The authorities of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein have transferred 30 thousand state employees from the Microsoft Windows operating system to Linux.
This was reported by ArsTechnica.
It is noted that the government has finally completed the pilot launch of LibreOffice and is now officially moving all civil servants to the new operating system and new software.
The plans to switch to Linux were announced in 2021. Local authorities stated that they were testing LibreOffice for two years.
"The Landtag decided to switch from proprietary software to free systems with open source code," said Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Günther.
The state government offers an educational program that will be constantly updated.
Why Linux?
There are many reasons for switching to Linux. Among the advantages of transitioning to open source software, officials cited increased security, economic efficiency, and the ability to coordinate between different systems.
In particular, one of the ministers of the region, Jan Philipp Albrecht, stated that Linux does not have such high software requirements.
In addition, the Germans pointed out the dependence on cloud services, noting that proprietary software can provide greater data confidentiality.
This will also help the state budget: creating new systems will provide many jobs at the local level. And there will be no need to pay for licensed software.
Officials will give up Microsoft Sharepoint and Exchange/Outlook in favor of Nextcloud and Open-Xchange.
Also in development are open-source services that are intended to replace Microsoft Active Directory.
Currently, the government of Schleswig-Holstein is promoting the idea of digital sovereignty, the importance of which is compared to energy sovereignty.
"Open source simply offers us more flexibility," said officials.
It is worth noting that as of the end of February 2024, the share of Linux in the desktop operating system market exceeded 4%.
At first glance, the figure may seem modest, but it took Linux 30 years to reach 3%. This milestone was reached in June of last year.
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