Money talks, we have a rather conservative government in Germany at the moment. But on the other hand, ideology aside sometimes open source really sucks. Office 2007/2010 is rather nice and stable, furthermore it's perfect while working with Statistica. There are many more applications not available in open source or just not good enough for a professional environment. Most people advocating open source are either administrators/developers or hobbyists, not even aware of the needs of different professions.
The servers of the German government are working on Linux, back office too. Some clients are working with Apple or Microsoft operating systems, sometimes lobbying is the cause, sometimes just a rather pragmatic view.
I'm working with UNIX operating systems since the early 90s. Sometimes I have to work with Microsoft or Apple systems, because there is no alternative or the alternative is of low quality. Personally I avoid OpenOffice and use LaTeX, but if I have to use something different, then I prefer Ms Office and it's plethora of possibilities to connect to different applications like e.g. Statistica. Heck, I even leave sometimes *BSD far behind, because it sucks in certain areas. This is a fact, not fiction. There is no room for ideology in a professional environment and most 'facts' are indeed ideology-driven, ignoring lots of the real needs.
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use UNIX or die :-)
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