Schleswig-Holstein [Germany’s most Northern state] started its open source journey early, becoming something of a vanguard in Europe’s move away from proprietary software [by ditching Microsoft and introducing Linux and LibreOffice].
Now, Dirk Schrödter, the Minister for Digital Transformation of the state, has shared some remarkable numbers (link to article in German language) that prove the financial case for implementing open source for government use cases.
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According to Schrödter’s ministry, Schleswig-Holstein will save over €15 million in license costs in 2026. This is money the state previously paid Microsoft for Office 365 and related services.
The savings come from nearly completing the migration to LibreOffice. Outside the tax administration, almost 80% of workplaces in the state government are said to have made the switch.
The remaining 20% of workplaces still depend on Microsoft programs. Technical dependencies in certain specialized applications keep these systems tied to Word or Excel for now. But converting these remaining computers is the end goal.
There is also a one-time €9 million investment set in motion for 2026, which would be used to complete the migration and further develop the open source solutions for the ministry.
[…]
Don’t know about the monetary side but I read in an interview with someone from the Green-party who’s in charge in SH (ironically with the conservative CDU) that they’ll operate under a “upstream-only” strategy which means they won’t create forks of projects but contribute their changes directly into the original repos, e.g. they’re working on AI solutions with Nextcloud to accelerate buerocratic processes within the public sector (with a focus on the ethical aspect).
… I think I understand what you mean and that’s probably a good approach, but good grief the initial read of "governmental groups committing changes to main that enable AI for greater bureaucratic compatibility " is one of the most stressful things I can think of.
Oh you probably meant the Orwellian undertone, right?
I have quite some faith in them keeping their word regarding the ethical side considering their track-record on their FOSS stance. The Nextcloud “CEO” Frank Karlitschek has a very hard stance regarding privacy and also spares no words regarding the situation in the US. Don’t even know if this specific AI thing will go upstream as it’s very domain specific. I consider the government of the state of SH as one of better ones in Germany though I live in another state. I haven’t lost all faith in the Green party and their minister president seems a bit more progressive than most other CDU politicians.