The Danish government's initiative to replace Microsoft Office with the open-source alternative Collabora has concluded in less than six months. The project, launched by former Digitization Minister Caroline Stage, aimed to decrease the country's reliance on American software providers.
Employees reported significant operational challenges during the trial. Specifically, users encountered persistent issues with document style, paragraph formatting, the appearance of blank pages, and difficulties in tracking document changes.
The software was required to integrate with the Ministry of Digitization's central case management system, known as F2. Despite the availability of other alternatives like OnlyOffice, OpenOffice, and Calligra, the government limited its testing exclusively to Collabora.
Professor Mikkel Flyberbom from the Copenhagen Business School noted that the government has not yet conducted a formal evaluation of the project. He emphasized that the ministry should analyze the pilot results and share findings with other public sector entities.
