The dependence on US companies is deep and multifaceted. I don’t think we should attempt nothing until a perfect solution is available.

I have seen transitions from MS suite at universities and I don't think what you are saying is true.

First assumption is that there are no alternatives so you can't replace Excel as a software. Obvious ones for Excel - LibreOffice, Collabora, OnlyOffice or Grist (which i highly recommend). The paradoxical problem is there is no clear THE ONE so organizations get into decision paralysis and never move anywhere.

The other assumption is that even if there were alternatives people will not adopt them. In reality this is rarely issue. Turns out users/employees/students actually don't care much what software they have to use. They just use what is available or what they are told to use. So the reason why people use MS Office is actually because it's mandated from the top. Lawyers use it because state/gov/court communication requires it. Students use it because they need to submit thesis in MS Word. It's socially locked in.

I've been at a university which switched over the summer from MS Office to LibreOffice. The results were boring. 40k people just adopted it, no drama, some liked it more (works on linux yay), took some people few weeks to learn/adjust. People are used learning new things.

So can we stop with that story that 40 year old software which barely changed in last 20 years can't be replaced?

This whole digital sovereignty is i think extremely scary proposition for Microsoft because just as they are now mandated solution by most western world... they are one law away (all state/university communication must be with libre software) to be on the other side of their current mandate / lock in.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

Proton.

Also, Collabora office looks really great too.

Software is a challenge but try replacing hardware. There isn’t a replacement for AMD, Intel or nVidia.

Fucking Libre Office!