A break with symbolism:
For fear of sanctions, the International Criminal Court is replacing US technology with a package from Germany – and could thus be at the beginning of a trend.
(Christof Kerkmann,10/30/2025 - 04:06)

Düsseldorf. It is a decision with political explosiveness: out of fear of reprisals by US President Donald Trump, the International Criminal Court (ICC) plans to make itself independent of technologies from the USA. According to Handelsblatt information, the international institution in The Hague, the Netherlands, is replacing Microsoft's workplace software through the German Open Desk solution.

The program package that Microsoft is to replace comes from the Center for Digital Sovereignty (Zendis), a federal company. Its mission is to strengthen the digital independence of public administration by resolving “critical dependencies on individual technology providers”. Open Desk as a program package with components from eight European software manufacturers is a central element.

Read more:
public.quodari.com/public/memo…

With proven open source components, the federal government-funded suite openDesk guides management out of Microsoft dependency.

Financed by the Federal Government, it has been in operation since October 2024. OpenDesk promises open source applications for digital collaboration under a unified interface. This includes word processing, spreadsheet, chat and video conferencing tools, cloud storage, a project management module, a wiki, and email, contact, and calendar features.

With the project, the federal government wants to reduce the dependence of the German authorities on US providers such as Microsoft.

- Enterprise version with self-hosting and SaaS

The individual components of the Office and Collaboration Suite are open source components of Collabora, Element, Nextcloud, Nordeck, Open-Xchange, Univention, Open Project and XWiki. In addition to the community edition of openDesk, version 1.0 is also an enterprise edition with two professional operating models: as a package for operation in your own data center (self-hosting) and as a software-as-a-service (SaaS). openDesk is to be run entirely as a Kubernetes-based cloud application, local installations are not required.

The IT service provider B1 Systems is to take care of the support of the self-hosting variant, the SaaS version comes from the German cloud provider StackIT. Last month, both companies were awarded the contract by ZenDis, which is behind Opendesk ("Centre for Digital Sovereignty of
Public Administration").

- A confident workplace instead of Microsoft

OpenDesk is based on an initiative by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and nine federal states. They joined forces in November 2021 to reduce the public sector's dependence on US software under the then project name "Sovereign Workplace". ZenDiS, founded in 2022, coordinates the development of openDesk as a public GmbH on behalf of the Federal Government.
The Federal Government intends to provide ZenDiS with around 10 million euros for the further development of the suite in the current year. In previous years, the federal government has already invested around 35 million euros in the development of openDesk. The Microsoft 365 alternative also competes with the technically closely related Phoenix suite of the public North German IT service provider Dataport, which, however, is not completely open source and is currently only available as a software-as-a-service.

(Source: heise.de/news/Microsoft-365-Al…)

opendesk.eu/de/produkt

A stable, secure and privacy conscious option for schools.
Edubuntu is a community effort that seeks to bring the freedom of the Linux desktop and the vast library of open source education software into the classroom.

* Edubuntu has been revived for thousands of educators and students. Here
are the best new features.

Edubuntu is a popular open source educational operating system based on Ubuntu Linux. It is primarily aimed at students and teachers and aims to be the “Linux distribution in the classroom” with a solid Ubuntu base.
The new version of Edubuntu includes exciting new features and updates that make it even more valuable for educators and students. This article explains the best new features of Edubuntu.

* Changes to the user interface with modern GNOME

However, the new interface is designed to provide a better user experience and make navigation in the system more accessible to students and teachers.

* Accessibility and settings update

GNOME desktop, by default, is much more improved on the Accessibility front with many settings. In GNOME 44, the entire accessibility settings page is revamped. It is now based on a friendly name instead of a generic list of controls. Edubuntu 23.04 definitely going to provide a good experience with GNOME 44 for students having special needs.

Furthermore, the output and input section on the sound page in settings is shuffled for better clarity.

* Education specific applications

The most critical aspect of this distro is the applications specific to education. The default set of applications in Edubuntu 23.04 is well packaged, considering all types of students and their grade levels.
For generic office work, LibreOffice 7.5 is included. Browsing the web is easier with secure Firefox (snap).

Students who need art-related applications can take advantage of the below set of default apps:
- GIMP raster drawing program
- Drawing – simple image editor (similar to MS Paint)
- Tux Paint – drawing program for beginners
- LibreCAD – Free and open-source computer-aided design app
- Inkscape – Vector drawing program

A well set of language and learning tools to help all students across grades. Here’s a list:
- Endeavor – GTK-based to-do manager
- Gobby – an excellent tool for collaborative document editing over a network
- Ulcc – teach children through pictures.
- Khangman and KWordquiz – to learn and teach new words
- PDFMod – PDF editor
-Calibre – e-book management

Furthermore, a few important apps which are specialised and are perfect for specific subjects learning are also included.
- Gramps – genealogical research application
- KGeography – to learn world map
- Fritzing – electronic circuit designer and simulator

A huge collection of science and math applications are already installed by default.
- Atomix – Puzzle game about atoms and molecules
- Chemtool – design chemical diagrams
- Kalzium – Learn periodic table
- Light speed – An OpenGL-based program developed to illustrate the effects of special relativity on the appearance of moving objects
- Rocs – Graph theory simulator
- Stellarium – free and open-source planetarium software
- Step – Interactive physics simulator
- Dia – diagramming application
- Kalgebra – learn algebra interactively

In addition, GNOME Extensions manager is pre-installed in Edubuntu for easy installation for extensions, taking the effort away from educators.

* Application controls for students

Since many applications and packages are installed, it’s necessary to have control in place to restrict certain apps for specific users. Edubuntu has a built-in menu editor. Using this utility, you can hide certain apps from the menu that are non-admin users.

* Hardware support and core changes

At the core, Edubuntu 23.04 is powered by the latest Linux Kernel 6.2. This brings all modern hardware, CPU, CPU, ports and file system support.
Python 3.11 is included as part of the Ubuntu base to help students to learn this popular programming language.

* Closing Notes

Edubuntu 23.04 is an excellent distro for educational purposes, and the new features and improvements in this release make it even more valuable for students and teachers. From improved user interface to better language support, Edubuntu 23.04 has something for everyone. Its enhanced collaboration tools, multimedia support, and science/math apps are perfect for classrooms.

edubuntu.org/