A Note About European Tech Sovereignty

For as long as I have worked in Tech, Europe has talked about technology sovereignty, but progress has been slow. Replacing widely used products from companies like Microsoft turns out to be harder than most expect. Open source alternatives exist, but they often have sharp edges when it comes to compatibility with complex documents, skills, and long-standing habits. Documents, macros, and workflows built over decades create friction that is easy to underestimate. Still, there have been real examples of progress. The state administration of Schleswig-Holstein made a decision to move away from proprietary software and rely on open source. After early problems and public criticism, the state last year reported savings of more than 15 million euros per year in licensing costs by moving to Linux and LibreOffice, with similar savings expected in the years ahead.

I think this is a trend that grow, because Large language models change how Europeans can approach the issue. In past migrations, the biggest challenge was not installing new software. It was dealing with everything around it. Old document formats, custom scripts, fragile integrations, and undocumented behavior in proprietary systems consumed time and money. LLMs, used as coding companions, can lower that burden. They can help translate formats, rewrite automation, and generate compatibility layers that previously required specialist knowledge. LLMs are also really good at explaining to users how software works, so scaling the help desks to support these sorts of migrations is now easier than ever. 

I think we are going to see a big change in how desktop software, operating systems and SaaS products are used and procured over the next 10 years. I suspect we will see more startups and governments building sovereign technology that mimics American software but runs under local rules and laws. Governments and enterprises may now have the power to recreate familiar tools on open foundations without being locked into a single foreign vendor.