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Austria’s military switches from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice
Quoting: Austria's military switches from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Blog —
The initial plan to move to LibreOffice was formed in 2020, and detailed planning and training of internal developers for improvements began in 2022. In 2023, a company in Germany was contracted to provide technical support and additional development.
The Austrian military’s migration reflects a growing demand for independence from single vendors. With free and open source software like LibreOffice, anyone can study and modify the source code to make improvements specifically for their setup and workflow. Government bodies and organisations can free themselves from vendor lock-in, spending taxpayer’s money on local companies to provide support and further development – rather than paying for license fees from overseas companies.
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Austria's Armed Forces Gets Rid of Microsoft Office (Mostly) for LibreOffice
Governments around the world, especially European ones, are increasingly reacting to the threat of American-based services pulling the rug from under them. We have already seen many instances of this, like Denmark moving away from Microsoft or Germany doing the same.
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Austrian army routs Microsoft Office
Austria’s armed forces have dumped Microsoft Office in favour of LibreOffice, and the move has nothing to do with saving cash.
Michael Hillebrand from Directorate 6 ICT and Cyber said the decision was all about “strengthening our digital sovereignty” and keeping tight control of data.
Speaking to ORF radio, Hillebrand explained that cloud-based processing was a non-starter for the military. The writing was on the wall in 2020 when Microsoft signalled its office suite would shift fully into the cloud.
By 2021 the decision had been made, followed by years of planning, staff training and internal development. Since 2022, employees could voluntarily use LibreOffice, and by 2023 external contractors were brought in to support the rollout. By early September 2025 Microsoft Office had been stripped from all 16,000 military desktops.
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Good News! Austrian Ministry Kicks Out Microsoft in Favor of Nextcloud
European governments have been steadily moving away from reliance on foreign tech offerings, driven largely by concerns over data sovereignty and regulatory compliance.
Countries like Germany and Denmark have already taken steps to reduce their dependence on Microsoft and other foreign cloud providers, opting instead for open source alternatives that keep sensitive data within their borders.
And, recently, Austria has shown up as another player in this space. Last month, the Austrian Armed Forces completed a migration of 16,000 workstations from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice.
Now, another Austrian government body has joined the Ditch Microsoft club.