this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
135 points (94.7% liked)
Technology
59404 readers
3901 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each another!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
Approved Bots
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Does Libre Office run on Swintec typewriters?
Because the issue is they're not even allowed a PC, the budget only allows typewriters.
They even point out in the article that a new Swintec technically costs more than a new, crummy laptop.
They're promoting new legislation to allow the libraries to allow modern equipment and not just typewriters.
Further, since it's a Correctional Facility library, there's gonna be strict controls and even if they wanted Libre Office instead of Microsoft Office they would have to put in a formal request for it and then have various security teams deciding whether it was safe to use or not, even though it is technically free. I mean, that goes for pretty much any government job or corporate job, too. They don't usually let people install whatever they want on government or corporate networks.
The thin clients should be capable of running LibreOffice, or at least running it remotely.
Have you ever worked in a corporation or in government? Even moreso, have you ever worked at a secured facility of any type?
You don't just get to install whatever the fuck you want on machines, you know? They have to go through a process, and since this is a government organization, if the law doesn't allow them to install something like that on a thin client, it's kind of pointless to reference.
I've worked a shitty corporate job where I basically had no power and I had to get approval from a couple different teams for something like Microsoft PowerToys, which is free and made by Microsoft.
Yes, I literally am a government employee, and formerly worked in the military in Radio Comms and IT, often with Top Secret communications and infrastructure . I am intimately familiar with government procedures and limitations.
I never said that end-users would be setting up LibreOffice. I'm just pointing out there's a low/no-cost solution, and it isn't a hardware limitation.