--- title: Switzerland is piloting open-source software on 3,000... description: Switzerland's federal government is piloting openDesk, a German open-source productivity suite, on 3,000 government PCs (about 7% of the federal workforce),... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Switzerland is piloting open-source software on 3,000 government PCs as Microsoft concerns grow | daily.dev og:description: Switzerland's federal government is piloting openDesk, a German open-source productivity suite, on 3,000 government PCs (about 7% of the federal workforce),... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/peDzSbFfO.png og:image:alt: Switzerland is piloting open-source software on 3,000 government PCs as Microsoft concerns grow og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Switzerland is piloting open-source software on 3,000 government PCs as Microsoft concerns grow **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Switzerland's federal government is piloting openDesk, a German open-source productivity suite, on 3,000 government PCs (about 7% of the federal workforce), backed by CHF 9 million, with a goal to finish by end of 2027. The pilot follows a smaller 172-employee proof-of-concept where document processing and email fared well but large video calls still relied on Microsoft Teams. Switzerland's Cyber Command is moving faster, targeting a full Microsoft 365 replacement by October 2026. Motivations include worries about foreign (US) cloud law access to data, vendor lock-in, rising licensing costs, the 2024 EMBAG law favoring open-source, and a December 2025 Federal Council digital sovereignty decision. If successful, all 54,000 federal PCs could eventually migrate. France and China are cited as pursuing similar moves away from foreign software dependency. ## Content ## Switzerland moves away from Microsoft 365 Switzerland's Federal Chancellery has launched a pilot to replace Microsoft 365 with openDesk, a German open-source suite built on Collabora, OpenXchange, and Nextcloud, across 3,000 workstations. That's roughly 7% of the federal workforce, with the pilot targeting completion by end of 2027. The investment is CHF 9 million. This follows a proof-of-concept with 172 employees that went reasonably well: document processing and email got positive marks, though large video calls still leaned on Teams. During the expanded pilot, openDesk runs alongside Microsoft 365 rather than replacing it outright. If things go well, all 54,000 government PCs could eventually migrate. The Swiss Cyber Command is moving faster than the rest of the government, aiming to fully replace Microsoft 365 with openDesk by October 2026. The motivations are familiar: concerns about foreign government access to data under US cloud law, vendor lock-in, and rising licensing costs. The 2024 EMBAG open-source law and a December 2025 Federal Council decision naming digital sovereignty a priority both pushed this forward. Switzerland joins France (shifting from Windows to Linux) and China (deploying homegrown Linux distros) in a broader pattern of governments trying to reduce dependence on US software vendors. --- ## Other Linux and open-source news **Omarchy raises $18.5M, including $3M from DigitalOcean.** The nonprofit Omarchy.com has reached $18.5 million in total funding. The timing is a little awkward: DigitalOcean's $3 million donation to Omarchy coincided with the company quietly dropping its smaller GNOME and KDE sponsorships. **GNOME and KDE updates.** GNOME is proposing an RFC-based governance process and has an end-of-year fundraising campaign coming. KDE is weighing a new app called Photos as a replacement for Gwenview, and has landed Wayland commit-timing protocol support in Plasma 6.8, along with KDE Frameworks performance fixes. A Mini Desktop 1.2 beta revives KDE1 for anyone feeling nostalgic. **Asahi Linux adds early A18 Pro and MacBook Neo support.** **Firefox Nova redesign ships in Firefox 157**, due September 29. **Fedora vs. Windows 11 benchmark.** A robot-run benchmark had Fedora beating Windows 11 in six of eleven tasks. **Bottles gains experimental ARM64 support.** **Open CAD Studio** released a Rust-based, GPU-accelerated CAD app targeting Linux, Windows, Mac, and web. **CERN has migrated to Debian.** **Jellyfin 12.0** ships with a versioning change. **Nitter is back** after receiving a cease-and-desist from X Corp. **Ikey Doherty** (of Solus fame) released Barney, a new Rust-based distro-building tool. **PS5 Linux project** is expanding firmware support. **DLSS5 VK layer tool** lets you apply DLSS5 upscaling to games on Linux via Wine/Proton. **Windows 11** shipped an update adding basic taskbar and Start menu features that users have been asking for since launch. Better late than never. ## Questions this post answers ### What is openDesk and why is Switzerland's government adopting it instead of Microsoft 365? OpenDesk is a German open-source productivity suite that the Swiss federal government is piloting on 3,000 workstations, about 7% of the federal workforce, backed by CHF 9 million in funding. The goal is to reduce reliance on Microsoft 365 over concerns about foreign government access to data under US cloud law, vendor lock-in, and rising licensing costs. The pilot runs openDesk alongside Microsoft 365, targeting completion by end of 2027, with the possibility of migrating all 54,000 federal PCs if it succeeds. _Following government moves away from Microsoft toward open-source alternatives? daily.dev tracks digital sovereignty and open-source shifts as they unfold._ ### Does openDesk support large video conferencing like Microsoft Teams does? Not yet fully. In an earlier proof-of-concept with 172 employees, document processing and email received positive marks, but large video calls still relied on Microsoft Teams, indicating video conferencing remains openDesk's weakest area as Switzerland scales its pilot to 3,000 government PCs. _Evaluating open-source alternatives to Microsoft Teams? daily.dev surfaces real-world adoption gaps like this one._ ### What law is pushing Swiss government agencies toward open-source software? The 2024 EMBAG law requires Swiss public bodies to prefer open-source software where possible, and a December 2025 Federal Council decision further named digital sovereignty a priority. These policies underpin the federal government's 3,000-PC openDesk pilot and Cyber Command's faster-tracked full replacement of Microsoft 365, targeted for October 2026. _Tracking public-sector open-source mandates like EMBAG? daily.dev keeps developers current on digital sovereignty policy shifts._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Swiss authorities want to reduce dependency on Microsoft](https://daily.dev/posts/swiss-authorities-want-to-reduce-dependency-on-microsoft-7bhend8nk) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Switzerland is piloting open-source software on 3,000 government PCs as Microsoft concerns grow","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo"},"datePublished":"2026-09-09T03:11:57.874Z","dateModified":"2026-09-12T09:07:33.259Z","description":"Switzerland's federal government is piloting openDesk, a German open-source productivity suite, on 3,000 government PCs (about 7% of the federal workforce),...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/44750cde005b46ef0cebd3726b33baf2?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/44750cde005b46ef0cebd3726b33baf2?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collections","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Collections","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--fk_6ycEi--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780996001/logos/collections?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,microsoft","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collections","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collections"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Switzerland is piloting open-source software on 3,000 government PCs as Microsoft concerns grow"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/switzerland-is-piloting-open-source-software-on-3-000-government-pcs-as-microsoft-concerns-grow-pedzsbffo#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is openDesk and why is Switzerland's government adopting it instead of Microsoft 365?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"OpenDesk is a German open-source productivity suite that the Swiss federal government is piloting on 3,000 workstations, about 7% of the federal workforce, backed by CHF 9 million in funding. The goal is to reduce reliance on Microsoft 365 over concerns about foreign government access to data under US cloud law, vendor lock-in, and rising licensing costs. The pilot runs openDesk alongside Microsoft 365, targeting completion by end of 2027, with the possibility of migrating all 54,000 federal PCs if it succeeds. Following government moves away from Microsoft toward open-source alternatives? daily.dev tracks digital sovereignty and open-source shifts as they unfold."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Does openDesk support large video conferencing like Microsoft Teams does?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Not yet fully. In an earlier proof-of-concept with 172 employees, document processing and email received positive marks, but large video calls still relied on Microsoft Teams, indicating video conferencing remains openDesk's weakest area as Switzerland scales its pilot to 3,000 government PCs. Evaluating open-source alternatives to Microsoft Teams? daily.dev surfaces real-world adoption gaps like this one."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What law is pushing Swiss government agencies toward open-source software?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The 2024 EMBAG law requires Swiss public bodies to prefer open-source software where possible, and a December 2025 Federal Council decision further named digital sovereignty a priority. These policies underpin the federal government's 3,000-PC openDesk pilot and Cyber Command's faster-tracked full replacement of Microsoft 365, targeted for October 2026. Tracking public-sector open-source mandates like EMBAG? daily.dev keeps developers current on digital sovereignty policy shifts."}}]} ```