Why Denmark Is Replacing Microsoft with Linux and LibreOffice: A Push for Digital Sovereignty

For many years large tech companies have been tightening control over public institutions worldwide, quietly embedding themselves into the critical infrastructure that powers daily government operations.

These companies’ aversion to data privacy and their subservient stance toward their home governments have long raised concerns, and local surveillance laws frequently force them to hand over user data without consulting or notifying the affected nations.

For governments this is not only a privacy issue but a matter of sovereignty, prompting Denmark’s Digital Agency to take counter‑measures.

Denmark’s Open‑Source Initiative

Digital Minister Caroline Stig Ørsted told reporters that the department is dropping Microsoft services, replacing Windows with Linux and Office 365 with LibreOffice.

The rollout will be phased: half of the staff will switch to Linux and LibreOffice between June and August 2025, with full adoption expected between September and November 2025.

The move aims to bolster Denmark’s digital sovereignty, ensuring that control over critical government data and systems remains within national borders.

This aligns with a broader European effort to promote open standards and protect public digital infrastructure from external influence; for example, Germany’s Schleswig‑Holstein state is migrating 30,000 government computers from Microsoft software to Linux and LibreOffice.

Minister Ørsted emphasized on LinkedIn that this is not about isolationism or digital nationalism, nor a total rejection of global tech firms, whose solutions still benefit us today and will continue to do so in the future.

“This is not an issue of isolationism or digital nationalism. We should not completely reject global tech companies; many of their solutions benefit us greatly. This applies both now and in the future.”

“But we must never become overly dependent on a few suppliers to the point where we cannot act freely. Currently, too much public digital infrastructure is tied to a handful of foreign vendors, leaving us vulnerable financially and operationally.”