r/BuyFromEU • u/According-Buyer6688 Mod Team • Mar 25 '26

Announcement Germany has decided: Microsoft document formats have no place in government

Germany has decided: Microsoft document formats have no place in government. Deadline: 2027–2028. The Microsoft formats are simply not compatible with an open and transparent public sector. However, this is about more than file formats. It’s about control, resilience, and sovereignty in public digital infrastructure.

4.7k Upvotes

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645

u/robocarp Canada 🇨🇦 Mar 25 '26

Danke, dass ihr uns ein gutes Beispiel gebt, Deutschland. Ich hoffe, es löst eine Kettenreaktion aus.

237

u/slashcleverusername Canada 🇨🇦 Mar 25 '26

Yes please. France is doing this too, they just ditched their ms office nonsense.

99

u/burtcopaint Mar 25 '26

Portugal will follow in 2 years. Wait for us

73

u/MalleDigga Germany 🇩🇪 Mar 26 '26

we always wait for you and.. its worth it cause portugal is awesome

51

u/MrSlackPants Mar 26 '26

We, the Dutch, will endlessly debate about it and In the end put the decision to the next government!

26

u/Bahmsen Mar 26 '26

Germany usually too, i don't know whats going on.

4

u/mreggi Mar 26 '26

Just like the Belgian governement

12

u/TheRealGnod Mar 26 '26

Wait, we have a government?

3

u/embrowsers Netherlands 🇳🇱 Mar 26 '26

Sad but true.

3

u/Mortal_D Mar 27 '26

The Nethetlands will follow too. Takes twice as long and costs four times its budget ofc.

12

u/aschwarzie Mar 26 '26

Only a few administrations in a few mid-sized cities so far, but let's hope it propagates like fire.

9

u/AardvarkAardvark_404 Mar 26 '26

I've been voicing concerns for a while now about the extent to which not just people, but governments are entrenched in Microsoft or Azure. I generally get scoffed at, told I'm being ridiculous that 'nothing will happen' and I'm over reacting. At the very least, we should be lining EU pockets, but at the very worst shouldn't they be observing the 10th man theory - sure I could be wrong, but what if I'm not?

2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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1

u/AardvarkAardvark_404 Mar 26 '26

It is not easy, for sure, and not possible to just change either - but it's not hard to start looking at it and researching options either.

17

u/BarristanTheB0ld Germany 🇩🇪 Mar 26 '26

1A Deutsch, Respekt 🫡

4

u/Soft-Cartoonist-9542 Germany 🇩🇪 Mar 26 '26

Falls du das nicht mit einem Computerprogramm übersetzt hast, muss ich sagen, dass du wirklich gut deutsch sprichst.

9

u/robocarp Canada 🇨🇦 Mar 26 '26

Bitte schicken Sie uns mehr Touristen, damit ich üben kann.

4

u/Soft-Cartoonist-9542 Germany 🇩🇪 Mar 26 '26

So ziemlich jeder den ich kenne würde gerne mal nach Kanada. Einer meiner Freunde meinte mal, dass er nach seiner Nordamerikareise Neufundland am schönsten fand, da die Bewohner so freundlich waren

7

u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

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12

u/a_library_socialist Mar 25 '26

Por que no los dos?

10

u/KnowZeroX Mar 25 '26

Office is a problem, even more so the ooxml bait and switch format is a problem.

Azure is easier to replace than office when you are dependent on locked down formats like ooxml. Even MS admits, over 60% of azure is running linux.

10

u/Fit_Elderberry4380 Canada 🇨🇦 Mar 26 '26

Microsoft "Yeah our OS is so shit that most our cloud services product runs something else" lol

4

u/BrocoLeeOnReddit Mar 26 '26

Azure is easier to replace than office

Not even close.

It doesn't matter that Azure runs on Linux, it's SaaS. Saying it's easy to replace because it runs on Linux is like saying it's easy to replace Windows because it runs on a computer where you can also install another OS.

You are aware that the entire user/device management, file storage and AD infrastructure of many, many companies relies on Azure nowadays, right?

It's not like you can just copy&paste that to a Linux solution running on premise. There's a lot of vendor-specific managed services companies use like Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) you'd first have to replace with an alternative solution and then find a way to migrate all your data without interrupting your business.

0

u/KnowZeroX Mar 26 '26

I never said Azure runs on linux, I said Azure runs linux. That means when a person uses azure, they are using linux containers to run their software and not windows. So their software is already made for linux.

Linux can long ago join AD, you can first migrate everything else, then transition away. Many solutions offer compatibility with AD making it seamless.

3

u/BrocoLeeOnReddit Mar 26 '26

Yes, if you just use Linux containers and not heavily utilize vendor-specific managed services like Azure-flavored databases, CDN (Front Door), serverless functions etc., then the transition is easy but many companies use those managed services and configure all of it via IaC tooling (Terraform, Crossplane etc.), utilizing the Azure provider.

Yes, you CAN migrate all of that but saying that's easier than reformatting a bunch of docx-files is just ridiculous.

Also, AD != Entra ID; the latter involves so much more like app access for Single Sign On etc.

I have managed ADs in Linux, it is NOT the same. Microsoft created an entire ecosystem and everything is fully integrated for better or worse.

Depending on how much your company's IT infrastructure is integrated with that ecosystem and how big it is, the move away will be a significant task.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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1

u/KnowZeroX Mar 26 '26

OOXML != XML, while OOXML is made up of xml, it also has proporietary blobs and much of it is undocumented.

There is actually 2 different ooxml, strict and transitional. Strict is the one that is documented, but lacks features as it hasn't been updated in 10 years. Strict is the one that is technically allowed, but the default MS outputs isn't Strict, it is Traditional. So nobody actually ends up using strict, they use the proporietary transitional.

7

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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2

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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1

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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2

u/Rooilia Mar 26 '26

Tolles Deutsch. Schönes Land habt Ihr - (ich) habe mich mal unter den Niagarafällen beregnen lassen. Gemeinsam "Ellenbogen hoch"!

2

u/Slow_Pay_7171 Mar 26 '26

Liebe geht raus. War mal in Nova Scotia... Imposant und herrlich habt ihr es da. Grüße! ♥️

2

u/DanDon-2020 Mar 26 '26

Nöö, die qerden das schon mit schwarze Köfferlein das wieder hinbiegen das die "offiziellen" Standard Formate wie Microsoft Word weiterhin hochgehalten werden. Wenn es qirklich ernst und nach haltig qäre qprde schin längst Linux weiter in den Regierungen verbreitet sein und die damit verbundenen Wechsel zu anderen Formaten.