German State Replaces Microsoft Exchange and Outlook with Open-Source Email

Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago

CrankyBear

79 points

25 comments

zdnet.comTechstory

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Open-SourceEmailDigital Sovereignty

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Open-Source

Digital Sovereignty

A German state is replacing Microsoft Exchange and Outlook with open-source email solutions, sparking discussion about the challenges and benefits of digital sovereignty and the role of open-source software.

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01Story posted
Oct 13, 2025 at 3:41 PM EDT
3 months ago
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Oct 16, 2025 at 10:36 AM EDT
3 months ago
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Discussion (25 comments)

Showing 25 comments

palata

3 months ago

4 replies

It has been tried over the years. The question really is how much the employees understand and care about digital sovereignty. If they keep complaining because they have to learn new tools, they will eventually go back to Microsoft...

dude250711

3 months ago

2 replies

I have read today that Linux users are like vegans of computing.

misswaterfairy

3 months ago

1 reply

Vegetarians for those who use a combination of open source and closed source code and applications

jraph

3 months ago

1 reply

More like flexitarians maybe.

palata

3 months ago

Flexitarians just use whatever works, but they are aware that some of the stuff they use is not proprietary :-).

estimator7292

3 months ago

2 replies

Linux users in general are vegetarians.

Arch users are the vegans of the Linux world.

I use Arch, btw

jraph

3 months ago

1 reply

> Arch users are the vegans of the Linux world.

Why would Arch be in that position?

palata

3 months ago

1 reply

I think the joke is about Arch users feeling the need to mention it ("I use Arch, btw"). Vegans have the same reputation, vegetarians don't.

jraph

3 months ago

Ah! Got it, thanks.

codingbot3000

3 months ago

Have you heard about the Arch Vegan already? The memes kind of write themselves...

shirro

3 months ago

I doubt the employees will make a difference. It is likely more about the lobbying power of Microsoft and them finding a person at the right level who is receptive to their appeals and has the power to revert the policy.

There are a lot of tech people who appreciate open source software and understand the benefits of digital sovereignty but its rare for them to have the final say in most orgs.

Just about every org in my country uses Microsoft's email including universities, government, schools, businesses. I am sure it has some features that make it a good choice but its is unusual for any product to have practically 100% market share and no competition regardless of technical or usability advantages. Microsoft has huge resources and knows how to win customers.

codingbot3000

3 months ago

You're quite right. The German city of Munich tried to switch their administration to Linux with their own LiMux Ubuntu flair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux). Unfortunately some of the (generally grumpy Bavarian) employees did not like it, and Microsoft's lobbying finally got the city council to dump it.

toomuchtodo

3 months ago

The employees don't have to care, they will use whatever they're directed to use. It is whether the German government cares about digital sovereignty.

ahartmetz

3 months ago

1 reply

Note a German state (a not very large one of the 16 federal states), not the German state

bdangubic

3 months ago

1 reply

when you want to fully get off anything running on US-based companies controlled by our King you are not gong to start with Bavaria…

throwaway31131

3 months ago

Maybe not all Bavaria, but the capital has been trying since 2004.

https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-so...

ocdtrekkie

3 months ago

1 reply

I am really curious as Microsoft deprecates some of their older proprietary protocols in favor of standards, if there will be a point Exchange can be substituted without Outlook users noticing the difference. Getting people to leave Office products is super hard, whereas the server is something most people do not know they are using.

(Obviously 365 bundles are designed to avoid this. But for a la carte licenses, you can choose one without the other.)

atesti

3 months ago

1 reply

The problem is that Microsoft wants to kill Outlook and replace it with this electron webmailer.

skylurk

3 months ago

I end up using both because neither is very good. The webmailer one is better at conversation threads. The native one is better at scheduling meetings.

jraph

3 months ago

1 reply

It's not an isolated event, German states are pretty serious about this.

They are funding openDesk [1], a fully open source office and collaboration suite aiming to replace solution likes Google Drive and Office 365 with sovereign solutions. Open-Xchange is one component of this suite.

They are building this by taking existing software and packaging it in a consistent turn-key solution. To do this, they are paying the small European open source companies that build this existing software, to make it embeddable and accessible, and they fund specific features as well.

They make sure the whole thing remains strictly open source, and they audit open source license compatibility.

The approach feels solid and long term for once. It's not money that goes to your sexy local startup that builds proprietary software and will be bought by a big company a couple of years after.

[1] https://opendesk.eu/

pjmlp

3 months ago

As I mention in other post, I know of libraries in NRW that rolled back into Windows from SuSE on their terminals, when time came to renew their computers.

So seriousness level varies.

Woodi

3 months ago

1 reply

Dropping MS Exchange is only sane choice.

But :) Look like replacement is Mozilla product :> j/k a bit :)

Bigger problem is that replacement is fat codebase project. Same with Libreoffice. And that make it short term solution.

Simple software is the way.

dusted

3 months ago

problem with simple software in enterprise environment is lack of integration, good sso and policy control

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