In Brazil we have tiny native bees that don't sting. They make wax tunnels and the colonies grow very very slowly. I've been watching one for 20 years and it doesn't even seem to have doubled in size. They have suffered a lot with deforestation.

Arm came from Acorn and Acorn did make the first ARM CPUs for their computers, so it's not really the first time they do this.

They made the Morello research CPUs, but did not sell them.

The Acorn/Arm history is somewhat complicated due to the Arm IPO, I think.

One can split hairs about the corporate responsibility, but I personally bought a VLSI ARM chip in the 90s. VLSI were one of the original 3 partners (along with Apple and Acorn) who owned the newly formed ARM corp and were the first to produce them (for Apple).

Well known running code has more weight than unknown code that may not run. I think it’s pointless.

Unless the repository uses GitHub's CI. Then it's extremely useful, could be used as RL environment.

In 1998 I was using a P166MMX with 64MB of RAM that I had bought in 1995 for my Master's.

It makes much more sense to me to be cheap on the CPU and splurge on RAM.

So I don't see why I would want to upgrade that CPU and keep the 32MB of RAM.

Retail SDR SDRAM prices from that time period.

"128MB DIMM: May 1997 $300. July 1998 $150. July 1999 $99. September 1999 Jiji earthquake happens. September-December 1999 $300. May 2000 $89.

Then overproduction combined with dot-com boom liquidations started flooding the market and Feb 2001 $59, by Aug 2001 _256MB_ module was $49. Feb 2002 256MB $34. Finally April 2003 hit the absolute bottom with $39 _512MB_ DIMMs"

Ram was expensive and unpredictable so no wonder eMachines didnt include that in the offer. By 2001 you could upgrade ram on the cheap yourself which many attempted https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/memory-for-an-e-machine...

The market can remain irrational longer than the capacitors on my motherboard can resist bloating.

I find their music repetitive. I could certainly listen to one or two songs, but not a whole album or show. And I would have no qualms wearing a T-shirt of theirs.

So there you have it.

1. A lot of people aren't even aware of the alternatives;

2. There is a lot of backlash from people afraid to learn new things;

3. Even in IT departments, people who are used to administering MS networks will fight against it;

4. Does LibreOffice have a marketing department?

I wholeheartedly agree that governments should not only use Linux/LibreOffice in their bureaucracies, but that they should also finance and promote it, especially in peripheral economies.

I think OP's point is that certain government agencies have already transitioned or are in the process of transitioning. As such it would make sense for them to fund LibreOffice, given that they now depend on it.

In my country, the government would have to get something in return (support would be the most obvious channel).

LibreOffice has some obvious disadvantages: it does not have an office in my country, it does not offer support, and it does not lobby the government.

Previous efforts to push more OSS into government were obliterated by right-wing governments. You can guess why.

My dad used to joke that "[Citroen] 2CVs and farts, only the owner enjoys".

Exactly. I like my own farts and I don't mind that everyone else thinks it stinks.

I find the title not very well thought through, because smelling your own farts is unlikely to lead to change.

He was supposed to die last year, but death took a while to muster the courage to call him.

Death once had a near-Chuck experience

It is for us, the average user doesn't understand that.