The German state (Schleswig-Holstein) trying to break free from Microsoft

throwaway2037 47 points 12 comments April 01, 2026
www.ft.com · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (5 comments)

barrkel

I think I've been reading about federal Länder breaking up with Microsoft for the past 15 years. (Actually 15 years is mentioned in the article now that I scanned it)

pjmlp

Microsoft Office, that is. They will keep using everything else that is touched by Microsoft. Github, Typescript, Windows, Active Directory, Open AI servers on Azure, Visual Studio, possibly contractors using .NET, npm infrastructure,...

vovavili

The article is paywalled.

bradley13

They have been trying to switch to Linux and LibreOffice for years now. The brakes were applied, not so much for technical reasons, but more because the "right" decision makers were wined and dined by Microsoft. The last thing MS wants is a successful precedent showing that their products are not necessary for government. Also, you really have to make a clean break. Users are comfortable with what they know. If you leave the door open to use the old-and-familiar, they will fight changing to the new. Train them on LibreOffice and then take away any and all access to MS Office.

faangguyindia

I work in india, most village panchayats are running Ubuntu without any issues and we don't pay anyone any money.

Semantic search powered by Rivestack pgvector
3,471 stories · 32,344 chunks indexed