For years, Big Tech has been tightening its grip on public institutions across the world, quietly slotting themselves into critical infrastructure that powers the daily running of governments.

Their allergy to privacy and bowing to their overlords (read: the country they’re based in) has long been a thing of concern. There have been numerous cases where surveillance laws forced these companies to hand over user data without consulting, or even notifying, the governments of those affected.

For governments, this isn’t just a privacy issue, but a sovereignty issue. And in Denmark, the Ministry of Digital Affairs has decided it’s time to push back.

Denmark’s Open Source Move

Speaking with Politiken (paywalled), Denmark’s Minister for Digital Affairs, Caroline Stage Olsen, revealed that the Ministry is moving away from Microsoft services, replacing Windows with Linux and Office 365 with LibreOffice.

This is set to happen in a staggered manner, where half of the staff will be switched to Linux and LibreOffice by summer (June-August), with full adoption expected by autumn (September-November) this year.

The move is said to be driven primarily by Denmark’s goal to strengthen digital sovereignty, ensuring that control over critical government data and systems remains within national borders.

This approach aligns with broader European efforts to promote open standards and safeguard public digital infrastructure from external influence. Take, for instance, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is undertaking a similar transition, moving 30,000 government computers from Microsoft software to Linux and LibreOffice.

Speaking about the move on LinkedIn, the minister emphasized that:

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. Also, financially.

📋The above quote was translated from Danish.

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