A penguin as the emblem of the Data Protection and Document Management Department
www.tuwien.at
The Department of Data Protection and Document Management decided to replace Windows with Linux and Microsoft Office with LibreOffice. The aim was to regain control over its own data. The resulting pilot project on ‘digital sovereignty’ is now set to serve as a model for other departments.

Linux and LibreOffice as daily drivers are used in the Data Protection and Document Managment Department at the Technical University of Vienna in Austria - not because it was ordered from above but because the team decided that those are the correct tools for their job. Other departments in the university administration are now set to follow.

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“The current situation poses an unpredictable risk for users outside the US,” says Christina Thirsfeld [the university’s Data Protection Officer]. She therefore decided, on behalf of her department, to shelve the Windows operating system and its associated software and instead make way for a penguin – the Linux operating system (with its emblem, the penguin) would replace Windows, and MS Office would be replaced by LibreOffice: a real-world experiment.

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Christina Thirsfeld encourages people to take the plunge. “Digital sovereignty is a precious asset that we should strive for, even if it may involve a certain loss of convenience or require us to break with old habits. Convenience should not take precedence over digital sovereignty.” The pilot project at the TU Wien has shown that greater digital independence in everyday university life is possible.

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