TL;DR
Schleswig-Holstein, a German state, reports that nearly 80% of its administrative workstations (excluding tax administration) have switched to LibreOffice, with Microsoft Office and Outlook already uninstalled or in the process. The remaining Microsoft licensing rate outside tax administration is now under 10%. The state expects over 15 million euros in annual savings against roughly 9 million euros in one-time migration investment. On the individual level, F-Droid shows the same idea at phone scale: an app store with no account and no tracking that runs on ordinary Android, not just de-googled specialty ROMs.
Digital sovereignty tends to get discussed as an ideal, rarely as a balance sheet. Since late 2025, Schleswig-Holstein has actually published numbers: how many workstations switched, how much money it saved, and where things are still stuck.
This article first looks at what Germany's northernmost state has actually achieved in its move away from Microsoft software, using official figures rather than announcements. The second half goes one level down: F-Droid as a way to apply the same underlying idea, software without outside control, on your own smartphone, with no government agency behind it.
What Schleswig-Holstein has actually switched so far
On December 4, 2025, the Schleswig-Holstein state government published an official press release with a progress update on its open-source course. The headline finding: nearly 80% of state administration workstations, excluding tax administration, now use LibreOffice as the binding standard for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. According to the release, Microsoft Office and Outlook have already been uninstalled at these workstations, or are in the process of being removed.
The remaining Microsoft licensing rate outside tax administration is now, per the press release, "significantly less than 10 percent." That's an unusually specific number for a public-sector project of this size, and it can be measured directly against the starting point, where practically every workstation ran on Microsoft licenses.
| Metric | Status per press release |
|---|---|
| Workstations on LibreOffice (excl. tax administration) | roughly 80% |
| Remaining Microsoft license rate (excl. tax administration) | significantly less than 10% |
| Email accounts migrated (Exchange to Open-Xchange) | roughly 44,000 |
| Projected annual license cost savings | over 15 million euros |
| One-time migration investment | roughly 9 million euros |
On the email side, the press release reports roughly 44,000 mailboxes already migrated from Microsoft Exchange to Open-Xchange, with Thunderbird replacing Outlook as the mail client. Digitalization Minister Dirk Schrödter frames the project explicitly under the banner of "digital sovereignty" (digitale Souveränität): a state administration's ability to keep functioning independently of any single foreign software vendor, backed here not just with rhetoric but with a license and cost balance sheet.
Note
Tax administration is explicitly excluded from these figures. It runs nationally standardized specialist procedures tightly bound to Microsoft environments, making a switch there far harder than in general administration. The 80% figure applies to the segment of the state administration where a switch was technically feasible, not to the whole of it.
What's still open: friction, not wishful thinking
A project of this size, thousands of workstations, an entirely new email system, doesn't run without friction, and the state government's own release doesn't pretend otherwise. Further development of the open-source solutions is already planned for 2026, backed by the roughly 9 million euros in investment mentioned above, against the projected savings of over 15 million euros a year.
Beyond office software, Schleswig-Holstein has also been discussing, for some time now, a switch at the desktop operating-system level itself, moving away from Windows toward a Linux distribution. That step is generally seen as the hardest part of the project, since it reaches deeper into drivers, specialist software, and staff habits than swapping the office suite did. Reporting from heise.de describes this step as sitting "at the end of the road", a longer-term part of the strategy, without the state government having publicly committed to a specific target year or desktop environment so far. If you're looking for solid numbers on the office-software side, they already exist; if you're looking for a date on the Linux desktop, that's still pending.
Warning
On a project this size, individual delays and rework are normal, not a sign of failure. If you're using this migration as a blueprint for your own company or municipality, plan the timeline generously rather than anchoring on an optimistic announcement.
If you want to make the switch to a free desktop operating system on your own PC right now, independent of what any state government is doing, we cover that in a separate article: Windows 10 Is Dead: Linux Mint or Fedora for the Switch?
Two scales of the same idea: the state agency and your pocket
What's happening in Kiel at large scale, replacing software controlled by a single foreign corporation, has an equivalent you can carry out yourself on your own smartphone. Most Android users get their apps exclusively through the Google Play Store, a system that logs in detail what gets installed, opened, and how long it's used. F-Droid is the practical answer to that at the individual level: an alternative app store that distributes only open-source software, deliberately without accounts or tracking.
What F-Droid is, and what it isn't
F-Droid is an app repository for Android that has been built up over 15 years, describing itself as "more than an app store: a community." The key difference from Google Play isn't only in the catalog, it's in the principle: F-Droid requires no user account to download apps, and by its own account, doesn't track what gets installed.
Every app in the official repository is free software. The source code is visible, modifiable, and buildable by anyone, with, per F-Droid, "no black boxes, no lock-ins." For readers new to the free-software idea: that doesn't necessarily mean every app is polished or actively maintained, it means that no one, not even the developers themselves, can stop users from checking what their apps actually do.
Tip
F-Droid runs on ordinary, unmodified Android devices straight from the manufacturer, whether that's Samsung, a Google Pixel, or a budget mid-range phone. Switching to a de-googled custom ROM like GrapheneOS is explicitly not required, which lowers the barrier to entry considerably compared to guides that assume a full system replacement.
Setting up F-Droid: the first steps
Installation deliberately departs from the usual Play Store route, because F-Droid, on principle, isn't listed there. That's by design, not a bug.
- Download the APK directly from f-droid.org: The official website offers the F-Droid app itself as an installer file, outside the Play Store.
- Allow installation from unknown sources once: Android asks whether the source is trusted at install time. That's a routine security prompt, not a sign of danger.
- Open F-Droid and update the repository: On first launch, the app downloads its catalog; after that, you can search for and install apps immediately, no account, no email address.
- Check for updates regularly: F-Droid notifies you of available updates just like any other app store, just without building a usage profile while doing it.
F-Droid's own site describes its catalog as "thousands of free and safe apps," without giving an exact number. For everyday needs like notes, password management, calendars, podcast players, or offline maps, that covers a surprising amount of ground in practice, often with apps that are noticeably leaner than their commercial counterparts.
Limits and friction points, stated honestly
F-Droid isn't a complete replacement for the Play Store. Large commercial apps, banking apps, airlines, most social networks, generally aren't there, because their vendors don't publish source code. Anyone switching entirely to F-Droid still needs a workaround for certain services, such as using the mobile website instead of an app.
Apps in the official F-Droid repository are also built from source by the project itself, rather than taken directly from the developer. That increases confidence in an app's provenance, but it can also mean a new version shows up there somewhat later than through the developer directly or the Play Store. For security-sensitive apps, it's worth checking the update date in the repository before relying on it fully.
Frequently asked questions about Schleswig-Holstein's Microsoft exit and F-Droid
Has Schleswig-Holstein fully dropped Microsoft?
No, not entirely. Roughly 80% of administrative workstations outside tax administration now run LibreOffice, with the remaining Microsoft license rate there significantly under 10%. Tax administration is explicitly excluded, and an operating-system-level switch from Windows to Linux is under discussion but has no confirmed target year.
How much money is the state actually saving?
The state government projects over 15 million euros in annual license-cost savings, against roughly 9 million euros in one-time investment for migration and further development in 2026. By that math, the investment pays for itself within the first year.
Do I need a de-googled phone to use F-Droid?
No. F-Droid runs on ordinary Android straight from the manufacturer, no custom ROM like GrapheneOS required. Switching your entire operating system is a much bigger, separate decision; F-Droid, by contrast, is installed within minutes.
Is F-Droid as safe as the Google Play Store?
F-Droid builds apps directly from visible source code, which makes tampering harder, but that also means updates can lag slightly behind the Play Store. For everyday and niche apps that's rarely an issue; for security-sensitive apps, check the update date in the repository.
Is Schleswig-Holstein really switching its desktop operating system to Linux too?
That's under discussion as a further, longer-term step, without an officially confirmed target year or desktop environment so far. Solid figures currently exist only for office software and the email system.
Sources
- Schleswig-Holstein state government, official press release on the state administration's open-source course, schleswig-holstein.de, December 4, 2025, accessed 2026-08-19
- "Von Microsoft zu Open Source: Wie Schleswig-Holstein den Wechsel schaffen will", heise online, accessed 2026-08-19
- F-Droid, "About", f-droid.org, accessed 2026-08-19
This content was created with AI assistance, primarily for research and drafting. Reviewed and approved by our editorial team.