The Dutch government is testing DAWO, a NixOS-based digital work environment covering the OS, office suite, and more, after Microsoft cut off the ICC in 2025

Government agencies in countries relying on US cloud services face potential disruptions from geopolitical actions.

The Dutch government is piloting DAWO, a NixOS-based digital work environment designed to replace Microsoft services. This initiative stems from the 2025 U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), which highlighted the risks of depending on foreign technology providers for critical infrastructure. Eight municipalities are currently testing DAWO, which encompasses the operating system, office suite, collaboration tools, cloud services, and AI components. The project is managed by a team associated with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and developed by major IT service providers SSC-ICT, DICTU, and DUO-ICT. NixOS was chosen for its reproducibility, immutability, and lack of direct corporate control, distinguishing it from other Linux distributions with commercial ties. The government aims to release the first stable version of DAWO next year after incorporating feedback from the ongoing trials.

The Dutch government's embrace of NixOS for DAWO signals a broader trend of national governments seeking greater digital sovereignty and reducing reliance on US technology giants. By choosing a Dutch-developed, community-controlled operating system, the Netherlands is prioritizing resilience against foreign policy decisions that could impact essential services. This move, influenced by the ICC sanctions, underscores a growing wariness of vendor lock-in and the strategic implications of cloud dependency.

This initiative could inspire other nations to explore similar self-sufficient digital infrastructures, potentially creating a niche market for open-source solutions tailored for government use. The success of DAWO might also encourage further development and standardization of NixOS in enterprise and public sector environments, emphasizing its unique approach to configuration management and reproducibility for large-scale deployments.