France ditches Microsoft for Linux to achieve digital sovereignty – and it's not the only one!
With its recent announcement, France joins the list of countries that aim to become digitally sovereign. This is part of a bigger movement, called ‘digital sovereignty’, to leave US Big Tech companies, such as Microsoft, Meta or Google, to become less dependent and to break free from these vendor lock-ins.
France ditches Microsoft completely
France latest announcement to replace Microsoft with Linux comes after a long line of signs that shows that this European country means business on the matter of becoming digitally sovereign.
In fact, digital sovereignty has become a central focus in Emmanuel Macron’s presidency as he states during the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty that private and public actors now need to accelerate together to develop and fully adopt European technologies. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the country continues to implement steps to become more digitally independent.
In 2023 the Occitanie French region, with a population of more than 6 million, already launched a digital independence strategy. Due to a cost increase of the regions’ Microsoft contracts, decision makers pragmatically decided to abandon Microsoft and switch to an open source solution. Similarly, the cities of Lyon and Marseille have also taken first steps to replace Microsoft with open source alternatives.
At the beginning of this year, France announced to replace non-European video platforms, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, with the French-made platform Visio in all government departments by the end of 2027. And now, in April of 2026, the minister of public accounts Daniel Amiel announced the country’s plan to switch its 2.5 million government desktops to Linux and to ditch Microsoft completely.
The government’s goal is to reduce reliance from US tech companies and to gain control over critical digital infrastructure. Thus, France plans to move to European based open source solutions instead, choosing from a long list of European alternatives.
Digital sovereignty – Country overview
Among those countries that have already started to implement first steps to become digitally sovereign are Germany, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Austria. With the movement getting bigger, more countries will follow.
As digital sovereignty is becoming a trend, there are more and more countries realizing the urgency to ditch US Big Tech and to become digitally independent. The following will provide you with an overview of all European countries and cities that have implemented first steps to become digitally sovereign.
Amsterdam
In early 2026, the municipality of Amsterdam has published a Multiyear Digital Autonomy Strategy 2026-2035 which outlines the cities strategy to achieve full digital sovereignty by 2035.
Austria
In the summer of 2025, Austria started an initiative to declare European digital sovereignty and independence by implementing a charter on digital sovereignty. During the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty, that took place in winter the same year, this charter has been adopted by all 27 members of the European Union. The goal is to strengthen Europe’s autonymy regarding the digital infrastructure by promoting open source solutions, for example, switching from Google Workspace to Tuta Mail – an business email alternative that’s based in Germany.
With the Digital Austria Act 2.0 as a basis for Austria’s digital strategy, the country focuses on decreasing its dependency and increasing digital security by relying on open source alternatives.
Denmark abandons Microsoft
In the summer of 2025, the Danish Ministry of Digital Affairs announced that all its employees are to work with Linux and LibreOffice instead of Microsoft. The ministry’s plan is to be completely free from Microsoft and therefore moves to Linux and LibreOffice, as announced by the minister. The reason behind this strategic move is to prioritize digital sovereignty and to reduce the dependence on US tech companies. Moreover, US President Trump’s repeated claims over Greenland further strengthen the country’s desire to become digitally independent from US tech companies.
Germany
In the spring of 2026, the German Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and government Modernization has released a framework stating that in the future only open formats such as Open Document Format (ODF) will be permitted for official documents. Thereby the ministry effectively replaces Microsoft Word as the standard for its government administration. Hence, open formats can serve as key elements to gain digital sovereignty.
This strategic move is part of a bigger German digital strategy called German Stack, “Deutschland-Stack”, that aims to strengthen the country’s digital sovereignty. The overall goal is to increase the use of open source software and to store data within national or European structures.
Schleswig-Holstein uses LibreOffice
The most northern state of Germany, Schleswig-Holstein, is leading the way of Germany’s digital sovereignty and becoming a benchmark for digital sovereignty by replacing Microsoft with open source Linux as the new standard software for office. At the end of 2025, the state announced that they have successfully switched 80% of state government workplaces – in numbers this amounts to a total of 30 000 workplaces – to Linux. An impressive milestone for digital sovereignty! In addition to this, there is another positive outcome besides becoming digitally sovereign: Saving money. Starting in July 2026, the US tech giant will increase Microsoft 365 plans by up to 16.7% so by abandoning its services and switching to digitally sovereign alternatives, the state saves more than 15 million euros for license fees. Thus, ditching Microsoft can also be an economic win!
Background on digital sovereignty
Especially in European countries a trend can be observed to boycott US tech products and replace them with European alternatives instead. Because there are European alternatives on the market. In brief, the term digital sovereignty– including cyber, technological and data sovereignty – refers to the idea to gain independent control over digital infrastructure. The overall aim is to establish a secure digital environment. Among one of its pillars are data privacy and protections. Hence, digital sovereignty and privacy go hand in hand. Because todays threats make the need to have control over your data as urgent as ever.
Especially in European countries a trend can be observed: the boycott of US products to replace them with European alternatives instead. This trend of digital soverignty was sparked by Microsoft when the Big Tech disabled the account of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan.
By today, many politicians and decision makers have understood that too few digital providers have too much control. And we all know that the economic business model of big tech companies like Google, Meta or Microsoft relies on collecting massive amounts of their user’s personal data to sell for ad targeting – this is why they offer their services for free.
The movement of ‘digital sovereignty’ became even more significant with the launch of the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty taking place in Berlin, Germany, with over 900 industry leaders, researchers and policy makers attending. This milestone further highlights that digital sovereignty is not just a trend that may die out in a few months but will become the foundation of Europe’s digital future.
Final thoughts
Tuta Mail, a European digitally sovereign company, offers encrypted Mail, Calendar and Drive solutions you can use to abandon Microsoft.
The trend of digital sovereignty is getting bigger and bigger as more and more countries and cities are starting to abandon US tech companies and rely on European alternatives instead.
This serves as a reminder that only if we work together, we can achieve digital independence. The aforementioned countries, regions, and cities serve as leading examples to show that it is possible to leave US Big Tech and choose European alternatives instead.
One of the European alternatives is Tuta, the company that builds quantum-safe encrypted email, calendar and drive solutions. The provider’s servers are not only based in Germany but it is also GDPR compliant.
In times when Big Tech uses and abuses customers’ data not just for advertisement, but also for AI purposes, digital sovereignty should not be optional for the authorities in the European Union, but a must instead!
