Mastodawn

Jun 10, 2025

🌟 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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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Debby ‬⁂📎🐧

@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.