Schleswig-Holstein doubles down on open source for government IT

The German state of Schleswig-Holstein is turning its open-source strategy into standard operating procedure, committing to migrate roughly 30,000 public-sector PCs to Linux and swapping proprietary collaboration tools for LibreOffice, Nextcloud, and other open alternatives by 2026. Under the hood, this isn’t a pilot or a single app swap-it’s a full-stack repositioning around open standards and service contracts instead of seat-based licensing. The drivers are familiar but concrete: digital sovereignty, GDPR-aligned data handling, and predictable costs. The state has already built credibility with earlier rollouts of open-source collaboration tools; the desktop OS shift is the next logical layer.

What’s notable here is the scope and coherence: operating system, office suite, and collaboration are being treated as an integrated platform, not a piecemeal “best effort.” Worth noting: the hard parts aren’t ideological-they’re operational. Expect the usual frictions around document compatibility (especially legacy macros), specialized Windows-only line-of-business software, and change management. The bigger picture is a template for EU public administration: procurement tilts toward support and integration partners, file formats like ODF become the default, and vendor lock-in weakens in favor of interoperable stacks. If Schleswig-Holstein executes cleanly, it offers a practical playbook others can lift, not a press-release promise.