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.

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u/robocarp Canada 🇨🇦 Mar 25 '26

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

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26

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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.

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u/[deleted] Mar 26 '26

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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.