Switzerland trials ditching Microsoft and using free and open-source software, available for 'around 3,000 employees' from the end of 2027

Microsoft has benefited from its services being used by many different governments and state agencies around the world. In many places, it's become ubiquitous. Some aren't happy about that, however, not least because it keeps you locked into an ecosystem that Microsoft can dictate the price for. As such, some states around Europe have been moving away from Microsoft services and towards open-source ones, and Switzerland now looks to be the latest in considering this.

The Federal Chancellery in Switzerland recently studied, as a proof-of-concept, whether it's feasible for its Federal Administration (part of the executive branch) to function with open-source software instead of Microsoft 365 and concluded yes, it can (via International Cyber Digest). As such, It's going to launch a follow-up program to trial it.

For the study, the whole software caboodle was tested: "document editing, email, calendar, contacts, tasks, file storage, audio and video conferencing, chat, and identity and access management."

Despite "technical, operational, and organizational hurdles that prevent widespread productive use", the study concludes that "the tested browser-based solution is fundamentally suitable for core standard processes."

In other words, while there might be other reasons preventing widespread adoption for now, the study shows it doesn't cause any fundamental problems when switching from MS 365 to other open-source options.

Here is the different software that was tested:

Document editing	Collabora Online
Email	Open-Xchange
Calendar, contacts, tasks	Open-Xchange
File storage	Next Cloud
Project management	OpenProject
Knowledge management (wiki)	XWiki
Audio and video conferencing	Nordest (Jitsi)
Chat	Element
Identity and access management	Univention

The follow-up program will make such software available for thousands of employees.

According to the Swiss Federal Council, "From the end of 2027, around 3,000 employees should be able to use sovereign workplace software with core office functions. Funding will come from resources that Parliament has approved for the development of a sovereign Swiss open-source platform for office automation."

We've already seen a handful of other European countries start to move away from Microsoft services for the sake of "digital sovereignty." France is even moving away from Windows in favour of Linux, "accelerating the reduction of its extra-European dependencies." I don't doubt that saving money is a factor, or at least a nice extra benefit, too.

As I reported earlier in the year, the EU itself has been getting serious about open source, encouraging teams in the EU to move towards open source software and promote adoption elsewhere in Europe.

For my part, thinking for a moment just about the operating system and not different software and services, I've actually been pretty happy with the direction Windows has been going over the last few months. But I'm also a big proponent of all things open source, and it does make sense for state actors to lessen reliance on a single software ecosystem, especially if it can save them money in the long run.