Germany begins its independence from Microsoft with free software

Months after announcing his departure from Microsoft Germany has begun the transition to free software. The European country has completed the first phase of its initiative to ensure digital sovereignty in its operations and data management. The government of Schleswig-Holstein has announced that it has finally gotten rid of Outlook and Exchange Server and switched to open source applications.

In a publication on its institutional website, the State Chancellery confirmed that it has converted its entire email system to open source. Government agencies of Schleswig-Holstein moved from Microsoft Exchange and Outlook to Open Xchange and Mozilla Thunderbird. This process was successfully completed on October 2 and represents the first phase of a project to regain control of the government’s digital operations.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, six month conversion process included over 40,000 mailboxes with over 100 million emails and calendar entries. These accounts correspond to employees of government agencies, the judiciary and the police. Approximately 30,000 government employees took part in the transition.

“We want to become independent from big technology companies and guarantee digital sovereignty,” said Minister of Digitalization Dirk Schrödter. “Now we can say via email: Mission accomplished.”

While the decision to switch to Linux and use free software is not very difficult for the end user, for companies and governments it can be mission impossible. Years of dependency on apps and services coupled with proprietary file formats are some of the barriers preventing the transition. Add to this that thousands of employees are already accustomed to one way of working, so they will have to learn to use one or more new programs.

The transition to free Microsoft software has been a challenge for Germany.

In the case of Germany, the government of Schleswig-Holstein mentions that The implementation of open source code has been planned for several years.. The project is based on the “Open Innovation and Open Source Strategy of Schleswig-Holstein”, which defines how the state will gradually transition its IT infrastructure to free and open solutions.

According to the Foreign Ministry, officials worked closely with free software providers to ensure compatibility, support and, above all, scalability. Conversion was designed as a step-by-step process to avoid interruptions quickly, while simultaneously training your staff.

Although planning had been going on for several years, the operational deployment started in 2024 with the introduction of LibreOffice like a standard office suite. Since this migration, Microsoft Office has begun to be removed from some government computers.

“It is unlikely that a similar project of this scale exists anywhere in the world,” said Minister Schrödter. “In the future, we will be able to use our expertise, from data analytics to data center monitoring, to help and support others as they embark on the path we pioneered.”

It is worth noting that this is the first stage of the project. Schleswig-Holstein’s plan to become independent from Microsoft still requires replacing SharePoint with Nextcloud and completing the transition from Office to LibreOffice in all government departments. The last stage includes uninstall Windows to accept Linux distribution.