We often talk on this blog about large-scale migrations to LibreOffice, such as in the Austrian Military. But many small businesses are switching away from Microsoft, Google and other tech giants too. Today we’re talking to Mišo Oroz from Zerolock, a company in Italy that helps small businesses to switch to free and open source software (FOSS):
Tell us a bit about what you do
Zerolock is an IT company I founded in early 2026, based in Spirano, near Bergamo, in Lombardy. The focus is simple: migrating small businesses with 2 to 20 office workstations from proprietary systems to fully open source infrastructure. We use Linux workstations with KDE Plasma as the desktop environment, LibreOffice as the office suite, and a full stack of open source tools for collaboration, communication and security.
Everything is self-hosted – everything is on European servers. There is no Microsoft and no vendor lock-in.
What kinds of businesses are you helping to migrate to Linux and LibreOffice, and why do they want to switch?
They are mostly non-technical environments: a logistics company, a construction company, a dental practice, a law firm. The trigger is rarely ideology.
It is usually a combination of rising software costs, a bad experience with a vendor, or simply someone asking “why are we paying for this every year?” Once the conversation starts, the sovereignty and privacy arguments land naturally. But the first question is always about money.
What has gone well in the migrations, and what have been some of the more challenging aspects?
What works well is the desktop transition. With KDE Plasma and LibreOffice, most users adapt faster than expected. The files look the same, the menus are recognszable, and within a few days the friction disappears. What is harder is the mindset shift: people have been trained to think that Windows and Microsoft Office are “the computer”.
Showing them that the alternative is not a compromise, but a choice, takes time and trust. That is the real work.
One concrete recurring challenge is spreadsheet formulas. Users coming from Excel often hit friction in Calc, not because the functionality is missing, but because the syntax or behaviour differs in ways that are subtle enough to cause confusion without being obvious. That is usually where I spend the most training time.
What tips would you give to other small businesses looking to migrate?
Start with one person who is curious rather than resistant. Let them become the internal reference point. Do not try to convince the skeptics first.
Do the migration on a Friday or over a weekend, and be on site the following Monday. The first two days are where migrations succeed or fail. If someone is stuck at 09:00 on Monday with nobody to ask, the whole project loses credibility.
And document everything from day one.