Civil servants, coppers, and judges will soon find themselves typing away on LibreOffice instead of Word and pinging messages with Open-Xchange rather than Teams.
The digitalisation minister Dirk Schroedter told France24 : “We're done with Teams!"
By September, approximately 30,000 public employees will have abandoned Redmond's products. The state plans to drag the other half of its 60,000 staff, including thousands of teachers, into the open-source fold in the coming years. LibreOffice is replacing Word and Excel, Open-Xchange is taking Outlook’s spot, and Windows is eventually being binned in favour of Linux.
Schroedter said the goal is "digital sovereignty" and to break the grip of American tech giants. The Germans are concerned about their dependence on US technology, particularly since Donald Trump's return to the White House has reignited tensions between the US and the EU.
Vole’s stranglehold on the workplace, thanks to Windows and cosy bundling of Teams and Office, has irked EU regulators for years. The bloc launched an antitrust probe in 2023 after yet another round of complaints.
Schroedter said: “The war in Ukraine revealed our energy dependencies, and now we see there are also digital dependencies.” He wants state data stored on German-owned clouds.
Benjamin Jean of consultancy Inno3 said companies often find themselves held "by the throat" when Microsoft slaps on surprise charges for updates and licences. Open source avoids that, and Schleswig-Holstein reckons it’ll save tens of millions of euros over time.
Bordeaux University IT professor François Pellegrini warned that without proper handholding, staff will complain loudly and demand their Outlook back.
France’s gendarmerie has happily used Linux since the early 2000s, and India’s defence ministry is rolling out its own Maya OS. Denmark, Copenhagen and Aarhus are reportedly eyeing similar moves.
The EU’s Interoperable Europe Act, which has been in effect since last year, also encourages public bodies to adopt open-source software.
Schroedter says he’s fielding calls from interested governments worldwide. If this trend sticks, Microsoft might soon have to find another continent to milk.
