Germany & Denmark Ditch Microsoft
Others will follow soon
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Here we are in 2025.
And Microsoft Office simply refuses to die
It’s survived recessions, pandemics, floppy disks, Clippy, and a lot more. But Denmark? Denmark’s not having it anymore.
The Kingdom Goes Open Source
Denmark’s Ministry of Digitalization has announced it’s cutting ties with Microsoft entirely.
No more Windows. No more Office 365. By this fall, the Danish government will run on Linux and LibreOffice.
I love that move.
A whole country’s administration is saying, “Thanks, but no thanks” to the Productivity Hostage Pack™. Denmark is going open source.
Digitalization Minister Caroline Stage is not pretending this will be a walk in the park, though. She’s pragmatic: if things go south, they’ll pause and reevaluate. But as she says, “We’ll never get closer to the goal if we don’t start.”
Frankly, that’s what we need more of.
And why?
Why Denmark Is Doing This
There’s method to the madness.
Denmark’s goal is digital sovereignty, meaning, they want control over their own infrastructure without being beholden to a U.S. company’s license.
Linux and open-source software is a lot different in many regards.
This all didn’t come out of nowhere, either. There were some major wake-up calls:
Microsoft once unplugged an email account at the International Criminal Court.
Donald Trump literally tried to buy Greenland, which, for the geographically curious, belongs to the Danish Kingdom.
Just to name two.
Both incidents were odd, and they show: relying on American tech giants comes with risks, especially if your national strategy can be disrupted by someone else’s login permissions.
Not Just Denmark
The Danish capital of Copenhagen and its younger sibling Aarhus have already kicked off their own open-source initiatives.
And across the border, Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein (where I live) is doing the same.
In fact, Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch 30,000 public employees to open-source alternatives by the end of summer.
Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Teams. All out. LibreOffice, Open-Xchange, and Linux. All in.
Their reasoning?
The same: digital sovereignty, control over their data, and cost savings. (Also, maybe fewer Teams meetings. That’s just speculation, but we can dream.)
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Why Is Microsoft Office Still a Thing?
Good question in 2025.
It’s not because it offers more features that public employees need.
It’s because it’s familiar. Because it’s bundled into enterprise contracts. Because switching feels risky, expensive, and complicated. Excel remains seemingly indispensable for certain teams, and many employees have never used anything else.
Compatibility issues still push people back to .docx and .pptx. And frankly, most people don’t realize how capable the alternatives have become — or they do, but inertia wins.
Of course, this whole shift won’t be easy. LibreOffice isn’t perfect. Linux still comes with a learning curve. There will be hiccups. People will complain. Some will say, “I miss Outlook,” and someone else will say, “Have you considered turning it off and on again?” way too many times.
But in the long run, this could push other countries, cities, and organizations to rethink their digital dependencies as well.
And that’s usually a good thing.
What We Can Learn From Denmark & Germany
We’re not running a country. But even as an individual, freelancer, or small business owner, there’s a lesson:
You don’t need to keep using the software you’ve always used.
There are better, cheaper, freer options out there. The world has changed. Cloud tools are better than ever. Open source isn’t just for hobbyists anymore, it’s being used by governments.
If Denmark & Germany can do it, maybe we can too.
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Outside of USA I'm sure savvy people have been drifting away from MS for a long time. I haven't used Outlook in years, or any office product at home for... I can't remember how long. Good move by Denmark. Trump doing a great job of isolating the US
I have been a fan of using open-source software for a while. I still use Microsoft Office 2007. I haven't used Office 365 due to pricing and privacy concerns. I think that this is a great decision.