Slashdot
Follow
Denmark Gives Up On Replacing Microsoft Office With Collabora
Denmark's Ministry of Digitization reportedly halted a pilot program to replace Microsoft Office with the open-source Collabora suite. The project, launched in 2025, involved 38 employees transitioning from Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to the Collabora suite. Then-Digitization Minister Caroline Stage initiated the experiment to decrease Denmark's reliance on American technology. This move mirrored similar efforts in France and the Netherlands to replace Microsoft software. However, the pilot concluded in less than six months, reportedly by February 2026. Employees reported various issues, including problems with style, paragraph formatting, blank pages, and tracking changes. Despite the pilot's conclusion months ago, Professor Mikkel Flyberbom criticized the lack of a proper evaluation. He emphasized the value of testing alternatives through pilot projects. Flyberbom expressed a desire for the ministry to learn from this experience. He also hoped they would share those insights with other public sector entities.