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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Schleswig-Holstein has moved from Microsoft Alternate and Outlook to Open-Xchange and Thunderbird for e-mail.
- Different EU entities have opted for open-source options.
- This swap is not only a technical change; it is a political transfer.
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has dumped its government email and calendar systems for open-source software. The six-month migration has changed Microsoft Alternate and Outlook with Open-Xchange and Mozilla Thunderbird. The switch coated greater than 40,000 mailboxes and over 100 million messages and calendar entries.
Digitalization Minister Dirk Schrödter declared, “Mission achieved. From the State Chancellery and ministries to the judiciary, police, and different state authorities, our roughly 30,000 workers have launched into a brand new path collectively. We wish to change into impartial of enormous tech companies and guarantee digital sovereignty. Now we are able to additionally say: mission achieved in terms of electronic mail communication.”
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Schrödter praised the staff who helped make the transition doable: “The previous weeks and months have proven that such a transition isn’t any small feat. We’re true pioneers. There may be hardly a comparable challenge of this magnitude worldwide. Our honest thanks go to all workers. With out their help, this transition wouldn’t have been doable.”
The swap to open-source electronic mail adopted years of planning. The state, in live performance with open-source distributors reminiscent of Nextcloud, has been changing all proprietary methods with open-source software program. Final 12 months, for instance, the federal government started rolling out LibreOffice as the default office suite to replace Microsoft Office.
The minister added that Schleswig-Holstein’s expertise will function a mannequin for different administrations transferring towards open applied sciences: “We will now use our data, from information evaluation to information heart monitoring, to help others on the identical path.”
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Many different EU authorities companies have already dropped Microsoft software program from their computer systems. These embrace the Austrian military, Danish government companies, and the French city of Lyon. The reason is that many European Union (EU) governmental companies are sick and bored with counting on American software program corporations.
As the federal government of Schleswig-Holstein defined in its April 2025 coverage assertion, Open Innovation and Open Source Strategy: Schleswig-Holstein, trying forward, “will probably be extra vital than ever to keep away from financial or technical dependencies of a person, monopolistic nature if the state is to take care of management over the IT methods utilized by it and retain mastery over the info of its residents and enterprises. For that reason, it’s important to scale back present dependencies and observe the street in direction of digital sovereignty.”
The state believes open-source software program (OSS) is the answer as a result of it “affords an alternative choice to current methods on the one hand and can be able to addressing many of those future modifications. That makes OSS one of the vital vital instruments for attaining sovereignty.”
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Digital sovereignty is not a phrase usually heard within the US, nevertheless it’s a giant deal in Europe and different international locations. It isn’t only a case of ‘Proprietary software program: Dangerous and costly; open-source software program: Low cost and good.’ Digital sovereignty has change into a serious political concern.
European governments, companies, and individuals worry that they can’t trust American-based companies and cloud companies to be out there when required, or to maintain their information secure. As Germany’s digital minister Karsten Wildberger stated, Germany and the European Union need to “actively participate in this (sector) as players,” not as prospects.
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The rise of digital sovereignty is not a brand new development. “What we need now in every sector, for every innovation, are European solutions and European sovereignty,” stated French President Emmanuel Macron in 2020. He is made digital sovereignty a central concern in his insurance policies.
You’ll be able to anticipate to see many extra European governments, corporations, and people transferring to Linux and open-source software program from Home windows. This is not open-source fan wishful pondering; it is a basic shift in how folks see and use workplace software program.
