• A German state will once again try and replace Microsoft Office with LibreOffice, more - MSPoweruser

  Schleswig-Holstein, a state in Germany with a population of around 3 million people, has announced plans to switch completely to open-source software.

• German State is Switching Its 25,000 Computers From Windows to Linux

  The north-German state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch to open source software..." reports Mike Saunders from LibreOffice.

  "By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by LibreOffice on all 25,000 computers used by civil servants and employees (including teachers), and the Windows operating system is to be replaced by GNU/Linux."

• [Old] Schleswig-Holstein’s digital minister Albrecht on the switch to open source

  Schleswig-Holstein is the only federal state that wants to completely replace proprietary programs with open-source programs. What are your reasons?

  We have reached our limits with the contracts for proprietary software. Firstly, financially, because license fees have continued to rise over the past few years. Second, with regard to our goals for the digitization of administration. Open source simply offers us more flexibility. At the same time, all the advantages that open source always has apply: sovereignty, data security and data protection.

  Can you give a specific example of open source software that makes you more flexible?

  During the pandemic, we were able to quickly increase our capacities for video conferences because we had already prepared the Jitsi-based open source system. Many other countries were trapped in proprietary systems that they couldn’t quickly expand. A second example is our school portal: Because we have switched to open source, we can design the interface flexibly and combine services as we want.

• No More Microsoft! This German State Plans to Switch 25,000 Windows PCs to Linux and LibreOffice

  Schleswig-Holstein is the northernmost German state that has planned to switch to open-source solutions in its administration and schools.

  And, it is not about a couple of systems; as per the report by The Document Foundation, all 25,000 PCs associated with administration and school will be moving from Windows to Linux.

  Not just limited to that, the switch also involves replacing Microsoft Office with LibreOffice.

• Linux replaces Windows in one German state's bid for software independence

  When one thinks of business or government computing, Windows and Microsoft Office are typically the de-facto go-to. But that's not the case anymore for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is planning on converting its public sector machines to the Linux and Libre side of the force by 2026.

  This shift will involve around 25,000 PCs in total, as reported by the Document Foundation (additional figures can be found in Schleswig-Holstein's plan documentation [via Heise]). The idea behind the change is that free and open-source software should be given priority. A benefit from moving to Linux and Libre is forecasted to be saving money on licensing costs, though there are expense complications to be considered in terms of the migration itself and the costs of operational infrastructure when conducting state business through Linux and other open-source software.

• Munich mk2? Germany's Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch 25,000 PCs to LibreOffice

  From the department of If At First You Don't Succeed Try Try Again comes news that a German state is to have a crack at shifting thousands of PCs from proprietary software to an open-source alternative.

  In this instance, it is the north-German state of Schleswig-Holstein that is aiming to ditch proprietary code, including Microsoft Office, in favour of open-source software. According to open-source productivity platform LibreOffice, 25,000 PCs will be running its wares by the end of 2026.

  In an interview, digital minister for the region, Jan Philipp Albrecht, explained while LibreOffice would be the locally installed option, in the longer term the expectation was that most work would be done within the browser.

• Schleswig-Holstein dumps Vole in favour of open source

  The north-German state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to switch to open-source software, reports Mike Saunders from LibreOffice.

  By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by LibreOffice on all 25,000 computers used by civil servants and employees (including teachers), and the Windows operating system is to be replaced by GNU/Linux.

  Apparently it is a done deal and already codified by the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament.

  The state's digital minister Jan Philipp Albrecht said that part of the transition to open source is already in the works, and pointed out that 90 percent of state administration conferencing is conducted using the open source video conferencing platform Jitsi.

• 25,000 German state computers will bid goodbye to Windows and say Hello to Linux

  The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has decided that it's done with closed, proprietary Windows and is moving to open-source Linux/GNU by the end of the year 2026.

  The first step will be in the form of migrating around 25,000 computers to The Document Foundation's LibreOffice from Microsoft's Office suite of applications and then eventually moving all these devices over to Linux by dumping Windows entirely. These 25,000 computers are going to be "used by civil servants and employees (including teachers)" essentially implying that a large part of the state-run administration and the education sector will be embracing the open-source way.

• This German state wants to dump Microsoft Office, and use the free LibreOffice instead [Ed: This might be plagiarism. Site barely known.]

Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state in Germany, has plans to move almost entirely open source. By the time the dust settles, the regional government will have all but dropped Windows, Microsoft Office, Zoom and other proprietary software for Linux, LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, and Jitzi. By the end of 2026, Microsoft Office is to be replaced by LibreOffice…

A quick news update from Germany: the upcoming coalition government endorses free and open source software. In the coalition agreement (German), there are some key sentences on this topic, for instance...

• German State Switching 25,000 Windows PCs to Linux and LibreOffice

  The German state of Schleswig-Holstein plans to start using Linux and LibreOffice to replace Microsoft Windows and its Office suite in their administration and schools to migrate public organizations to open-source solutions.

  The Document Foundation, the non-profit entity behind LibreOffice, on Nov. 18 announced the news in its blog. The software swap out is part of that government’s plan to reduce its dependence on proprietary software.

  The end game is to eventually stop using proprietary products altogether. By the end of 2026, the plan will replace Microsoft Office with LibreOffice on all 25,000 computers used by government workers and teachers. Schleswig-Holstein officials will replace the Windows operating system with GNU/Linux.