Denmark Quietly Shelves Its Pilot to Replace Microsoft Office

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Denmark’s Ministry of Digitalization has quietly dropped, without announcing it, the pilot under which 38 employees were supposed to replace Microsoft Office with Collabora, an open-source office suite, and it has no plans to resume it. Danish outlets Version2 and Computerworld Danmark broke the news, citing a ministry spokesperson: the project stalled when elections were called in early 2026 and was never evaluated as originally planned.

The end of Denmark’s Microsoft Office pilot in 30 seconds

  • Denmark’s Ministry of Digitalization tested Collabora with 38 employees starting in June 2025.
  • Danish media reported formatting problems, blank pages, and issues with track changes.
  • The pilot was dropped when elections were called in 2026, and the ministry will not resume it.
  • No official evaluation of the pilot has been published.
  • The plan announced in 2025 called for dropping Microsoft across the entire ministry by autumn.

The case carries symbolic weight. In June 2025, the then Minister of Digitalization, Caroline Stage (Moderaterne), told the newspaper Politiken that half the ministry’s staff would move to open-source tools over the summer and that, if things went as planned, the whole department would follow in the autumn. She framed it as a first step toward reducing dependence on Big Tech from the United States, against a backdrop of tensions with Washington over Greenland. Cloud News reported at the time that Denmark was beginning its transition to free software at the Ministry of Digitalization.

From Announced LibreOffice to Collabora in Practice

What was announced and what was actually tested weren’t quite the same thing. The reports from June 2025 talked about moving from Office 365 to LibreOffice and replacing Windows with Linux, with the option to roll back if the migration proved too complex. The pilot that eventually launched, according to the Danish press, used Collabora, the online suite based on LibreOffice, supplied by Danish company cBrain and integrated into F2, the ministry’s case management system. Thirty-eight employees from the department took part, with Version2 putting the start date at June 19, 2025. The sources reviewed show no progress on the Linux side.

Problems surfaced quickly. In December 2025, Ingeniøren and Version2 published internal emails and notes showing employee frustration after five months working with the Word alternative, with a headline capturing one worker’s complaint that it was turning their hair gray. According to Computer Sweden, which picked up the report from Computerworld Danmark, the glitches affected document formatting, produced blank pages, and caused issues with track changes. Even so, the ministry said at the time it would press on with open source.

Elections, a Ministry Merger, and No Evaluation

The political shift came later. Denmark held elections in March 2026, and on June 3 the Ministry of Digitalization merged with the Ministry of Higher Education and Research under Minister Christina Egelund, also of Moderaterne. According to Computerworld Danmark, the pilot was dropped once the elections were called. A ministry spokesperson confirmed there are no plans to resume it and that it was not evaluated as planned, so there is no official comparison between Collabora and Microsoft Office showing exactly what went wrong.

That absence is what draws the most criticism. Mikkel Flyverbom, a professor at Copenhagen Business School, told the Danish press he regretted that the ministry hadn’t shared its lessons learned with other public bodies weighing similar steps. Version2 adds in a separate report that the funds set aside to reduce dependence on Big Tech have sat unused at the ministry. Collabora has not publicly commented on the pilot’s end, according to the sources reviewed.

What the Danish Case Teaches

The stumble is no technical surprise. Document exchange between the open ODF format and Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) has caused problems for years, and LibreOffice once accused Microsoft of using a format that was artificially complex. In a ministry that exchanges documents daily with the rest of the administration, which remains on Office, every misaligned page or untracked change becomes extra work.

Other European projects are moving forward with more method. The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has spent years on a planned migration and has replaced Microsoft across much of its administration, while the Netherlands is testing its own Linux-based work environment in eight municipalities. The Danish case shows the opposite: a quick political announcement, a small pilot tied to one specific case-management system, and a shutdown with no published conclusions. The lesson for other governments is less about whether open source works and more about how a migration like this gets planned, measured, and shared.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Denmark dropped Microsoft Office?

No. Denmark’s Ministry of Digitalization tested Collabora with 38 employees starting in June 2025, but the pilot was halted in 2026 and will not be resumed.

Why did the Collabora pilot fail?

According to the Danish press, employees complained about formatting problems, blank pages, and issues with track changes. The pilot was dropped when elections were called and was never evaluated.

What was the original plan?

In June 2025, Minister Caroline Stage announced the ministry would drop Microsoft Office and Windows in favor of open tools, with the entire staff migrated by autumn.

Are other European countries dropping Microsoft?

Yes. Schleswig-Holstein, in Germany, has migrated much of its administration, and the Netherlands is testing DAWO, a Linux-based environment.

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