Denmark quietly drops open-source Microsoft Office alternative after users complain
Employees became frustrated with the new software.
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- Denmark’s digitization ministry ended a pilot that moved 38 employees from Microsoft Office tools to Collabora.
- Employees reported problems with formatting, blank pages, and the track changes feature.
- The ministry has no current plans to resume its transition away from Microsoft.
- Other European governments are still testing or adopting open-source tools to reduce reliance on US technology.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
A Danish ministry has ended its pilot project to migrate dozens of its employees from the Microsoft Office suite to Collabora, a British open-source alternative.
Denmark’s Ministry of Digitization, which was later merged with other institutions, launched a pilot project in summer 2025 to reduce the country’s reliance on American technologies.
Then-minister Caroline Stage called the project a “welcome step in the right direction toward breaking free from dependence on Microsoft,” according to the Computer World report, which Cybernews machine-translated.
The experiment involved 38 employees who were asked to replace Microsoft tools, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, with Collabora, which was integrated into the ministry’s central case management system, F2.
However, the project was quietly dropped in February 2026, when Denmark’s general election was announced. There are currently no plans to resume the transition from Microsoft.
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According to Computer World, some ministry employees expressed frustration with Collabora, citing issues with style and paragraph formatting, blank pages, and challenges with the “track changes” feature.
Collabora is built on LibreOffice, an open-source office suite from the Berlin-based Open Document Foundation. However, Collabora says it currently develops its software independently.
Mixed success with ditching Microsoft
Denmark is one of an increasing number of European countries exploring alternatives to US tech, especially Microsoft, or has already replaced it with local software.
In 2026, the Swiss federal government announced a pilot project to migrate 3,000 workstations (approximately 7%) from Microsoft 365 to openDesk, an open-source suite developed by Germany’s Center for Digital Sovereignty (ZenDiS).
The pilot project follows a successful proof-of-concept test, in which 172 employees evaluated the practical suitability of the openDesk productivity suite.
The Austrian Armed Forces migrated 16,000 workstations from Microsoft to LibreOffice in 2025, citing its efforts to strengthen digital sovereignty and ensure that data is processed in-house.
While European governments cite the need to cut the digital cord with the US amid increasingly tense relations with the Donald Trump administration, rising Microsoft subscription costs may also play a role.
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which also made a near-complete transition from Microsoft to openDesk across its administrative desktops, says the move saves the state €15 million ($16.2 million) a year in license costs.