Netherlands and France adopt NixOS to increase digital sovereignty

The governments of the Netherlands and France are moving toward digital sovereignty by adopting Linux-based operating systems to reduce dependence on American software providers like Microsoft.

In the Netherlands, the Digital Autonomous Government Work Environment (DAWO) initiative is developing a sovereign digital workspace. The project utilizes NixOS as its client operating system due to its reproducible configurations and immutable package content. While openSUSE and Fedora were reportedly considered, the decision to use NixOS was influenced by concerns regarding the ownership of SUSE and the heavy involvement of IBM and Red Hat in Fedora. A stable version of the DAWO environment is expected by late 2027.

Similarly, France's Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) is planning a transition from Windows to Linux-based systems starting in April 2026. France is developing ‘SécurixOS’, a NixOS-based secure operating system designed to provide a hardened, minimal environment with strong isolation and policy-driven configurations for government teams.