--- title: The Dutch government is building its own Linux desktop... description: The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is building DAWO, a sovereign digital workplace for civil servants based on a NixOS desktop, alongside... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Dutch government is building its own Linux desktop on NixOS | daily.dev og:description: The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is building DAWO, a sovereign digital workplace for civil servants based on a NixOS desktop, alongside... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/PV58F4XQ8.png og:image:alt: The Dutch government is building its own Linux desktop on NixOS 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. # The Dutch government is building its own Linux desktop on NixOS **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is building DAWO, a sovereign digital workplace for civil servants based on a NixOS desktop, alongside an office suite, collaboration apps, cloud services and management tools. Eight municipalities are piloting it, with 's-Hertogenbosch, Zaanstad, Ede and Amsterdam already named. The project traces to early 2025, after US sanctions on the International Criminal Court exposed the government's dependence on non-European tech. The team tried openSUSE and Fedora before settling on NixOS for its Dutch roots, lack of corporate control, and reusable package configurations (80-90% of Nix code is reusable across organizations). A graphical management tool lets Windows admins run it without learning Linux commands. There is no formal timeline, though a version 1.0 release is hoped for next year, and developers caution that open source shifts costs rather than eliminating them. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why did the Dutch government choose NixOS over openSUSE or Fedora for its government desktop project? The Dutch government's DAWO project chose NixOS because it has Dutch roots and no commercial company controls it, unlike openSUSE (backed by SUSE) or Fedora (backed by IBM-owned Red Hat). Nix also stores each package in its own locked folder, making setups easy to copy between organizations, with developers estimating 80-90% of Nix code is reusable across deployments. _Developers weighing Linux distros for sovereignty or reproducibility can follow real-world NixOS adoption stories on daily.dev._ ### What is the Dutch government's DAWO project and what does it include? DAWO, short for Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid (Digital Autonomous Government Work Environment), is a sovereign digital workplace being built by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations for civil servants. Its blueprint covers a NixOS-based operating system, an office suite, collaboration apps, cloud services, and management tools, and is being piloted across eight municipalities including Amsterdam and Zaanstad. _Teams evaluating open source alternatives to Windows can track sovereignty-driven Linux projects like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The Netherlands Picked NixOS. France Was Already Using It](https://daily.dev/posts/the-netherlands-picked-nixos-france-was-already-using-it-ghccska05) · It's Foss · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?](https://daily.dev/posts/can-dutch-universities-do-without-microsoft--qs2kdxlb0) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Go Away Microsoft\! The Netherlands is Quietly Building Its Own GitHub Replacement](https://daily.dev/posts/go-away-microsoft-the-netherlands-is-quietly-building-its-own-github-replacement-terk236fn) · It's Foss · 199 upvotes · 22 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#nixos](https://daily.dev/tags/nixos) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8) ```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":"The Dutch government is building its own Linux desktop on NixOS","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8"},"datePublished":"2026-09-29T11:22:40.986Z","dateModified":"2026-09-30T05:28:37.701Z","description":"The Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations is building DAWO, a sovereign digital workplace for civil servants based on a NixOS desktop, alongside...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/44d4acc97a395e7e873fa8eec4899f2a?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/44d4acc97a395e7e873fa8eec4899f2a?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","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":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,linux,nixos","timeRequired":"PT3M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Dutch government is building its own Linux desktop on NixOS"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-dutch-government-is-building-its-own-linux-desktop-on-nixos-pv58f4xq8#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did the Dutch government choose NixOS over openSUSE or Fedora for its government desktop project?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The Dutch government's DAWO project chose NixOS because it has Dutch roots and no commercial company controls it, unlike openSUSE (backed by SUSE) or Fedora (backed by IBM-owned Red Hat). Nix also stores each package in its own locked folder, making setups easy to copy between organizations, with developers estimating 80-90% of Nix code is reusable across deployments. Developers weighing Linux distros for sovereignty or reproducibility can follow real-world NixOS adoption stories on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the Dutch government's DAWO project and what does it include?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"DAWO, short for Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid (Digital Autonomous Government Work Environment), is a sovereign digital workplace being built by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations for civil servants. Its blueprint covers a NixOS-based operating system, an office suite, collaboration apps, cloud services, and management tools, and is being piloted across eight municipalities including Amsterdam and Zaanstad. Teams evaluating open source alternatives to Windows can track sovereignty-driven Linux projects like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```