The Netherlands has become the latest European government to launch its move off Microsoft services and onto an open source-based alternative, with the first pilot projects already live.
A new report by local media organisation Tweakers revealed new details about the NixOS Linux distro-based system built for the government’s Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid (DAWO) programme.
Helmed by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), the project’s core team said it began after US sanctions against the International Criminal Court in The Hague left it unable to use Microsoft Office. It has since adopted the German-backed openDesk suite.]
The DAWO team settled on NixOS, an independent Dutch-made Linux distribution built around the Nix package manager, after opting against using openSUSE and Fedora, distros linked to private companies SUSE and RedHat.
Research by national broadcaster NOS in January 2026 found 67% of domain names used by Dutch government bodies were linked to a US cloud provider, with Microsoft hosting almost 50% of them.
