The Danish Ministry for Digital Affairs will start phasing out Microsoft in favour of Linux, in order to reduce the reliance on US tech. Leading the transition is Digital Affairs Minister Caroline Stage Olsen.
The plan is that this summer around half of the Ministry employees will be working with computers where Office 365 has been replaced by Libre Office. If all goes as planned, all employees will be on an open source solution during the autumn. The ministry will become a testbed of sorts for a move to open source solutions. The news comes after the counties of Copenhagen and Aarhus a week ago both committed to a Microsoft exit too.
The minister will launch a new digitalization strategy for the state, municipalities and regions for the next four years, in which digital sovereignty – for the first time – is a priority.
"It is not about isolation or digital nationalism", Stage Olsen clarified on LinkedIn. "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 move marks a major step in Denmark’s effort to assert greater control over its digital infrastructure and comes after international relations with the US have become strained, especially in Denmark after Trump's remarks regarding a take-over of Greenland. Microsoft’s recent decision to block access to the email account of International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan only highlighted the need for digital sovereignty.
