Netherlands Ditches Microsoft in Favor of Home-Grown NixOS-Based Software

The Netherlands is joining a growing list of countries shifting away from foreign tech vendors like Microsoft. The Dutch government has announced plans to invest in sovereign software as part of its Digital Autonomous Work Environment for Government (DAWO) scheme.

The DAWO plan covers various aspects of software changes, including cloud infrastructure and productivity software. The country aims to reduce its reliance on foreign technology vendors due to concerns over potential US government access to American software users' data.

The biggest migration will involve Microsoft's Windows operating system, which currently accounts for around 63% of global desktops across all users. NixOS, developed by Dutch developer Eelco Dolstra with the NixOS Foundation based in the Netherlands itself, is set to replace Windows.