Netherlands switches to Linux due to US sanctions

The Dutch government is developing its own desktop environment for civil servants based on NixOS, moving away from Windows and Office. This decision stems from US sanctions against the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

The court's chief prosecutor lost access to Microsoft services, including email. Dutch authorities realized the vulnerability of a state apparatus operating under Washington's control.

The DAWO project includes an operating system, office suite, collaboration apps, and IT management tools. In NixOS, each package installs into an isolated folder with immutable contents.

This allows transferring 80–90% of configurations between agencies without modifications. NixOS was chosen because it is not owned by any single company, unlike openSUSE and Fedora.

A pilot version has been deployed across eight municipalities using decommissioned laptops incompatible with Windows 11. A stable release is expected by the end of 2027, with open-source code.

Europe is actively adopting independent solutions: Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein region has already left Microsoft. Denmark and France plan similar steps.