Lyon is the 3rd largest city in France and the capital of the second most crucial economical region of the country. The local government has just announced its resignation from Microsoft's solutions services open source. Migration from Windows and Office 365 to Linux and Office Package OnlyOffice will cover more than 10,000 public sphere employees. The Lyon authorities besides envisage the implementation of an open database standard and the improvement – including software-based open source – videoconferencing strategy on the network.
To put it plainly: all these Teams, OneDrive’s, Words, PowerPoints and Excele that you know (presumably besides from your own work), and that are provided to state offices for solid money, will be replaced by non-commercial, free and open sourced solutions.
We're not talking about private computers, of course, no 1 will be forced to switch. The change concerns public service computers, schools and offices. The Lyon authorities justify the decision by requiring independency from U.S. software providers, protection of data from non-EU users, but also... environmentalism, as moving distant from Windows prolongs the life of computer hardware.
Another argument raised is savings. Microsoft software licenses cost a lot, and more than half of the contracts for fresh open systems have already gone to local companies – not even “French”, but to companies in the Owernia-Rodan-Alpy region whose capital is Lyon.
Big Break-up Time
Using non-commercial solutions open source in the public sphere, it is not different in France. The French gendarmerie has been utilizing GendBuntu since 2005, or its own operating strategy based on 1 of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu. Besides, the French have been trying to implement specified solutions for over a 4th of a decade; the first pilots were already conducted in 1999. In 2012, the government already officially recommended utilizing open software, and the Digital Republic Act 2016 requires public data to be stored in open format files (so that reading them does not require the acquisition of commercial software licenses.
However, it is not only in France that you leave Microsoft products in the public sphere for open software and Linux operating systems. In addition to the fact that specified solutions have been introduced in Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Spain for years, June 2025 itself was abounding in reports of breakups with the Redmond corporation.
On June 10, Denmark's Digital Minister Caroline phase announced that by autumn, all employees of her department would decision from Microsoft solutions to Linux and LibreOffice. A week earlier, akin decisions were announced by 2 large Danish cities: Copenhagen and Aarhus. besides in June, massive implementation of software open source In place of Microsoft's products, the Minister of Digitization of the German Land of Schleswig-Holstein announced: by autumn, almost all officials, judges and police officers will pass specified a transfer, with a full of about 30,000 public administration staff.
Why now?
Despite the fact that in the second German case we are faced with the culmination of a long-term process, it is hard not to get the impression that we are seeing an increase in a certain trend. possibly global politics is not what straight causes Windows to be thrown out of European offices, but the thesis that Donald Trump's madness is speeding up this process has a good chance of defending itself.
In the first half of this year, in the context of the American president, it was rather loud about... okay, quite a few things. That's why the 1 I'm going to mention right now can go through with no more echoes. In November 2024, the global Criminal Court in The Hague issued an global BOLO for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as for erstwhile defence minister Jo’aw Galant. Both were accused of war crimes, including the usage of hunger as a method of conducting war, and of deliberately attacking civilians in the Gaza Strip. Donald Trump's administration then concluded that the Court was abusers of its power and that his decision threatens US citizens and American soldiers, violates the sovereignty of the United States and undermines the national safety and politics of the States and their allies, including Israel.
In early 2025, Donald Trump imposed financial and visa sanctions on those active in the ICC's activities towards Israel, but besides on those supporting the ICC materially, thus putting Israel and the US above global law. And it just so happens that right after Microsoft shut down the email box to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan. A tiny thing that most likely didn't make his life any worse (the more so that his head most likely bothers him about the sexual abuse he's been accused of, but that's a separate subject).
This tiny event has caused rather crucial reactions. Euro MP Bart Groothuis (former head of cybersecurity in the Dutch Ministry of Defence) said for the “New York Times”: “The case of the ICC shows that specified things can happen. It's not a fantasy. [...] As a Europe, we must take steps towards independence.”
Microsoft besides reacted. The company argued in authoritative communications that its interference with the operation of an independent global court was first an incident, and secondly the incidental took place in agreement with the ICC itself. And that he has long been working on changes to the rules of his products, which let European customers to be absolutely certain that this will not happen again. And that these customers can feel absolutely safe, due to the fact that US policy will not affect their ability to usage Microsoft software. And yet, it is just now that Microsoft managed to implement all these changes – what a coincidence.
Similar statements were besides made by Google and Amazon, and Satya Nadella, the current CEO of Microsoft, from all this until he went to Amsterdam to submit these assurances personally from the stage.
In fact, Microsoft has a tradition of visiting Europe erstwhile it is threatened with losing customers. erstwhile the Munich authorities began to migrate public infrastructure from Microsoft products on Linux and OpenOffice in 2003, the city immediately visited the company's then CEO, Steve Ballmer, to talk the city out of it. It worked, but only 14 years later, after the change of authorities, the transfer of the German company's office to Munich and after another visit of the fresh president. However, this success did not last long, due to the fact that in 2020 the authorities of the Munich Land changed again, and the fresh coalition announced a return to a simple regulation that where there is public money, the origin code should besides be public.
Google and everything.
Microsoft products are utilized in almost all public administration office. And erstwhile employees of this administration process public documentation and information about themselves, all these data, analyses, reports, and statistic end up on private servers of the American corporation, which is simply a corp working with the American government under construction post-pitalist, technofeudal dystopia.
However, dependence on commercial solutions besides has a much more mundane dimension. You don't gotta imagine a world-wide digital government to realize the threat. It is adequate to imagine that a capitalist monopolisist (which Microsoft undoubtedly is, as the European Commission has besides admitted) will change its price list and will arbitrarily charge established fees from each beginning of a single file.
Unreal? Not more than 2 years ago, Unity owners – a video game improvement software, utilized by many tiny independent developers – announced the introduction of a fee on each installation of the game created on their engine. Although they withdrew from this after an imaged disaster and changing the company's authorities, there is no reason to believe that Microsoft would never do the same. Especially from a monopoly position.
That is why it is so crucial to abandon Microsoft products and services in the public sphere. Especially with the current level of solutions open source there truly is no reason for public administration in the European Union to trust on the goodwill of 1 American corporation. Just as there is no reason for your office package, which you usage on your own computer to read letters from offices, requires a continuous online connection and is permanently integrated with an AI assistant.
Therefore, erstwhile local authorities control to open software, Microsoft loses primarily. However, he is not the only 1 who is helping the United States to hold Europe's throat. According to Synergy investigation Group, US corporations, including Microsoft, Amazon and Google control 70% of the marketplace cloud computing Europe. possibly this is what causes the simplest activities of utilizing computers to require a permanent connection to the Internet.
What does that mean? In fact, as we have put our private lives into the hands of global (or American) data traders, we have besides put the public sphere in the hands of the American government. Since 2001 and 9/11 bombings The Patriot Act is in force in the US, a law that increases the anticipation of obtaining individual data without a court order, which in practice means the cooperation of corporate owners of the cloud with the national government. Besides, this is what the leaks brought to light in 2013 by signal and erstwhile CIA worker Edward Snowden. Today, it is not a large mystery, due to the fact that there are less and less reasons to hide that part of the digital infrastructure of American institutions, including the CIA, uses commercial solutions – specified as Amazon Web Services.
Since the swearing-in of Donald Trump, cooperation with Obama has developed rapidly. Palantir company Peter Thiel (co-founder along with Elon Musk's PayPal service and political sponsor of J.D. Vance's career). Palantir implements in American institutions a solution called Foundry, which allows to collect data from different places, specified as wellness ministry, or insurance system, and automatically cataloguing them into very detailed individual profiles, which already contain almost all item of life. large date in action.
Google (or alternatively the Alphabet group, of which Google is simply a part) may or may have promoted the slogan "don’t be evil", but has been working with the American authorities eagerly since at least 2001. Peter Schmidt, erstwhile Google manager (and for any time at the same time Apple) actively co-founded both Barack Obama's winning presidential campaigns, and in 2016 took the position of president of the Defence Innovation Advisory Committee to formalize and strengthen cooperation between the government and Silicon Valley companies.
Poland in the cloud
The relation between the American administration and technological giants can and should be worrying. However, the countries of Europe have in their hands all the tools to become independent of these companies and their products. It is not adequate just to wait out Donald Trump in the hope that in a fewer years he will be beautiful – all these connections will remain, and the US authorities will benefit from them, due to the fact that the "US national interest" will besides stay the same.
Digital sovereignty is something worth trying for. It has practically the same advantages, specified as crucial financial savings (in case it is essential to talk about it with Polish neoliberals), and it is much easier to accomplish it than it may seem. The cooling of transatlantic relations over fresh months may be an chance in this context.
After Trump's fight with Zelenski, many commentators stressed that now Europe can yet shake and put on its own defenses to guarantee its own safety, no substance how unpredictable the president chooses America. Digital safety is precisely the same. However, the biggest obstacle may be lobbying.
So we go to Poland and ask how our country finds itself in this digital layout. Spoiler: very weak. After the change of power in 2023, 1 of the first decisions of the Minister of Digitization, Krzysztof Gawkowski, was to establish an advisory body, which most likely functions only so that the American digital giants have their people as close to the government as possible. "Digitalisation Council", which includes Michał Kannik (President of the Digital Union of Poland, which includes Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta) and Marta Popak (Director of Transatlantic Relations and Public Policy of Google to the Central and east Europe region, associate of the Board of Directors of the American Chamber of Commerce in Poland). Gawkowski besides formed an advisory squad called “PL/AI Artificial Intelligence for Poland”, which includes, for example, Karol Kurach from Google and Tomasz Czajka from Space X.
Marta Poczt late gave the Business Insider Polska portal an interview on American-Polish relations and I must admit that I even respect this directness. As a typical of Google and the American Chamber of Commerce, he repeatedly commends Poland as a model ally, fulfilling all the requirements of the United States, and assures that everything will be fine, unless we start jumping with any digital taxation "Poland present is simply a model for the remainder of Europe erstwhile it comes to good relations with the States. It is crucial not to change this course and not to engage in confrontational activities).
When asked about the repolonization of the economy, which Prime Minister Donald Tusk mentioned any time ago, he says that since the repolonization it is the United States in Poland “We hope that we are talking about repolonization understood as open cooperation. 1 that projects large projects involving American companies." Marta Poczt emphasizes that stableness is crucial for American companies and sees worrying features on transatlantic economical cooperation, namely the question of customs. Who has caused and how it affects all this stability, Marta Poczt omits, and the writer does not ask, due to the fact that and They don't pay him to dig..
With this in head about the digital sovereignty of Poland and giving delicate data to an American ally I will leave you.
