Where is the emergency exit?

I think most companies are not ready for it. Mine certainly is not yet.

A Proton suite has been ready for me to switch to for months, but I have not taken the step yet. I read other people's experiences, with a calendar for example, which keeps me doubting. And: I use my Google account to log in to dozens, maybe even hundreds of accounts. I like Gmail in the browser and it is integrated with various tools. I never use Word and Excel, so that is not where it sits, but most companies and governments are deeply entangled with them. It is in the login, the integrations and everything attached to them. Almost everything I use is still American, and for now that is fine. What I did choose new this past month is European, such as Mistral for text recognition in my own software.

Even those who do switch do not get out easily. This spring, Zurich investigated whether openDesk could replace Microsoft 365: fine for mail and files, but telephony, automation and security fell short. Schleswig-Holstein is further along, having moved the mail of more than 40,000 accounts and largely introduced LibreOffice. SharePoint, Teams and Windows are still there.

So for now, switching mostly looks like a compromise: a little less convenient, but European. Most companies and users do not find that enough - and neither do I. Europe built Spotify, SAP, Lovable and Mistral. We can make really good digital products. For the workplace suite, though, that does not seem to have fully succeeded yet. But please let me know if I am overlooking something.

What gives me hope is also my biggest question mark: AI. If we soon stop working with separate programs and instead use a chat window that handles mail, documents and systems, the game may start over and Europe could leap past its backlog in one go. I do not know if it will go that way. That new layer could just as easily become American, and then we would be stuck even deeper.

My feeling so far: the emergency exit does open, and the slide does inflate. We are just still at eleven kilometres altitude. There are oxygen masks, but not at every seat.

I see the problem, I understand why an emergency exit matters, but I cannot see the exit itself clearly yet. That is why I am going to search over the coming weeks, with sources.

I am looking for experiences with European alternatives to Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, from people, companies, schools and municipalities. Succeeded, half succeeded or rolled back, everything helps. Where did you run into trouble, or where does it actually work? Comment or send me a message. I will include the best stories, with your permission.