--- title: The Netherlands is building a NixOS-based government... description: The Dutch government is building DAWO, a NixOS-based government desktop environment intended to replace reliance on US software vendors like Microsoft. The... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-netherlands-is-building-a-nixos-based-government-desktop-after-microsoft-cut-off-the-icc-dodptgq5l twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Netherlands is building a NixOS-based government desktop after Microsoft cut off the ICC | daily.dev og:description: The Dutch government is building DAWO, a NixOS-based government desktop environment intended to replace reliance on US software vendors like Microsoft. The... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-netherlands-is-building-a-nixos-based-government-desktop-after-microsoft-cut-off-the-icc-dodptgq5l og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/dOdptgQ5l.png og:image:alt: The Netherlands is building a NixOS-based government desktop after Microsoft cut off the ICC 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 Netherlands is building a NixOS-based government desktop after Microsoft cut off the ICC **[Collections](https://daily.dev/sources/collections)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary The Dutch government is building DAWO, a NixOS-based government desktop environment intended to replace reliance on US software vendors like Microsoft. The project covers the OS, office suite, collaboration tools, cloud services, IT management, and AI tooling. NixOS was chosen over openSUSE and Fedora specifically because it has no commercial parent company tied to a US firm. The trigger was Microsoft cutting off the ICC's chief prosecutor's access after US sanctions in early 2025. Three Dutch IT agencies are developing it with code hosted on Forgejo and Codeberg instead of GitHub. Eight municipalities are piloting it on old laptops, with a stable release planned for next year. ## Content ## Why this happened Earlier in 2025, US sanctions on the International Criminal Court led Microsoft to cut off the ICC's chief prosecutor from its services. For Dutch officials, that was a wake-up call. If a foreign government's policy decisions can sever access to tools your civil servants depend on daily, that's a real problem - not a theoretical one. The response is DAWO (Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid, or "Digitally Autonomous Work Environment for Government"), a NixOS-based desktop platform meant to replace Windows across Dutch government PCs. ## Why NixOS specifically The Dutch evaluated openSUSE and Fedora but ruled both out over sovereignty concerns - each has commercial ownership ties to US companies. NixOS doesn't. Development is being handled by three Dutch government IT agencies: SSC-ICT, DICTU, and DUO-ICT. Code is hosted on Forgejo and Codeberg rather than GitHub. The platform isn't just an OS swap. DAWO covers the full stack: operating system, office suite, collaboration tools, cloud services, IT management, and AI tooling. ## Where things stand Eight municipalities are currently piloting the system on decommissioned laptops. A first stable release is planned for next year. The Netherlands joins a pattern that's been building across Europe. Germany, Denmark, and France have all made similar moves toward open-source government infrastructure, each with varying degrees of success and commitment. What's different here is the specific trigger - the ICC incident made the dependency risk concrete and visible in a way that's hard to argue with politically. ## The broader Linux news context This comes at an interesting moment for Linux on the desktop more generally. Google is reportedly slowing Android security patch releases from monthly to quarterly, which is causing real problems for alternative ROM projects like GrapheneOS that depend on timely upstream patches. KDE and GNOME are both wrestling with AI contribution policies. SteamOS 3.9 stable landed recently. A kernel patch improved file-open speed by 39%. None of that is directly related to DAWO, but it's worth noting that the open-source ecosystem the Dutch are betting on is active and moving fast - for better and worse. ## Questions this post answers ### Why did the Netherlands choose NixOS instead of openSUSE or Fedora for its government desktop project? NixOS was chosen because it has no commercial parent company tied to a US corporation, unlike openSUSE (owned by SUSE) and Fedora (backed by Red Hat, an IBM subsidiary). For a project explicitly aimed at reducing dependence on foreign vendors, tying the OS layer to a US-linked company would defeat the purpose. NixOS's independent governance made it the deciding factor for the OS layer of the DAWO project. _Teams weighing sovereignty and vendor lock-in in OS choices can track projects like this on daily.dev._ ### What caused the Dutch government to start building its own Linux-based desktop environment called DAWO? The trigger was Microsoft cutting off the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor from its services in early 2025, after US sanctions targeted the ICC. Dutch officials saw this as proof that a policy change in Washington could sever government access to essential software overnight, prompting development of DAWO, a full sovereign stack covering OS, office tools, collaboration, cloud, IT management, and AI tooling. _Developers evaluating vendor risk in government or enterprise stacks can follow sovereignty-driven IT shifts on daily.dev._ ### Who is developing the Dutch DAWO government desktop project and where is the code hosted? Three Dutch government IT agencies - SSC-ICT, DICTU, and DUO-ICT - are developing DAWO, with code hosted on Forgejo and Codeberg rather than GitHub, reinforcing the project's independence from US-based platforms. Eight municipalities are currently piloting the system on decommissioned laptops, with a first stable release planned for next year. _Anyone tracking self-hosted, non-US code forge adoption can follow projects like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [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 - [Can Dutch universities do without Microsoft?](https://daily.dev/posts/can-dutch-universities-do-without-microsoft--qs2kdxlb0) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#nixos](https://daily.dev/tags/nixos) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-netherlands-is-building-a-nixos-based-government-desktop-after-microsoft-cut-off-the-icc-dodptgq5l) ```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 Netherlands is building a NixOS-based government desktop after Microsoft cut off the ICC","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-netherlands-is-building-a-nixos-based-government-desktop-after-microsoft-cut-off-the-icc-dodptgq5l","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-netherlands-is-building-a-nixos-based-government-desktop-after-microsoft-cut-off-the-icc-dodptgq5l"},"datePublished":"2026-09-25T12:13:52.151Z","dateModified":"2026-09-26T09:39:19.841Z","description":"The Dutch government is building DAWO, a NixOS-based government desktop environment intended to replace reliance on US software vendors like Microsoft. 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For a project explicitly aimed at reducing dependence on foreign vendors, tying the OS layer to a US-linked company would defeat the purpose. NixOS's independent governance made it the deciding factor for the OS layer of the DAWO project. Teams weighing sovereignty and vendor lock-in in OS choices can track projects like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What caused the Dutch government to start building its own Linux-based desktop environment called DAWO?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The trigger was Microsoft cutting off the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor from its services in early 2025, after US sanctions targeted the ICC. Dutch officials saw this as proof that a policy change in Washington could sever government access to essential software overnight, prompting development of DAWO, a full sovereign stack covering OS, office tools, collaboration, cloud, IT management, and AI tooling. 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