Schleswig-Holstein moves its State Chancellery to Linux
Kiel's State Chancellery now works on Linux, after LibreOffice, Open-Xchange and OpenTalk. The other ministries follow step by step.
The German state of Schleswig-Holstein continues its move to an open-source workplace. On 19 September 2026 the state government announced that its State Chancellery in Kiel now works on Linux.
Where the move stands
- Linux: more than 200 staff of the State Chancellery work on Linux. About 20 workplaces stay on Windows for now because of technical dependencies, such as specialist applications. Support comes from the IT service provider Dataport together with the German open-source company Gonicus. The other ministries and state authorities follow step by step.
- Office and email: in December 2025 the state reported that LibreOffice was in use on almost 80% of workplaces outside the tax administration, and that nearly 44,000 mailboxes had moved to Open-Xchange. Video conferencing runs on OpenTalk.
- Specialist applications: in July 2026 the state announced it is replacing more than 100 applications built on Microsoft Access with a low-code platform whose core was published as open source under the EUPL 1.2.
- Next steps named by the state: Nextcloud for collaboration, Univention Nubus for directory services and OSKAR for telephony.
The numbers behind it
The state reports savings of more than EUR 15 million in licence costs, against about EUR 9 million of one-off investment in 2026 for the migration and for developing the open-source solutions.
Why it matters
Schleswig-Holstein shows that a public administration can change its workplace software in stages: office files first, then email, video calls, specialist applications and finally the operating system, with training and on-site help along the way. Open file formats make each step easier, because documents keep working whichever application opens them.
Sources
- Land Schleswig-Holstein: Staatskanzlei nutzt Linux (19 September 2026)
- Land Schleswig-Holstein: LibreOffice ersetzt Microsoft, fast 80 Prozent der Arbeitsplätze umgestellt (4 December 2025)
- Land Schleswig-Holstein: Land löst Microsoft Access ab (7 July 2026)
- Land Schleswig-Holstein: Mit Open Source zu mehr digitaler Souveränität
For information only, not legal advice. Last updated 19 October 2026.
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