Minister of Digitization sounds like exactly who you want standardizing on ODS, tbh.

Which is exactly what many have warned about for 20 years. The Microsoft lock-in is insane.
It's better to get out sooner rather than later.
But considering most of EU is planning similar transitions, I'd be surprised if they don't cooperate on making better import of MS formats in Libre Office.

The Danish government is also planning to make guidelines to make a smooth transition easier. Which will be available for private companies too.

Something that may make it easier is that it's been law for more than a decade, that ALL documents from public services must be made in open standards.

Shouldn't be too bad. It'll take a while, but you grab an example you have now in word, tweak it until it works in libreoffice and you're done. The biggest issue I've had was constant transitions between the two. If you just move to one it's a rough start moving, but once you're there you just edit as always. Word isn't even that great at keeping it's own formatting, so it won't be anything new except for learning a new program. it might get difficult once you get to links and embedding, I haven't tried that in libreoffice so I can't speak to whether it's harder or not.

Beyond that, you should be pdf-ing any finalized documents anyway.

Xlsx is actually an open standard, but only if you use strict mode, which Microsoft conveniently does not make the default option when saving. You have to choose it explicitly when saving.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_Open_XML

More users will hopefully mean more people finding and reporting edge cases which will lead to better software. Open source is great because anyone can improve it and everyone has the changes if accepted by the developers.

15 years ago, maybe. But I haven't had any compatibility issues in many years.

One drawback. It's not the best option, but Google docs? I know of no bridges.

Most likely one of the commercial ones that offer support and contractual guarantees of security patches, uptime, service, helpdesk support, etc.

So likely Ubuntu, SUSE, or RHEL.

Any of which would be a very welcome change and a benefit to the Linux community compared to using Windows.

I don't think so, because Ubuntu is also controlled by a private company, and Ubuntu has issues with open source, making everything they do dual license, meaning they can choose to switch away from open source to proprietary on everything developed within the Ubuntu framework.

So choosing Ubuntu would be incredibly short sighted. Debian is a much stronger candidate. Or an in house distro based on Debian, until a common EU distro is ready, which is already planned.

This time its politics and not economics. Its not because Microsoft is getting too expensive. Its because Denmark wants to break free from big tech and dependency or other (big) countries

True enough but we’re pretty serious about this shit in DK.

I’ll give them a call to make sure.

This is very true, but this time it's not just Denmark, it many countries in Europe, and it's also EU itself.
We are just among the first to have decided to begin implementing it.

I wonder how a corporate product deal would ever be cheaper than FOSS software. Bundled apps perhaps? And maybe central management? And maybe centralized or cloud-based storage and content management?

You're right, added the* full text to the post. Screw that banner.

Well it's the Danish ministry not the cookie ministry

Now you got me wondering what OS runs the Strategic Maple syrup reserve.

From Word and Excel to LibreOffice: Danish ministry says goodbye to Microsoft Martin Holland The Danish Ministry of Digitization is to completely abandon Microsoft in the coming months and use Linux instead of Windows and switch from Office 365 to LibreOffice. Minister Caroline Stage (Moderaterne) announced this in an interview with the daily newspaper Politiken. It comes just a few days after the country's two largest municipalities initiated similar steps. This summer, half of the ministry's employees will be equipped with Linux and LibreOffice. If everything goes as expected, the entire ministry will be free of Microsoft by the fall, Politiken summarizes.

Far too dependent on a few providers

The Ministry of Digitalization's move away from Microsoft is therefore taking place against the backdrop of a new digitalization strategy in which the Kingdom's "digital sovereignty" is given priority. According to newspaper reports, the opposition is also calling for a reduction in dependence on US tech companies. Just a few days ago, the administration of the capital Copenhagen announced its intention to review the use of Microsoft software. The second-largest municipality, Aarhus, has already started to replace Microsoft services. Stage has now told Politiken that they should cooperate and that it is not a race. All municipalities should work together and strengthen open source.

When asked how her ministry would react if the changeover was not so easy, Stage replied that they would then simply return to the old system for a transitional period and seek other options: "We won't get any closer to the goal if we don't start." So far, she has only heard from employees who welcome the move. But in her ministry, which is mainly concerned with digitalization, she expects a lot of interest anyway. She also assured them that the initiative is not about Microsoft alone, as they are generally far too dependent on a few providers.

As background to the move, the article also refers to the events at the International Criminal Court, where an email account operated by Microsoft was disconnected. This caused an uproar across Europe. In Denmark, there is also the fact that the new US President Donald Trump has been announcing for weeks that his country wants to take over Greenland. The island in the North Atlantic is a self-governing part of Denmark, and the outrage at Trump's proposal is huge. The desire to reduce dependence on US companies is therefore evidently even greater there than in the rest of Europe.

(mho)

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This article was originally published in German. It was translated with technical assistance and editorially reviewed before publication.

Meh I think it's subjective. I don't like the direction they are going (not in terms of getting rid of Microsoft).

Presumably one with commercial support

What do you mean?🇩🇰It's not that weird to plaster everything with your beautiful symbol🇩🇰it's great🇩🇰Huttelihut!🇩🇰

All big companies have social media monitors to analyse posts about themselves, analyzing sentiment and then counter negative news with their vast trove of astroturfing bots. The social media is setup to be as opaque to the world as it can be, to be manipulated.

There's always going to be someone outside or inside the company (considering how big some companies are) defending, then marketing moves them to the top. Deflect and divide opinions and shame naysayers.

It's been going on since forever, now enhanced with AI.