After Danish Cities Germanys Schleswig-Holstein State Government To Ban Microsoft Programs At Work

# After Danish Cities and Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein State Government Ban Microsoft Programs at Work: A Guide to Self-Hosted Open-Source Alternatives

Welcome! This blog post will walk you through setting up a self-hosted infrastructure for open-source alternatives to commonly used Microsoft software, following the recent bans in Danish cities and Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein State Government.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or higher (for this guide)
• Minimum 4GB RAM
• Access to a virtual machine or dedicated server
• SSH access to the server
• Basic knowledge of Linux command line and file system navigation

Solution

Step 1: Install Docker

Docker provides a platform for developing, shipping, and running applications. It’s essential for containerizing open-source alternatives to Microsoft software.

# Update package lists
sudo apt update

# Install Docker CE (version 5.0.8)
sudo apt install docker-ce=5.0.8

Step 2: Start and Enable Docker Service

Start the Docker service and ensure it starts automatically at boot.

# Start Docker service
sudo systemctl start docker

# Enable Docker service to autostart at boot
sudo systemctl enable docker

Step 3: Install Docker Compose

Docker Compose simplifies defining and running multi-container Docker applications. We’ll use it to manage our open-source alternatives.

# Download and install Docker Compose (version 1.27.4)
sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.27.4/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

# Set executable permissions for docker-compose
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

Step 4: Configure Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml file in the root directory of your project and configure it according to the following example:

version: '3'
services:
  openoffice:
    image: library/openoffice
    ports:
      - "8080:8100"
    environment:
      - LANG=en_US.UTF-8

  nextcloud:
    image: nextcloud:latest
    ports:
      - "443:443"
      - "80:80"
    environment:
      - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=password
      - MYSQL_DATABASE=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_USER=nextcloud
      - MYSQL_PASSWORD=password

Replace password with a secure password for your database.

Step 5: Run the Docker Compose Stack

Start the containers defined in the docker-compose.yml file.

docker-compose up -d

You can now access OpenOffice at http://<server_ip>:8080 and Nextcloud at https://<server_ip>.

Troubleshooting

• Ensure that ports are open on your firewall.
• Verify that Docker is running with sudo docker ps.

Conclusion

By following this guide, you’ve set up a self-hosted infrastructure for open-source alternatives to Microsoft software. This allows you to maintain control over your data and align with the recent bans in Danish cities and Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein State Government.

For additional information, consult the Docker and Docker Compose documentation.

Remember to keep your infrastructure secure and optimize its performance for better user experience. Happy automating! 🤖🔒🚀