(Photo illustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images)
A government ministry in Denmark is preparing to phase out Microsoft software and switch to the open-source Linux and LibreOffice.
The country’s Ministry for Digital Affairs will kick off the transition next month by dumping Windows and Microsoft 365, starting first with half of its employees. “If everything goes as expected, all employees will be on an open-source solution during the autumn,” Danish news outlet Politiken reports.
The change promises to save on costs and reduce the ministry’s dependency on US software. Denmark’s Minister for Digital Affairs, Caroline Stage, tells Politiken that "digital sovereignty" is now a priority under the ministry’s new four-year digitalization strategy.
The decision will also help the ministry avoid the costly undertaking of managing computers on Windows 10, which loses official support in October. However, Stage is leaving some leeway for the ministry to reverse course. “If phasing out proves to be too complicated, we can revert back to Microsoft in an instant,” she says.
Last year, a German state office announced a similar effort to transition 30,000 employees to Linux and LibreOffice.
In Denmark’s case, two other major cities, Copenhagen and Aarhus, also want to phase out Microsoft software. Both municipalities cited President Trump's contentious stance toward Europe as a reason. Politicians in the country have also been calling for reducing Denmark’s dependence on US tech companies in favor of backing open-source alternatives.