When the U.S. government imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in early 2025, the consequences were far-reaching yet quickly enforced.
The restrictions cut off the ICC chief prosecutor’s access to Microsoft services, including email, followed by a freezing of his personal and institutional bank accounts in affected jurisdictions.
While this was happening, the Dutch government was watching, coming to the bitter realization that access to essential services depended on decisions made in the U.S.
Hence, their response to this is DAWO, short for Digitaal Autonome Werkomgeving Overheid, or Digital Autonomous Work Environment for Government in English.
It is a framework that looks to tackle the government’s digital stack, covering the OS, an office suite, collaboration apps, cloud services, IT management tools, and AI, with all of it being built around a NixOS foundation.
You’ve described almost everything Mr Trump has done, thus far, in his attempts to divert from Epstein and child molestation.
There’s got to be some guy in the Netherlands who’s spent a chunk of his career watching telemetry head back over the wire to MS. I’ll bet he’s laughing his ass off.
I cannot imagine the joy being told to solve a computer problem, and oh by the way you’re not allowed to use anything Microsoft.