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ekari Jun 10, 2025

Debby ‬⁂📎🐧

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🌟 Exciting News in Digital Freedom! 🌟

Starting next month, Denmark's Minister of Digitization, Caroline Stage, plans to phase out Microsoft and other tech giants' programs within her ministry. This bold move aims to reduce reliance on U.S.-based tech companies and embrace open-source alternatives.

Half of the ministry's employees will transition to a new computer system, replacing Windows with open-source solutions. Specifically, they will adopt LibreOffice, a free and open-source office suite, as an alternative to Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

"I want to take the lead and try it out. When the opportunity presented itself, it would be crazy not to seize it. I am very much looking forward to seeing how it works in practice," says Minister Stage.

This initiative aligns with Denmark's broader strategy to achieve digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on large tech corporations. The goal is for the entire ministry to be free of Microsoft by the fall. However, if the transition faces significant challenges, there is flexibility to revert temporarily.

The push for digital sovereignty is gaining momentum, especially in light of current global dynamics and concerns over data protection. Political parties like the Red-Green Alliance and the Alternative have also voiced support for reducing ties with American tech giants.

Let's celebrate this shift towards freedom, collaboration, and innovation in the tech landscape! 🎉

🔗 report: https://nordjyske.dk/nyheder/politik/digitaliseringsminister-vil-udfase-microsoft-i-sit-eget-ministerium/5616096

#DigitalFreedom #OpenSource #LibreOffice #DenmarkLeads #TechInnovation #DigitalSovereignty #Linux #FreedomAndCollaboration #DigitalizationMinistry #OpenSource #Linux #OpenSource #DigitalFreedom #FuckTechBros #LinuxLove #LibreOffice #FuckMicrosoft #FuckTechBros #danskertrut #linux #libreoffice #FOSS #FLOSS #FreeSoftware #digitalizationministry #fuckmicrosoft

Andrew Zonenberg Jun 10, 2025

@debby I'm not aware of LibreOffice having a native replacement for Teams, only for office applications.

What are they using for messaging/chat?

Also, LibreOffice does not (to my knowledge) have any collaborative document editing features and the alternatives I've seen (etherpad etc) were pretty limited. I usually use a git repo of markdown or LaTeX for this but it's not real-time capable.

I'm all for moving to open tools, but these are pain points I've hit in the past and if there's a better F/OSS solution out there i want to know about it!

Bridge&Tunnel Jeff Jun 10, 2025

@azonenberg @debby The move isn't about technical excellence, it's about national security - you can't depend on applications controlled by a hostile state (including companies who obey that state). So LibreOffice's failings don't matter as much - even if MS applications all became ten times better, it wouldn't matter anymore.

Andrew Zonenberg Jun 10, 2025

@jf_718 @debby As someone in the US I'm stuck under their jurisdiction no matter whose tooling I use.

What I'm more interested in is not giving all of my money and data to MS.

But to sell e.g. $dayjob on such an alternative it needs to be competitive on capabilities. As much as I would love to just run an internal git server full of markdown for document editing, good luck getting sales guys and project managers to use that workflow.

@azonenberg @jf_718 @debby you could advocate for that workflow in the technical organizations and give back the O365 license. We did that at $lastjob to cut costs.
If you're under an E5 license, however, that may not be possible.

Debby ‬⁂📎🐧

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@azonenberg @jf_718 The shift to open-source tools is often motivated by concerns for security and sovereignty as much as by technical capabilities.
Even if you're bound by jurisdictional limitations, self-hosting can still be a viable option to keep your data relatively safe.

Transitioning teams to new workflows can indeed be challenging, but there are user-friendly open-source alternatives that can ease this process. OnlyOffice and Collabora Online for collaborative editing, or Mattermost for communication, could provide a great way to move away from Microsoft Teams.

In a corporate environment, demonstrating the benefits of open-source tools can be a game-changer, particularly in terms of cost savings, enhanced security, and greater data control.

Debby ‬⁂📎🐧

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@azonenberg
You’re absolutely right—simultaneous collaborative editing is currently missing in LibreOffice itself. LibreOffice, as a desktop suite, does not natively support real-time multi-user editing like Microsoft Teams or Google Docs.

However, as @mkj pointed out, Collabora Online is a very promising alternative that builds directly on LibreOffice technology and does offer real-time collaborative editing. Collabora Online supports simultaneous editing of documents in the same file formats as LibreOffice (.odt, .ods, .odp), making it a natural choice for those invested in the LibreOffice ecosystem but needing collaboration features. It can be self-hosted or used through various service providers, giving organizations control over their data and infrastructure.

Other FOSS collaborative editors worth exploring include:

CryptPad: Focused on privacy and encryption, it offers real-time collaborative editing of rich text, code, and spreadsheets, though its feature set is more limited compared to full office suites.

OnlyOffice: Another strong open-source office suite with real-time collaboration, good MS Office compatibility, and a modern interface.

Etherpad and HedgeDoc: Great for lightweight, real-time text collaboration, especially for markdown or note-taking workflows.

@azonenberg @debby probably the best approach for this is to replace the OneDrive and Teams capabilities with #Nextcloud, which provides both of those, as well as online editing/collaboration of documents.

I would suspect it's in their plans, even if they didn't present their entire project plan.

RTD Jun 10, 2025

@azonenberg @debby the French and German governments are working on docs for collaborative document editing: https://docs.numerique.gouv.fr/home/

Docs

Docs: Your new companion to collaborate on documents efficiently, intuitively, and securely.

@azonenberg
Nextcloud has a quite good offer. I consider them as an alternative to teams.

But there are some (basic) features missing like grammar check and style check.
@debby

sammypanda Jun 15, 2025

@azonenberg @debby it'd be awesome if they did an open source grant program in the interest of a teams replacement 😊

Benjohn Jun 10, 2025

@debby this is the first time in my life I’ve noticed minister (political) is the same word as minister (religious). Not sure what to do with this. Also - very cool news.

Torf und Schnee Jun 10, 2025

@benjohn @debby "Not sure what to do with this" first of all to remember, that the duty of both types is to serve (which is literally implied by the word).

Marius Jun 10, 2025

@debby who translated that headline? Directly translated from Danish it says "... in own ministry". It looks like this is a case of the automatic translator adding "his" since ministers traditionally have been men 😄 #aitranslations

Debby ‬⁂📎🐧

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@fere
🤣 Sometimes LibreTranslate is :chefkiss:

Nizami 🇺🇦Jun 10, 2025

@debby
I'm also one, and I'm so happy that I did.

Gerard Jun 10, 2025

Interressant ?

https://mastodon.nl/@bert_hubert

Bert Hubert NL 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@[email protected])

9.28K Posts, 445 Following, 4.73K Followers · Voormalig toezichthouder, schrijver van stukjes, nerd, amateur wetenschapper. Spreekt namens niemand. English account: [email protected]

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Abazigal Jun 10, 2025

@debby Well, switching away is one thing. Sticking with it will be the real acid test. 😬

ProScience 🇪🇺Jun 10, 2025

May many dozens of countries follow this example!

Doreen32128 ready to rumble!Jun 10, 2025

@debby The world is moving on without America!

@debby
The article makes no mention of Microsoft Windows. Do they also plan to move to Linux?

Ulrik Nyman ⬡Jun 10, 2025

Something is really moving faster than I expected in Denmark now

Szymon Bęczkowski Jun 11, 2025

@debby This will just be a trial phase-out. They will remove Office 365 and replace it with LibreOffice as a trial.

I am just afraid that some of the components from O365 suite will be missing and they will get complaints from the office workers that this is not a good replacement as it misses X feature (insert whatever tool people were using that does not exist in LibreOffice).

What will they use e.g. for internal group communication?