Goodbye, Windows: The Netherlands Is Building Its Own Linux for Government

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The Netherlands no longer wants Microsoft to be able to pull the plug on it, so it is pulling the plug on Microsoft instead. The Dutch government is developing DAWO, an entirely homegrown digital workplace for its agencies that runs from the operating system through office software to the cloud, with no American tech giants involved. It is built on the open-source operating system NixOS, It’s FOSS reports. Eight municipalities are already testing the system.

What DAWO Is

DAWO stands for “Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid,” or digitally autonomous government work environment. It goes far beyond a new desktop and covers the entire workplace:

• Operating system: Built on NixOS, a Linux distribution.
• Applications: Office software and collaboration tools.
• Infrastructure: Cloud storage, backups and IT management systems.
• A.I.: Artificial intelligence is also set to become part of the sovereign environment.

DAWO is being developed by a team linked to the Dutch Ministry of the Interior. It is being implemented by three state IT service providers, SSC-ICT, DICTU and DUO-ICT, which received the mandate in July. The pilots in the eight municipalities are run through the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, and a first stable version is expected next year. There is no timeline yet for a nationwide rollout, according to Yahoo Tech.

A Wake-Up Call in The Hague

The trigger was a case that caused a stir across Europe: after U.S. sanctions on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the court’s chief prosecutor reportedly lost access to his Microsoft services in early 2025. Microsoft disputes that account, but Dutch lawmakers still cited the incident as proof of how dependent Europe is on decisions made in Washington and Redmond.

Choosing NixOS is a political statement in itself. The project originated in the Netherlands and is not owned by any company. Alternatives such as openSUSE and Fedora were ruled out because they are tied to companies backed by U.S. firms, according to It’s FOSS. There are technical advantages, too: NixOS describes a system’s desired state in code, which makes it possible to set up thousands of computers consistently and traceably. It also runs on older hardware that Windows 11 no longer supports.

The Hard Part

The switch won’t be easy. Government agencies often depend on legacy applications that only run on Windows, and documents still need to move smoothly between DAWO and Microsoft Office. Add to that training for thousands of civil servants, drivers for a wide range of hardware, security certification and the question of who will maintain and pay for the system over the long term. What will matter most is whether ordinary employees can work just as productively as before.

Europe Looks for a Way Out

The Netherlands is not alone. Denmark, France and Switzerland are pursuing similar open-source projects, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein is moving its administration to Linux and LibreOffice, and in Austria the armed forces have switched from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. Private companies see an opening as well: Office.eu and Euro-Office are two European alternatives aiming to compete with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace.

Microsoft is trying to respond and now offers European customers its own sovereignty options, such as an EU Data Boundary designed to keep data in Europe. Whether that will be enough to keep governments like the one in The Hague on board is doubtful. DAWO shows that European countries are now taking digital sovereignty into their own hands.