State Chancellery
The Minister of Scanning of the German State of Schleswig-Holstein, Dirk Schrödter
Germany’s most northern state will completely eliminate Microsoft software from governmental offices-and replace it with open source solutions. The change, with which data security is intended and save tens of millions of euros, will be completed in 3 months.
The governmental offices of the State of Schleswig-Holsteinin the northwest of Germany, they will stop using all types of Microsoft software – the operating system Windows programs Word e Excel Included in the Office, passing through the VideoChamada Teams platform.
This is one of the most extreme runs so far in Europe with US technological giants, he says, at a time when the continent intensifies concerns with the concerns with the digital sovereignty.
“We ended up with Teams!”This week announced the minister of the German state digitization, Dirk Schrödterthrough an open source video platform alternative to Teams.
Schrödter said that 30,000 civil servants, police officers and Schleswig-Holstein magistrates will abandon Microsoft’s set of products Until September. Another 30 thousand civil servants, mostly teachers, will later make the jump to the open source.
Change affects everything, Email applications and text processing to the operating system. In all government computers, Windows will be replaced by a Linux installation.
The ad positions Schleswig-Holstein as the first German state to completely eliminate Microsoft products from Public Administration, a decision that those responsible fit as essential to protect data of citizens and reduce dependence on technological companies Foreigners.
Within the scope of migration, the LibreOffice will replace Word and Excelwhile the Open-Xchange e Thunderbird They will manage the email and calendar functions previously managed by Outlook.
Schrödter directly linked the decision to geopolitical tensions, saying that “ War in Ukraine revealed our dependencies Energyand now we see that There are also digital dependencies“.
“We must ensure that we are always in controlling the computer solutions we use and that We can act independently As a state, ”said Schrödter.
The minister said that other state governments have already requested information on How to replicate the model.
Besides ensuring that sensitive government data remain under German jurisdiction, Schrödter awaits this measure resulting in a savings of tens of millions of euros in software licenses and in “unpredictable costs of compulsory updates” – An apparent reference to Windows 10 migration to Windows 11.
The state has been testing alternatives to Microsoft software since 2021, when it began to evaluate LibreOffice in 25,000 government computers.
The transition causes risks, notes to ZD Net: previous European attempts to abandon Microsoft failed. It was the case of Munichwhich exchanged Windows for a Linux distribution in 2004.
The change lasted a decade, at the end of which the public administration of the capital of Bavaria returned to Windows – largely because the mayor I wanted Microsoft to change its European headquarters to Munich.
However, there are several examples of successful migrations of government organisms for open source solutions – as is the case with Gendarmeriethe French police, who has been using Linux’s Ubuntu distribution for over a decade.
Nonetheless, Caroline Stageminister of digitization of Denmark -that, curiously, borders Schleswig-Holstein, ”announced earlier this month, in an interview at the, that all public administration You will stop using Microsoft solutions and migrate to open source software by the end of the year.
According to the Danish newspaper, the measure, which was being tested in some of the main cities of the country, was accelerated after the tension with the United States – whose president, Donald Trumpexpressed the intention of.
