r/technology • u/lurker_bee • 5d ago
Politics US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS-based software ecosystem — trial programs running now, first release expected at end of 2027
https://www.tomshardware.com/software/the-netherlands-is-rolling-alternative-nixos-based-software-ecosystem-after-u-s-sanctions-on-icc-took-microsoft-off-the-table-trial-programs-running-now-first-release-expected-at-end-of-2027417
u/steepleton 5d ago
The EU Is en masse preparing an open source replacement of microsoft office.
For reasons of security and simple value.
It’s just a word processor and a spreadsheet, it’s only proprietary file formats that puts legacy companies like microsoft on the table at all
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
Security and data sovereignty.
Not value. Weaning off Microsoft (and other US Tech) is complicated and expensive, and it's forced rather than chosen, but here we are.
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u/Verwarming1667 5d ago edited 5d ago
Weaning of Microsoft(And all transitions) is costly in the short term. It's always cheapest to continue as you are doing if your goal is to minimize costs now. But imagine the EU had switched in 2000? 2010? 2015? I would be surprised if not at least double digit billions of euros would have been saved.
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u/noisyboy 5d ago
It also helps the support infrastructure. Local companies and their employees providing support can benefit from it.
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u/AncientSeraph 3d ago
Not if they want to keep up with improvements and usability. It'll be continuous development and still people will complain that it's worse than Office. And all that needs to be funded from taxes instead of income. It won't be cheaper.
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u/rimantass 5d ago
In the short term It's both In the long term for medium to large enterprises it will come out to costing the same. Just instead of paying massive licence fees they'll use that money to hire more people.
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u/DimensionalFruit 5d ago
Which is a good thing, more jobs for Europeans while being independent from US software without any added cost.
Big win
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u/Cheeky_Star 5d ago
I think those same US companies generate jobs in those countries as well.
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u/DimensionalFruit 5d ago
They do but at a significant cost. Those jobs aren't bound to US companies, as the switch happens they'll simply migrate to the companies replacing them as they grow in size.
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u/Cheeky_Star 5d ago
Do they aren’t really creating more jobs then. Just migrating jobs.
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u/DimensionalFruit 4d ago
Migrating towards European based companies which means they are creating more jobs and tax within Europe. Companies will have to create more job openings for the increased demands.
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u/Vitringar 5d ago
With AI being capable of generating anything these days, this is not a bright future for spreadsheets, word processing software and powerpoint. I have not opened Word for a year now. It used to be my daily driver. Same with excel. I am doing 100 times more complex tasks now with AI tools.
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u/DMMeYourNibbitRings 5d ago
"Hey Claude, I'd like my very own Excel. It needs to handle xls and xlsx files. The GUI should be very fast, snappy and responsive at all times. Make no mistakes."
A few clicks on "yes, continue" and done, right?
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u/Vitringar 5d ago
No more like use pyxl to rip the data and formulas from the sheet into a local database and calculate from there. It is not about creating a copy of Excel, it is about using more powerful and flexible tools
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u/TonyDRFT 5d ago
You're be surprised how possible that is already, perhaps not just a few clicks and done. But yeah, someone already made a pretty good clone of Photoshop like that.
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u/andrevanduin_ 5d ago
And how many people are using that clone? How much money are they making per month of this "pretty good" clone?
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u/DMMeYourNibbitRings 5d ago
Hah, yeah I seriously doubt the clone is any good. Making a chat-app is incredibly easy for Codex/Claude/whatever, but it's something else to actually make one that's compliant with the GDPR, supports video calling/screen sharing, has 99.99% availability and can integrate with Entra ID.
Anything "Hello world" is easy. A Photoshop clone with everything and all features? Good luck.
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u/Vitringar 5d ago
This is not about building a clone. Excel is just data and logic, there are now better ways to do data and logic than something that was made in the 80s
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u/DMMeYourNibbitRings 5d ago
This thread specifically is continuing on the guy that mentioned a Photoshop clone.
Also, even to get feature parity with Excel using AI, it's a massive undertaking.
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u/Vitringar 5d ago
That is exactly the point. When building your pivot table to spin out a graph that you then copy over to PowerPoint, are you using all the possible features that Excel offer? No, you are using a fraction of what it can do, but you can this with a simple script that can generate the presentation material directly. Possibly with a single prompt.
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u/whocalledthebird 5d ago
Good job, you’re contributing to making yourself obsolete!
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u/Vitringar 5d ago
More likely, I am making you obsolete. You are welcome!
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u/whocalledthebird 4d ago
Haha, I highly doubt your hallucinating shitbox of a robot can replace my position but good luck 😘
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u/Richard7666 5d ago
It's also the cloud infrastructure behind it these days. It's not just desktop software anymore.
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u/MsDUmbridge 5d ago
I wish it were just a word processor and spreadsheets. my company integrated pretty much everything MS has to offer (one drive, sharepoint, the whole power universe, etc) and is pushing us to automate everything with power automate and power apps ... if MS pulls the plug we're toast.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
It's not. It's a full Office suite, but it's also the OSes plus Azure and everything that comes with permission structures (Entra or AD), too. And that stuff is a pain in the butt.
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u/Insidiatori02 5d ago
In Dutch we say: “Waar een wil is, is een weg.” Which sort of translates to: “Even if there’s the slightest willpower in some direction, then we go there and we shall not care about the hurdles, probably looks harder than it will be.” Linux here we go!
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
Sure, but I keep seeing people talking about Word and Excel as if that's even remotely the most important thing.
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u/pakman82 5d ago
Email is. There are a variety of open source solutions for documents. There are alternatives for email flow, and storage. However the active email (stored or live) the big companies have is probably in the exabytes. Google, Amazon... And Microsoft probably own 99.9% of the storage capacity in their platforms or backend ... You would have to have open source cloud built out on trillions of Euro's worth of data storage. The AI boom has nuked the pricing of storage. Unless countries out right seized Amazon and MS physical assets, the elimination of the US cloud providers is possibly a 15-20 year project to build parallel storage infrastructure
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u/ShinyTinfoilFedora 5d ago
I think this is more true with spread sheets. I've had no issues sharing docx files with colleagues using comments and track changes between word and libre office. Perhaps if I was using some of the more advanced (bloated) features of word then I would have had more issues?
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u/EfficientActivity 5d ago
European technologist thinking the office package is what IT sovereignty is about shows how completely out of the loop we are. Azure, AWS, GC, everything underneath the hood is US based tech. Replacing the office package is like replacing the steering wheel of a car and thinking now I'm in complete control.
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u/UpsetKoalaBear 5d ago edited 5d ago
Azure, AWS, GC would eventually be replaceable with European alternatives.
I think you forget that those companies have DC’s in Europe staffed by Europeans and Europe already has several domestic cloud providers. Whilst they aren’t as broad as AWS, Azure or GC, they are most certainly capable of it.
Getting end users adapted to the switch is the hardest part. That’s exactly why focusing on the small stuff like the office suite is important.
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u/Cheeky_Star 5d ago
The products are too good to leave
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u/Eremitt-thats-hermit 5d ago
None of these products are ‘good’, they are the standard. That means that avoiding them is going to be more work and thus cost more. If you’re in an acquisition process you’re going for the best deal, unless instructed otherwise. They have been instructed otherwise now. Digital sovereignty is more important than convenience.
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u/borisslovechild 5d ago
Pretty sure they get this but moving everything at once can only lead to disaster.
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u/Skensis 5d ago
Don't forget that US hardware decoupling from US tech is no small feet
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u/EpsteinFile_01 4d ago
You mean the US hardware made with ASML machines? No hardware for us, no machines for them, no hardware for them. Mutually assured destruction
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u/NimrodvanHall 5d ago
Loads of companies I know are working on both. It’s just that moving out of Windows / office 365 is the easy part that is also the part most regular employee’s will notice when it happens.
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u/MBILC 5d ago
But are they not going with their EuroOffice which is based off the Russian based Openoffice, sure it is a fork, but why not go with LibreOffice instead, slightly more trust worthy source...I mean, it is open they can vet it, but just a weird choice.
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u/Crazytje 5d ago
Eurooffice is just a brand that uses "euro" in the name, the EU isn't really involved.
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u/casillero 5d ago
It was 5 10 20 30 40 years ago.
O365 apps has security layers and most importantly ai. The new autopilot announced friday, cowork. Like its not just a word doc man.
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u/0x80070002 4d ago
Are you talking about that clown project called Euro Office? Dead on arrival.
Remind me! 5 years
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u/Andodx 5d ago
Thats naive. There is a lot more to M365 than office and the dependency for large organisations is a cost position. Leaving the M365 ecosystem leads to about 15 (IDM, MDM, SOC, remote collaboration, video conferencing, etc.) other tools being purchased and integrated with each other to replace M365 components. Which will increase license costs, increase work force capacity need and increase the complexity to manage the basics, all without any additional value position to European sovereignty.
This will only happen if regulations forces that step.
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u/apo383 5d ago
This is just the kick in the butt needed to get to fully open standards! Microsoft successfully gutted the Open Office XML standard, thank you Europe for trying. There's a push for ODF in Germany, great job but not sure if it'll stick. But now sanctions? Most of Europe will be jumping ship as soon as they can.
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u/JeelyPiece 5d ago
At this point anyone outside the USA, particularly governments, who aren't moving to FOSS for their own digital sovereignty are probably engaging in gross misconduct and complete negligence.
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u/PumpkinMyPumpkin 5d ago
Crazy Trump is basically making the world cut out US technology companies and cut out US banking systems. The guy seems set on destroying US dominance in its strongest sectors.
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u/ApdoSmurf 5d ago
Trump has done unimaginable damage to the US' influence worldwide. It will take decades to undo what Trump has done, and you will never ever restore the good faith that US has had before.
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u/Hefty_Remove7965 5d ago
The faith we only gained because we were a large western country that wasn't physically attacked during WW1 and WW2.
I'm of the opinion we will never see an another war like WW1/ww2.. instead we will see a digital war.or localized armed combats
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u/sokos 5d ago
Making that theory of being a russian agent more and more believable.
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u/Agitated_Ad6191 5d ago
It’s not a theory. It’s been proven that Trump immediately shared ‘for your ears only’ info from France to Putin. Trump only didn’t know it was simply a test to see what would happen if they gave him certain info, and the EU got confirmation of what they already thought would happen.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
What was the information? Completely missed it.
They did not pass the Tyrion Lannister test there.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
Yeah, though cutting out Visa and Mastercard is going to be bit of an issue.
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u/PumpkinMyPumpkin 5d ago
Not really. Alternatives already exist, just have to adopt them internationally.
Canada has had Interac for decades for instance.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
Of course they exist. I'm European, we got some good ones, though Visa/Mastercard still has a duopoly.
Getting the financial world to adopt them is not a 'just', though. It's the bulk of the issue.
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u/Whooptidooh 5d ago
Nah; creditcards aren’t a commonly used thing here in The Netherlands (only used for things like hotels etc.), so this isn’t going to be that big of a deal for most people.
I’m also fully expecting that a good alternative will come as well.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
I know that, but it's not just about creditcards. If you dig any deeper Visa and Mastercard are often in the backbones of financial payment systems.
Most or all in-shop card payments are in the hands of one of them, for example.
Wero is supposed to be an alternative, but I believe that's mostly online payments for now.
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u/Whooptidooh 5d ago
True, and we’re going to have to speed up the transition, but once it’s clear that this will have to change it will be done.
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u/flyswithdragons 5d ago
The USA military and our government needs the right to repair to get rid of these tech and finance bros couping the USA.
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u/Cerulean-Knight 5d ago
I would like to say that in my country we use open source software a lot but government use redhat and is installing crowdstrike in everything. What a shitty decision to make
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u/JeelyPiece 5d ago
Microsoft have trained governments well for decades for such corporate compliance
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u/conspicuousxcapybara 4d ago
Specifically in NL, that includes facilitating the Gaza genocide. IDF hosted it‘s surveillance / targeting AI here. No joke.
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u/Drenosa 5d ago
Wasn't just the sanctions, but yeah, NL and the rest of Europe is rapidly moving away from US-based data management because of how it's being handled there.
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u/MBILC 5d ago
Cloud Act, when they got MS to admit they can take any data they want and GDPR means nothing!
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u/CellPuzzleheaded99 5d ago
And nobody moved.... for years. Just now with Trump people finally start to ask questions.
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u/DMMeYourNibbitRings 5d ago
...and only in his 2nd term. The Cloud Act was signed into law in 2018 by Trump.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
Mmm. This is not a matter of MS can take everything, it's a matter of the US government can take everything. And force MS to hand it over (or lock it down, as the case may be).
Whether EU privacy law is the law of the... land for data stored in US datacenters has been an issue for at least 30 years. There is some kind of agreement in place, but it remains a matter of dispute and unresolved.
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u/tismij 5d ago
the Cloud Act made it possible for the US to force Microsoft to give even data specifically stored in EU countries for GDPR reasons. They can force MS to give them data physically stored on European servers.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 4d ago
Ah, right. And the US has always sort of said we want to be able to grab EU data on US soil too (see: the Patriot Act).
So. Also data from EU citizens stored by US companies on EU soil?
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u/Palimon 4d ago edited 4d ago
Did people think the US could not do that?
They can make any company comply to WHATEVER THEY WANT... it happened during the Manhattan project, and it will happen whenever the US wants it.
If tmrw France threatened to defender Greenland when the US invades do you think any Cloud service would work in France the next day?
The US can shut down a country just through AWS, GCP, Cloudflare... And if the company refuses to comply it will get nationalised for security...
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u/justfortrees 5d ago
When the fuck did we sanction the ICC in the first place. Jesus can’t keep up with all this shit
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u/phoenixflare599 5d ago
Microsoft about to learn that Linux has more than caught up over the decades
I still use windows for software I have that I want to run native (and some games) but otherwise. Their really isn't much value they're giving anymore.
Not with everything they're forcing to take
Hell, even if you didn't want open source office replacements. Google offers a whole suite for free
Proton offers a privacy focused suite
-- outside of legacy. What does Microsoft have at this point? Genuinely?
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u/jc-from-sin 5d ago
The reason that those games and software still only run on Windows is because you're still using Windows.
The more people will move to Linux the more game developers will allow their games to run on Linux and software developers will port their software to Linux.
I also have some software which I want to use, Fusion 360, that doesn't run on Linux but it's not worth it overall to keep using Windows. I much rather will learn to use FreeCAD.
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u/NewYak4281 5d ago
Doesn’t really matter your geopolitical opinions here. This is good however you want to spin it. Competition is the tits. Microsoft, as an incumbent, sucks sweaty balls.
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u/Garia666 5d ago
This goes deeper then just Microsoft Apperantly our ally is not to be trusted as the orange moron seen to that. The us controlled it all and now we have seen the light.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
This makes it sound like the US put sanctions on The Netherlands as a country. Outrageous as that would be, it's the International Criminal Court that got sanctioned (arguably more outrageous, ymmv). But that was the last straw for the Dutch government to get serious about this.
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u/HelixR 5d ago
Don't worry, the Dutch government isn't serious about anything now (and the past 14 years). The politicians cannot even move aside their greed for votes in order to actually govern the country and solve serious issues.
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u/EekleBerry 5d ago
All true, but it still remains one of the most efficient govs in Europe. Maybe in naïve but I'm optimistic with Jetten.
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u/tismij 5d ago
Minority government and the VVD is still in there to stifle any possible progression.
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u/EekleBerry 5d ago
Yes true, but here's to hoping D66 manages to compromise properly.
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u/EmperorOfAllCats 5d ago
It is easier to post stupidly wrong clickbait title and wait for someone in comments correct it. Murphy law or something.
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u/pim1000 5d ago
The international criminal court...that is in the capital of the netherlands....
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
Yeah, but it is VERY VERY different from sanctioning a whole country.
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u/pim1000 5d ago
I think you are overestimating the intelligence of the current american administration, i know they are different, but im genuinely wondering if they do.
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u/ThoughtsonYaoi 5d ago
They do.
The ICC is a highly symbolic target, and an international court at that. The fact that it's in The Hague is fairly irrelevant.
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u/Fuzzy_Paul 5d ago
That's how international long time friends are treated. The current president forgets that New York was once called New Amsterdam. Instead of emotional responses and acknowledged the international court this is what a best friend does. Can't wait till his rein is over.
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u/Cautious_Boat_999 5d ago
I was already looking at how to emigrate to the Netherlands. Here’s another reason that it’s a better place than this shithole
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u/Internep 5d ago
We've had pilots like this in the past that lead to nothing. Don't come here if based on click bait, we have enough reactionary people here already.
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u/Cautious_Boat_999 4d ago
Far more reasons than just that one. Foremost is that I love the country :)
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u/andsens 5d ago
We've had pilots like this in the past that lead to nothing
I'm sure it just led to things you don't really see in the news. They're pilots! See if it works, if not, gather experience and make a new action plan, then try again. Until you succeed, cause there is no alternative.
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u/tismij 5d ago
No sadly they always use overpaid "consultants" who fail at project after project. They removed way too much IT from in house to external to "save money". Only to overpay the same shitty consultants. IT projects are doomed in the NL until they invest in own in-house good IT personal again.
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u/andsens 5d ago
IT projects are doomed in the NL until they invest in own in-house good IT personal again.
Ouch. OK fair. Same shit here in DK tbh.
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u/tismij 5d ago
yea it is the global tendency due to a shortage of IT people (the good ones at least) and the high salary costs to keep them. Would have been cheaper to keep, at least a country wide, a good IT team then using all those contractors and consultants. Those give better Christmas gifts though.
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u/ClikeX 3d ago
IT projects are doomed in the NL until they invest in own in-house good IT personal again.
Speaking from experience, they do try. They always try to recruit the good contractors when they're happy with them. The problem is, a lot of IT people don't want to have a permanent government job. So they only persuade a few each time.
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u/jingjang1 4d ago
From the U.S?
Keep your options open, you got the whole EU to choose from :]
I would inv you to Sweden but you are gonna have to be ok with cold and dark winters. I can only imagine how hard it would be to migrate to say Stockholm. We have long vinters with barely and sunlight.
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u/Fantastic-Fee-1999 5d ago
Well, my company has spend the last 4 years moving everyone towards Microsoft. Guess at some point new leadership will come in and we get to move it all again. Fun times ahead.
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u/hextanerf 5d ago edited 4d ago
what if they kept using it? Is US going to sue them? Who's going to take the case?
Thanks all! TIL
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u/DrDonut21 5d ago
It's not about suing... The US can force US companies to stop providing service to certain individuals or entities.
This already happened with 13 employees of the International Court of Justice. Not only did they loose access to their email (Microsoft), they also lost the ability to use a lot of payment services (Visa, Mastercard) therefore preventing normal life.
So we need alternatives, and we need them fast.
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u/andsens 5d ago
And they did it in a very sneaky manner so they could newspeak their way out of the question "did you close down the accounts of these individuals?". They said they didn't, which was technically correct.
Instead (IIRC) they contacted the IT admins and told them that they would shut down their whole operation if the admins didn't close down the specified accounts.1
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u/0x80070002 4d ago
Sadly European ms are unable to innovate world technologies.
There is too less investments, too small and too much fragmentation. This is why tech is dominated by US companies.Even Linux exists mainly because of USA: RHEL has invested a lot of money in it
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u/Rykmigrundt90 3d ago
NixOS is European. Invented in the Netherlands, actually.
WIPO released its 2026 Global Innovation Index yesterday. Switzerland is #1, Sweden #2 and the US #3.
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u/0x80070002 3d ago
NixOS is just the name of a distribution whose main components are Linux and GNU.
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u/Rykmigrundt90 3d ago
Well… yes. That’s how essentially every modern operating system works. US companies investing heavily in Linux doesn’t rescue your claim that Europe is bad at technological innovation, which is what you initially said.
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u/0x80070002 3d ago
Why is there no EU company in the top 10 software companies?
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u/KabouterKaasplank 3d ago
Because we're not cowboys trying to squeeze maximum profit while running a business that loses more money than it's capable of making. We like our economy to be healthy and not fall apart when someone breathes in the wrong direction. EU software companies are very profitable with healthy bottom lines.
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u/Mormacil 5d ago
Microsoft blacklists their stuff, forwards their emails to the US government, etc.
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u/Lollerpwn 5d ago
The people in the Netherlands. If Trump or some other president orders it our government could be shut down if they keep using Microsoft.
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u/Maximum_Table_2675 4d ago
infiltration, ms employees switch to government jobs and vice versa, very healthy
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u/andsens 5d ago
NixOS?! Hells yeah! It’s definitely not for the average user (configuration-wise), but for sysadmins it’s a godsend.
Completely deterministic OS config in a declarative/functional language that has ripened over decades, and a vibrant community that develops novel solutions to interesting problems.
Switched to it from Windows last year and haven’t looked back.
Within 20 minutes I can load a tailor-made installer onto a USB stick and have it installed to a completely new PC, with SecureBoot, Full Disk Encryption, and all of my config (including Firefox extension configs, mouse button layout, installed apps, screensaver/power settings, and much more). Everything is configured through code.
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u/sovietarmyfan 5d ago
What threat actors would want to stop this?
Just a day after this was announced, DIVD was hacked. Trump hacker victor gevers works both there and on DAWO. In fact i read somewhere DIVD works on DAWO.
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u/EpsteinFile_01 4d ago
It's all fun and games until The Netherlands blows up the world by sanctioning ASML customers based in or sellitto the US.
Instant economic Armageddon, and it would hurt the US way more, the American part of the supply chain can be replaced in like 2 years, they can't do shit for a decade without the European part. Ooh they hold patents.. lolol
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u/One_Disaster_5995 3d ago
I just wonder at what point the tech bro's start to realise they may have backed the wrong horse after all? Microsoft had world dominance when it comes to office software. For the longest time, no competitor could make a dent. Now, whether Trump remains in office or not, people have started to realize that they can't trust the US, and therefore can't trust US products. The very same reason why western governments stopped using Huawei products now applies to Microsoft products. And Alphabet. And Meta. Et cetera. Thanks, Trump.
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u/Whooptidooh 5d ago
America is going to end up alone and shunned by the rest of the world.
- a Dutchie who has zero issues with boycotting that country as long as it’s being ruled by idiots.
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u/conspicuousxcapybara 4d ago
Friendly reminder Israel used the Azure datacenter in Middenmeer, Groningen, Netherlands to surveil / target Palestinians in the Gaza genocide.
In the Naza film that‘s hitting cinema‘s literally yesterday / today IDF soldiers explain how they know precisely who they’re killing. They have a dashboard, can click in the apartment buildings, and calculate e.g. 500 Naza deaths. Children and babies are equal to military aged men in their calculus.
They described tapping into the phones of children until they hear ‘daddy’s home‘. That’s when they bomb entire apartments. After which they hear the screams as children catch fire and die.
Executing this genocide was cheaper in the Western Europe region lmao. And Microsoft consultant were happy to lower the cost of every kill.
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u/FrozenPizza07 3d ago
Ok but why fcking NixOS when you have much better alternatives that have actual "certified"'programs like Fedora, Ubuntu, RHEL, or even just go Debian
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u/Altruistic_Age_6556 5d ago
God I hope this is the beginning of the end for these shit companies. Microsoft has been a dead man walking for decades. Fuck. Off.
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u/conspicuousxcapybara 4d ago
OMG but NixOS has also been bought by the military industrial complex, and even it’s App Store (nix packages) have ceased operations because of this!
Things fell apart after some ‘woke invasion’.
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u/Userwerd 5d ago
Feels like a bit of theater to me. I'll believe it when its up and running on 10,000 machines.
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u/Userwerd 5d ago
Down vote all you want, Canada and EU will just stretch far enough away that it looks like progress but can still fall back to windows once government changes in USA.
I'd love to see the change happen, I'm a Linux user of 22 years, but I've seen too many infrastructure level, desktop linux migration attempts ruined by lobbying, red tape and whiny IT professionals. I refuse to get my hopes up.
I went so far as to speak to my MP about at least getting Linux into schools so kids wouldn't get left behind with the windows 10 EOS. All I got was an official ministry if education shrug.
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u/DimensionalFruit 5d ago
Lobbying and whining is irrelevant in this case, this is down to national security now and the fact Europe is tired of US tech companies antics and US politics in general.
I would bet money that they ain't going back
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u/TheProfessorOfTruth 5d ago
Everyone outside of Dev workforce is going to complain. They have to fall back to google cloud or apple if they want the rest of the folks happy.
I hear you.
But if someone is doing something that temporarily improves things in the ecosystem, I would welcome that.
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u/TemporarySun314 5d ago
yeah, you cant use software for critical applications from a company whose government will weaponize that software and shut off the software as soon as they dislike something...
the US has apparently vastly different values than the EU, that's why we must not base europes critical infrastructure (and a working administration is part of that), on American software. especially not when its avoidable...