This city is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for OnlyOffice and Linux – here's why

Is it something in the water? First, it was Denmark bidding Microsoft adieu. Then it was the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Now it’s Lyon, France’s third-largest city and a leading economic hub, sweeping Microsoft Windows and Office suite away to replace them with Linux, OnlyOffice, NextCloud, and PostgreSQL. 

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So, why is Lyon making this move? Well, it’s not due to something in the water. Like the other European entities, Lyon’s move is part of a broader strategy to achieve digital sovereignty and reduce dependence on Microsoft software. The simple truth is that many European-based governments no longer trust their data or software to American-based companies under President Donald Trump. 

They fear their data could be read and that Microsoft could kill their services on Trump’s behalf. While Microsoft Chairman and General Counsel Brad Smith dismissed such worries and promised that the company would stand behind its EU customers against political pressure, he hasn’t managed to convince some European Union (EU) governments. 

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As the European Commission’s 2025 State of the Digital Decade report suggested, Europe still “has not harnessed the full power of open source, which is essential for tech autonomy.” Thus, as Lyon’s Deputy Mayor for Digital Policy, Bertrand Maes, said, “We are proud to place Lyon on a trajectory of digital sovereignty… to protect citizens’ data.”

Besides the drive for digital sovereignty, the move is also meant to support local and regional economic development. Thus, the city’s collaboration suite, Territoire Numérique Ouvert (Open Digital Territory), is being developed in partnership with local digital organizations and will be hosted in regional data centers. This homegrown solution is designed to provide secure, interoperable tools for videoconferencing, office automation, and document collaboration.

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It is through this collaboration project that Lyon has launched a progressive migration across all municipal workstations, replacing Windows with Linux and Microsoft Office with OnlyOffice. While the name may sound like LibreOffice, the most popular open-source office suite, OnlyOffice is not a relative. Latvia-based Ascensio Systems‘ OnlyOffice is a separate open-source, cloud-based productivity suite. It’s available under the GNU Affero General Public License.

Lyon expects direct cost savings by extending the lifespan of municipal hardware, reducing electronic waste, and the city’s environmental footprint. 

More than 50% of public contracts for the project have been awarded to companies in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, with all contracts going to French firms. This is a deliberate move to bolster the local economy. This approach has also been a common theme in other EU Linux and open-source initiatives aimed at keeping Euros at home rather than sending them to the US.

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Training for 10,000 civil servants began in June 2025. Lyon’s migration to Linux is being closely watched as a potential blueprint for other municipalities seeking greater digital independence and sustainability. Who knows, the “Year of the Linux desktop” may finally arrive not because people have grown tired of Windows’ manifold problems or Linux’s advantages, but because governments are worried about putting all their IT eggs in one US-based Microsoft basket.