German state finally ditches Outlook, now dumping Office

A German state has successfully dropped Exchange Server and Outlook in favor of open-source alternatives like Mozilla Thunderbird. It plans to dump SharePoint and Microsoft Office next.

Office logo on top of Windows 11 bloom background

Back in 2021, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein said that it doesn't want to be dependent on Microsoft or any closed-source proprietary software, for that matter. As such, it announced plans to ditch Windows and Office applications in favor of alternatives like Linux and LibreOffice. While that migration is still underway, the state did achieve a significant milestone recently.

The Register reports that Schleswig-Holstein has finally gotten rid of Exchange Server and Outlook and migrated fully to Open-Xchange and Mozilla Thunderbird. This is no small feat, as it involved the transfer of almost 30,000 mailboxes and over 100 million emails and calendar items. Although the state did face some challenges along the way, it was ultimately successful in overcoming them.

The German state's Digitalization Minister Dirk Schrödter hailed it as a victory in the path to achieving digital sovereignty, and is quoted as saying (machine translated):

From the State Chancellery and the ministries, to the judiciary and state police, and to other state authorities – our approximately 30,000 employees have embarked on a new path together. We want to become independent of large tech corporations and ensure digital sovereignty. Now we can also say: Mission accomplished when it comes to email communication.

Indeed, this migration can also be seen as a way of breaking free from U.S. tech products in favor of those that can be controlled solely by Europe. In June, a French city also revealed plans to ditch Windows and Office in favor of free open-source software (FOSS) alternatives. In 2004, the German city of Munich moved to Linux as well, but realized by 2017 that managing it was actually a disaster, so it moved back to Windows 10.

It remains to be seen if Schleswig-Holstein will succeed in its latest endeavor. The next phase of this migration involves replacing SharePoint with Nextcloud and dropping Microsoft's Office suite in favor of LibreOffice. Linux is still being tested as a viable alternative to Windows, with a migration deadline set for 2027.