In the latest development, during coalition negotiations in the city-state of Hamburg, politicians have declared they are ready to start moving its civil service software away from Microsoft and towards open-source alternatives.
The declaration comes as part of a 200-page coalition agreement between the Social Democratic and Green parties, which will define how Hamburg is run for the next five years.
The "start of the exit from Microsoft", Einstieg in den Ausstieg von Microsoft, as Hamburg politicians describe the process, may well involve bringing in an open-source, cloud-based office system called Phoenix for use by Hamburg’s local parliament. The Phoenix software that Hamburg politicians are talking about is supplied by Dataport, a not-for-profit institution that operates under a government mandate to create open-source software for the German civil service.
See Microsoft dropped for open source: Why Hamburg is now following Munich’s lead | ZDNet
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Former Microsoft bastion Hamburg’s decision is particularly telling, say observers.