The Danish government has officially abandoned its initiative to replace Microsoft Office with alternative software. The project aimed to reduce reliance on American technology firms and mitigate risks associated with shifting US government policies.
The plan involved testing the Collabora office suite as a replacement for Microsoft products. Last year, 38 government employees participated in a pilot program to evaluate the software's performance with existing documents.
The pilot was terminated following elections held earlier this year and will not be resumed. Officials confirmed that no formal comparative assessment between Collabora and Microsoft Office was completed before the project ended.
Technical difficulties emerged during the testing phase, specifically regarding document formatting. Users reported issues with layout consistency and blank pages when exchanging files between the two platforms, largely due to incompatibilities between the Open Document Format and Microsoft's proprietary Office Open XML format.
Denmark is not the only entity seeking to reduce its dependence on Microsoft. Similar efforts are underway in France, where there are plans to replace Windows with Linux, and within the European Union, which is exploring alternatives to Microsoft Teams.
