Over the past few months, I have been writing a regular blog for Dutch IT publication Computable.nl called De Overstap (text is in Dutch)— which roughly translates as Making the Switch.
The subject is digital sovereignty. But rather than approaching it primarily as a policy discussion, I am trying to look at a much more practical question: what actually happens when individuals and organisations try to reduce their dependence on Big Tech?
There is no shortage of discussion in Europe about digital sovereignty, technological autonomy and the dominance of mainly American hyperscalers. What interests me is what happens after that discussion. Which alternatives already exist? Are they good enough? What makes migration difficult? And are European and open-source solutions genuinely usable in everyday working environments?
Computable describes the series as a guide for IT professionals and decision-makers looking for alternative business solutions. So far, seven editions have been published.
It started with my MacBook
The first edition, “How do I get rid of my MacBook?”, was deliberately personal. After years inside Apple’s ecosystem, I moved much of my daily work to Linux, LibreOffice, Thunderbird, Nextcloud and other predominantly European or open-source tools.
The interesting discovery was that the move itself was considerably easier than expected. But it also revealed something important: you never operate completely independently. Customers, colleagues and other organisations may still expect Microsoft Teams, Adobe software or proprietary file formats. Digital sovereignty is therefore not simply a matter of choosing another laptop.
Half a million French students show what is possible
The second edition moved from my desk to the French education system. In Île-de-France, almost 550,000 students, teachers and staff use an environment based partly on Nextcloud and hosted using European infrastructure.
It is an interesting example because it demonstrates that open-source and European alternatives are not limited to enthusiasts or small experiments. They can operate at substantial scale. The article also looked at NLnet Labs moving projects from GitHub to Codeberg and at emerging European office platforms.
Open source needs an enterprise model too
Edition three examined an often overlooked problem. Having technically capable open-source software is not enough for large organisations. Enterprises also want contracts, support, accountability and somebody to call when something goes wrong.
One possible answer comes from organisations such as the Dutch Opensource Business Alliance, where specialist companies can work together in consortia and present customers with something resembling the service model they are accustomed to receiving from large proprietary vendors. The edition also explored European attitudes towards replacing US technology and alternatives to platforms such as GitHub and Notion.
Where does the money for migration come from?
Digital sovereignty sounds attractive until somebody asks who is going to pay for it.
The fourth De Overstap therefore looked at the economics of migration. One potentially useful approach is to examine existing IT contracts first. Organisations may be able to free up part of the necessary migration budget by benchmarking and renegotiating existing software and services agreements.
The broader point is that sovereignty cannot be treated purely as an architectural issue. Technology, procurement, contracts and financial planning are closely connected. This edition also examined the Dutch government’s decision to operate its own environment for hosting open-source code.
Sometimes you have to switch twice
My own migration did not proceed in a perfectly straight line either.
I originally switched from macOS to openSUSE on a Lenovo ThinkPad. It worked, but there were enough small issues — particularly involving hardware and some everyday applications — to interfere with my work. So I started again, this time with a Spanish Slimbook EVO running Linux Mint.
That experience became edition five. For me, Linux Mint turned out to be much closer to what mainstream users need: an operating environment that does not make the operating system itself a daily project. The article also looked at the contradictions that can arise when supposedly European services still depend on American cloud infrastructure.
The laptop was easy. Now for the smartphone
Edition six moved to perhaps the more difficult part of leaving Big Tech behind: the mobile phone.
My Linux laptop had by then become an ordinary piece of working equipment. My phone remained more complicated. Moving from an iPhone to a conventional Android device simply means moving from one dominant US ecosystem to another.
So I looked at European and more open alternatives, including France’s /e/OS and Murena and Finland’s Sailfish OS and Jolla. The article also explored developments around sovereign cloud infrastructure and European AI.
Convenience still beats principles surprisingly often
The seventh and, at the moment, most recent edition asks how much progress Europe is really making.
There are certainly more sovereign-cloud projects, open-source migrations and proofs of concept than there were only a short time ago. But there is also a striking contradiction. Organisations may discuss sovereignty, NIS2 and strategic dependence in one meeting, while adopting another service from Microsoft or another hyperscaler in the next.
That does not necessarily mean they do not understand the problem. Often the forces pulling in the opposite direction are very practical: existing platforms, perceived migration risks, pressure to introduce AI quickly and management’s desire to demonstrate immediate productivity improvements. Convenience, in other words, still frequently wins over principles.
A journey rather than a destination
That is probably why I enjoy writing De Overstap. It is not really a blog about replacing Microsoft, Apple, Google or AWS with a predetermined list of European products.
It is about discovering what genuine digital autonomy looks like in practice — including the compromises, failed experiments, unexpected alternatives and very ordinary usability issues that are easily forgotten in high-level debates about sovereignty.
And there is plenty more to explore.
All editions of De Overstap can be found here.