{"id":926,"date":"2025-06-17T18:37:45","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T16:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pc-servis.ba\/en\/?p=926"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T23:15:11","slug":"why-denmark-is-dumping-microsoft-office-and-windows-for-libreoffice-and-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pc-servis.ba\/en\/why-denmark-is-dumping-microsoft-office-and-windows-for-libreoffice-and-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the Danish government announced its move, Denmark’s largest cities, Copenhagen and Aarhus, had already announced plans to phase out Microsoft software and cloud services. Here’s why.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Goodye
Goodbye Windows<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Denmark’s Minister of Digitalization, Caroline Stage, has announced that the\u00a0Danish government will start moving away from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice<\/a>. Why? It’s not because open-source is better, although I would argue that it is, but because Denmark wants to claim “digital sovereignty.” In the States, you probably haven’t heard that phrase, but in the European Union, digital sovereignty is a big deal and getting bigger.<\/em><\/p>\n

A combination of security, economic, political, and societal imperatives is driving the EU’s digital sovereignty moves. EU leaders are seeking to reduce Europe’s dependence on foreign technology providers, primarily those from the United States, and to assert greater control over its digital infrastructure, data, and technological future.<\/em><\/p>\n

Why? Because they’re concerned about who controls European data, who sets the rules, and who can potentially cut off access to essential services in times of geopolitical tension. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

For example, after the EU-based International Criminal Court (ICC)\u00a0issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u00a0and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallan, for war crimes, President Donald Trump issued\u00a0ICC sanctions<\/a>. This order allegedly prompted\u00a0Microsoft to lock the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, out of his email accounts<\/a>, according to\u00a0reports<\/a>.
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\"Linux\"
Linux<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This came after Microsoft chairman and general counsel, Brad Smith, had promised that the company would\u00a0stand behind its EU customers against political pressure<\/a>. Recently, however, Smith stated that Microsoft had not been “in any way [involved in] the cessation of services to the ICC,” according to\u00a0Politico<\/a>. When pressed, Microsoft failed to further explain how the email disconnection occurred.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Whether or not Microsoft cut services to an organization in response to Trump’s order, the fear that it could do so in the future remains. Before the Danish government announced its move, Denmark’s largest cities, Copenhagen and Aarhus, had already announced plans to phase out Microsoft software and cloud services. As Henrik Appel Espersen, chairman of the Copenhagen Audit Committee, who spearheaded this move, said, “If we suddenly can’t send emails or communicate internally because of a political fallout,<\/a>\u00a0that’s a huge problem.”<\/em><\/p>\n

In particular, the Danes are worried about Trump’s policies and that US political decisions could put public IT services at risk. After all, Greenland, which Trump has said many times he wants to unilaterally take over, is a Danish territory.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Denmark’s Minister of Emergency Situations, Torsten Schack Pedersen, has warned Danish companies and agencies to reduce dependence on American-based cloud services. “We\u00a0recommend that companies and authorities create exit plans<\/a>\u00a0for the use of, for example, cloud services, and that they also ensure that they have strong ownership of the data.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"LjutiPingvin\"Denmark is not the only EU country with serious doubts about continuing to work with American tech giants. Bart Groothuis, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, recently said,\u00a0the EU “should go for a European cloud”<\/a>\u00a0since “Europe has a ‘problem’ with American cloud.”<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not all about politics, though. Money issues have also played a decisive role. Copenhagen’s\u00a0Microsoft software bill has soared<\/a>\u00a0from 313 million kroner in 2018 to 538 million kroner — about $53 million in 2023, a 72% increase in just five years.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

All that said, no one expects this to be an easy transition. Making the jump from Azure, Office, and Windows to a third-party EU-based cloud system such as NextCloud, LibreOffice, and Linux will take time and effort.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Nor is everyone a believer in moving to open-source software. Mette Harbo, IT director in the Capital Region of Denmark, thinks\u00a0it’s impossible for Denmark to move off Microsoft software<\/a>\u00a0or achieve digital sovereignty.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Still, as David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH), a Dane, inventor of\u00a0Ruby on Rails,<\/a>\u00a0and co-owner of the software developer company\u00a037Signals<\/a>, has said,\u00a0“Denmark is one of the most highly digitalized countries<\/a>\u00a0in the world. It’s also one of the most Microsoft-dependent. In fact, Microsoft is by far and away the single biggest dependency, so it makes perfect sense to start the quest for digital sovereignty there.”<\/em><\/p>\n