same amount of money you would've paid to Microsoft anyways to fund open source projects you rely on? At least for one year, then drop it down to some arbitrary chosen percentage of that cost. That way you can still advertise it as a cost-cutting measure, and everyone would benefit.

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eloeffler ◴[07 Dec 25 14:46 UTC] No.46182025[source]▶
An alternative would be to create jobs for people that take on part of the development of used software. They would be a close connection between their organization and the Open Source project in question. Paying money to the project would be one way to go. Providing development resources another. Both would be best :)
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ghaff ◴[07 Dec 25 15:54 UTC] No.46182600[source]▶
That's very true in the case of private companies. I'm not sure to what degree employing developers who contribute to open source projects (probably for lower than private sector wages) works in the case of a lot of public sector entities.
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onion2k ◴[07 Dec 25 16:03 UTC] No.46182676[source]▶
Why would it make a difference? Offering developers a salary to contribute to an open source project is a good thing. Leave the developers to be free if they want to work for the offered amount.
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1. ghaff ◴[07 Dec 25 16:06 UTC] No.46182701[source]▶
There are often different incentives, constraints, and pay scales. Nothing against public organizations doing this obviously. Just don't see a lot of evidence that it works well in general.
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2. onraglanroad ◴[07 Dec 25 19:04 UTC] No.46184140[source]▶
Might work as part of a job guarantee scheme. Rather than being paid welfare benefits you can get more money by working on open source.

Edit: I mean from a society perspective you pay a tiny bit more for a real gain, without reducing labour from the private sector.

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3. hvb2 ◴[08 Dec 25 09:00 UTC] No.46190014[source]▶
The problem is that most of that work is not something anyone can pick up.

Regardless of the coding, one would first need to be familiar with git or VCS in general.

Also, you would want people to go back to normal jobs when they can. This would lead to short stints for all employees which I've always found to be one of the best predictors of bad outcomes

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4. onraglanroad ◴[08 Dec 25 15:53 UTC] No.46193734{3}[source]▶
Obviously it wouldn't work for everyone but for those who have an interest in computers it would be a nice option.

I was unemployed for a while in 2008 and I'd have loved it if I could have got paid minimum wage for working on open source rather than just getting jobseekers allowance and searching for jobs that didn't exist.

Plus I'd have learned some valuable skills that would help me find work anyway. And it would have increased the numbers of IT savvy workers. Seems like a win-win-win.