Denmark’s initiative is not without precedent. More than a decade ago, Germany, most notably the city of Munich, attempted to replace Microsoft products with Linux and LibreOffice.

Before the Danish government announced its move, Denmark's largest cities, Copenhagen and Aarhus, had already announced plans to phase out Microsoft software and cloud services. Here's why.

Update 6/22/25: Politiken has amended its original story to report that the Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs is only phasing out Microsoft Office—Windows is here to stay, for the time being.

Denmark’s Ministry of Digital Government is phasing out its use of Microsoft Office… to switch to open source alternatives like LibreOffice instead. Why? Because relying too heavily on a US tech giant ...

The debate over Microsoft 365 vs. Office 2024 might matter to individual users, but for many European governments, the bigger question is whether to use Microsoft software at all.