Earlier this month, a report emerged that the Denmark Ministry of Digital Affairs would shift away from using Windows and Microsoft Office in favor of Linux and LibreOffice. Now, it appears the ministry will only shift away from Office but continue using Windows.
Politiken, which reported on the situation, has amended its original piece, as spotted by PC Gamer. The Denmark Ministry of Digital Affairs will migrate from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice gradually over the coming months.
The move is being made in the name of digital sovereignty. Caroline Stage Olsen, Denmark’s Minister for Digital Affairs, said the following:
“It is not about isolation or digital nationalism. We should not turn our backs completely on global technology companies – many of them provide solutions that we benefit from. This applies both today and in the future. But we must never make ourselves so dependent on so few that we can no longer act freely. Too much public digital infrastructure is currently tied up with very few foreign suppliers. This makes us vulnerable.”
The above quote was translated using Edge’s built-in translation feature, so it may not be an exact representation of Olsen’s LinkedIn post.
While the ministry moving to LibreOffice is noteworthy, it’s not as big of a deal as abandoning Windows. It’s still a technical undertaking, but it’s not nearly as massive a migration as changing operating systems.
Other governments and organizations have tried open-source software before, but many of those changes were made for financial reasons. Denmark stepping away from Microsoft Office will be done primarily in the name of digital sovereignty.
Microsoft recently expanded its Sovereign Cloud offering. The tech giant announced a package of solutions focused on digital sovereignty. Those solutions give companies greater control over their data.
The offering ensures that European data remains within Europe and that it can only be handled by Microsoft employees who are based in Europe.
Microsoft did not mention Denmark or any specific governments when announcing its sovereignty-focused solutions. The announcement did, however, occur shortly after initial reports stated Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Affairs would shift away from Windows and Office.
As data sovereignty becomes more of a priority, Microsoft will need to increase its solutions to match demand.