After an extensive planning process that began in 2020, the Austrian armed forces have now transitioned from Microsoft Office to the open source-based LibreOffice across all 16,000 workstations. The decision was not based on economic considerations but on a pursuit of increased digital sovereignty and independence from external cloud services.
The transition to LibreOffice is the result of a long-term strategy that began five years ago, when it became clear that Microsoft would move its office suite to cloud-based solutions. For an organization like the Austrian armed forces, where security around data handling is of the highest priority, this was a decisive turning point, writes Heise Online.
— It was very important for us to show that we are doing this primarily to strengthen our digital sovereignty, to maintain our independence in terms of ICT infrastructure and to ensure that data is only processed in-house, explains Michael Hillebrand from the armed forces’ Directive 6 for ICT and cybersecurity in an interview with Austrian radio station Ö1.
Long-term planning and in-house development
The decision process began in 2020 and was completed the following year. During 2022, detailed planning commenced in parallel with training internal developers to be able to implement improvements and complementary software development. Already then, employees were given the opportunity to voluntarily start using LibreOffice.
In 2023, the project gained further momentum when a German company was hired for external support and development. At the same time, internal e-learning in LibreOffice was introduced, and the software became mandatory within the first departments.
Contributing to the global user base
The armed forces’ commitment to open source is not merely consuming. The adaptations and improvements required for military purposes have been programmed and integrated into the LibreOffice project. So far, over five person-years of work have been financed for this effort – contributions that all LibreOffice users worldwide can benefit from.
— We are not doing this to save money, Hillebrand emphasizes to ORF (Austrian Broadcasting Corporation). — We are doing this so that the Armed Forces as an organization, which is there to function when everything else is down, can continue to have products that work within our sphere of influence.
In early September, Hillebrand together with his colleague Nikolaus Stocker presented the transition process at LibreOffice Conference 2025.
From Microsoft dependency to own control
The starting point in 2021 was Microsoft Office 2016 Professional with a large number of VBA and Access solutions deeply embedded in IT workflows. At the same time, the armed forces were already using their own Linux servers with Samba for email and collaboration solutions, rather than Microsoft’s alternatives.
This year, MS Office 2016 has been removed from all military computers. Those who still believe they need Microsoft Office for their duties can, however, apply internally to have the corresponding module from MS Office 2024 LTSC installed.
The transition underscores a growing trend among European government agencies to prioritize digital independence and control over sensitive information over the convenience of commercial cloud services.
