Open Source Won the Server. Can It Win the Desk? Ex-SUSE CTO shares his new plan
S01:E17

Open Source Won the Server. Can It Win the Desk? Ex-SUSE CTO shares his new plan

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Episode description

Open source won the server. It won the phone in your pocket. But it still hasn’t won the workplace: the documents, the spreadsheets, the slides.

Gerald Pfeifer has spent decades on the infrastructure side of that story. He has contributed to the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) for 29 years and has sat on its steering committee since 1999. Most recently he was CTO at SUSE and chair of the openSUSE Board. This summer he left to go after the desk, creating Open Productivity. It’s a new joint venture of six of the companies behind openDesk, offering a secure, sovereign, open-source alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

We discuss: – Why Linux and Kubernetes won by being better, not just by being open – Why there’s no such thing as “the open source community”, and what there is instead – How companies can engage with open-source projects without burning up on re-entry – Why Gerald brought in Collabora rather than building in-house at SUSE – How the shift to the browser changes the game for the desktop – Resilience, vendor lock-in, and the only kind of lock-in Gerald likes – Why he rates Collabora Online’s presentation editor well ahead of Microsoft 365 and Google Slides

Recorded shortly before Open Productivity’s launch. The website is now live: https://open-productivity.eu/en/home/

0:00Whatever you would get from Microsoft...
0:34Introduction: Gerald Pfeifer
1:20From a buggy C++ compiler to GCC
4:01Ideology, development model or getting stuff done?
5:41Why "the open source community" doesn't exist
7:22How companies should engage with open source projects
8:36Spacecraft re-entry: how not to approach a project
10:26COOL Days and meeting developers in person
12:29Why SUSE brought in Collabora rather than building in-house
16:09Open Productivity, openDesk and ZenDiS
16:59Building a brand-new company
18:05Germany, Europe or world domination?
19:12Who's interested?
20:09Why are companies still on Microsoft 365?
21:34Digital sovereignty brings new people to the table
22:36Why open source hasn't won the workplace yet
23:58How the browser changes the game for the Linux desktop
25:40Why should a medium-sized manufacturer care?
28:05The only kind of lock-in Gerald likes
29:01Better or open? How to sell Open Productivity
29:54Collabora Online vs Office 365 and Google Slides
30:14Launch plans and wrap-up