Austria Military Ditches Microsoft for Open-Source Libreoffice – Here’s Why
'Austria's military has completed a major IT overhaul, replacing Microsoft Office with the open-source LibreOffice suite across all its desktop systems. The change, finalized this month, affects approximately 16,000 workstations in the Austrian Armed Forces. This move will substantially reduce Austria's software bill. At $33.75 per user per month, a Microsoft 365 E3 subscription for 16,000 workstations costs approximately $6,480,000 per year, compared to LibreOffice's zero cost. But this move isn't about saving money. The real motivation is to gain digital sovereignty and control over critical data. As Michael Hillebrand of Directorate 6 information and communications technology (ICT) and Cyber Defense, explained: "It was very important for us to show that we are doing this primarily to strengthen our digital sovereignty, to maintain our independence in terms of ICT infrastructure and to ensure that data is only processed in-house."' -- source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-european-military-just-ditched-microsoft-... Cheers, Peter
On Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:17:56 +1300, Peter Reutemann quoted:
'But this move isn't about saving money. The real motivation is to gain digital sovereignty and control over critical data.'
Not the only one. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is getting rid of Microsoft Exchange and Outlook in favour of open-source alternatives, for much the same reason <https://www.zdnet.com/article/german-state-replaces-microsoft-exchange-and-outlook-with-open-source-email/>. This whole “digital sovereignty” business is big in Europe, and getting bigger. It’s no longer just talk -- there are significant amounts of money involved.
On Tue, 14 Oct 2025 16:33:42 +1300, I wrote:
This whole “digital sovereignty” business is big in Europe, and getting bigger. It’s no longer just talk -- there are significant amounts of money involved.
The movement has become big enough for the US State Department to notice, and order a counter-campaign to discourage its spread <https://www.computerworld.com/article/4137523/us-orders-diplomats-to-counter-data-sovereignty.html>: In an internal memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the US describes such rules as a threat to free data flows, AI development, and cloud services. “Free data flows” meaning flows *to* the US, of course, not from it. The Trump Administration believes that data localization could increase costs, create cybersecurity risks, and give governments greater control over information. Gee, I wonder why they’re suddenly so worried about increased costs to the poor Europeans? The same ones the US has shown no mercy to, in imposing tariffs to increase their costs?
participants (2)
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro -
Peter Reutemann