who

If I wanted to do this, I think I would start by getting to know the IT staff. This would:

• Help me to understand the challenges they face in getting their work done: what’s problematic for them, what’s helpful, what skills they already have, etc. This would eventually guide me in how to approach suggesting changes with minimal friction.
• Make me a familiar person to them, and allow opportunities to build trust in my skills, knowledge, and judgment. If this is established before I ever suggest a change, it could avoid some of the doubt and resistance that would surely come if a stranger walked up and pushed for changes. I want to be a friend, not a foe.
• Potentially identify an ally within IT: Someone who might already want to make the switch (perhaps because they’re tired of Microsoft’s BS) or at least agree that it would make sense. An ally on the inside would not only make it easier to get others to seriously consider the change, but also potentially help gather information about how MS Office is currently being used so that I could prepare equivalent LibreOffice workflows for users who need them.

I suggest taking your time, and saving Linux for later so that it doesn’t create more friction against moving to LibreOffice.

Okay, what’s the biggest and most active gamer community on Matrix?

I don’t know, and don’t really care. I play games mostly with friends. Listening to a large chat room full of random people doesn’t appeal to me at all.

Regardless of social preferences, I think you’ll find that there is no Discord alternative with public chat rooms as big and active as Discord’s, nor will there be any time soon. The network effect is strong there.

Nevertheless, we can choose tools that serve us better, and invite others to join us when it’s practical. Ex-redditors have been doing this with Lemmy. Ex-Windows gamers have been doing this with Linux. Shifting away from an entrenched platform is usually slow and gradual, but not impossible.

I guess you haven’t checked recently, then. :)

https://element.io/blog/introducing-native-matrix-voip-with-element-call/

https://github.com/element-hq/element-call/blob/livekit/README.md

Mumble is great, but there are some things that people have come to expect from group chat services that it is not designed to do. For example, running in a web browser, persistent message history, and multi-device access to a single account. Adding such things would be no small amount of work, which is probably the main rason it hasn’t been done. (And, of course, the changes required would make the result incompatible with Mumble.)

Considering what exists today, I think Matrix has the best chance at becoming a Discord alternative. It already has a lot of the needed features. The new voice/video system (now in beta) looks very promising. And, of course, it also supports self-hosting and end-to-end encryption, both of which Discord lacks.