Frances switchted to Linux on 2.5 million PCs
France for whatever reason tends not to export much tech, so I think many people don’t realize how tech-savvy they have historically always been.
2.5 Million government PCs seems like a lot
I hope they do the more users there are the faster improvements will happen and the more support for things in general.
If only the muppets in my homeland were half as competent as the bloody French.
i never understood why my Government in Australia doesn’t have a tech division a Linux version to use, Libre Office software etc a messenger service, an email and a Mastodon instance. Doesn’t mean you have to use them by the Governments should and be available to all including our Oceania brothers if they wish including funding them.
Giving up digital sovereignty is beyond my understanding, let alone hosting Government. and financial services on foreign owned cloud services.
Yeah not having a government issued email is completely bonkers in this day and age. They should never have allowed Google to fill that gap.
Linux? I think we still using windows 10
Fantastic, it’s amazing what you can do when you don’t have billionaires on the stage patting each other on the back and laughing with each election.
Boy I sure do remember a lot of people in the last ten years tell me its completely impossible to run any kind of modern enterprise set up without Windows.
Wow!
They were all fucking wrong!
Who could have guessed!
10 years ago, a significant number of enterprise software was written as windows native apps. What’s changed is now everything is a webapp and linux runs firefox/chrome/chromium/edge/etc just fine.
Also, already 10 years ago, corporate backends were pretty much already all running on Linux.
In big companies the stuff running in Windows has long been just been the Views in a multi-tiered Model-View-Controller systems architecture, whilst the data and logic sat in servers.
From my own experience, on the technical side it’s mainly the sunk cost into making the custom frontends in Windows and certain apps used to fill the gaps not covered by corporate systems (for example Excel and Outlook) that have held Windows in place.
On the management side, it’s probably a question of support contracts and friendly rather than professional relationships with specific Windows-only 3rd party vendors.
Not at all denying your point (which I totally agree with), just pointing out that in big enough companies to have their own software developers and proprietary systems, the movement away from Windows has been going on longer than that, just less visible to most people because what was being moved over was back and middle tier stuff.
Whilst people kept dreaming about the Year Of Linux On The Desktop, Linux had, since the 90s, quietly and steadilly been eating away at the responsabilities of software running on the Desktop.
I’m in the lucky position that I get to run Linux on my work machines in an otherwise Windows environment (helps that I’m in the IT dept). Enterprise apps are actually a lot better about supporting Linux these days. Zoom, WebEx, TigerConnect (healthcare focused HIPAA compliant messenger) all have native Linux versions. Also, the CrowdStrike EDR agent supports Linux too, which was helpful to get approval to run Linux. Support is good in IT specific tools too. VMWare remote console and
VMWareOmnissa Horizon client also support Linux natively, so I use Horizon to connect to a VM when I actually do need Windows. Most of the Cisco management tools that aren’t web based work too, e.g. CUCM RTMT, but they are in Java so not too surprising. The only stickler really is Microsoft products. I use Teams, Sharepoint and Outlook as PWA though, which is good enough for me (do all my actual document editing in LibreOffice though). Typically the only thing I actually need to log into actual Windows VM for is Windows Server Management Tools to manage AD, DHCP, DNS etc
Curious how large organizations are dealing with the lack of tight group policy control that they’re used to on Windows, and users having far more options for circumventing any given restriction.
You do know that it’s possible to set up tight group policy control on Linux right?
Every major distro has some sort of user control built in, and Enterprise distros like Red Hat and SUSE are actually better than Windows.
No you see, only Windows has the concept of permission groups for users, get chown’d, n00b.
Now for funzies, we need to get them to install the steam client.
That article is trash. Ministries have only been asked to come up with a plan of what’s possible to do to switch but I highly doubt most will switch. The education ministry recently renewed it’s Microsoft contract and I don’t think there is anything enforcing a switch, it’s only a “please look at what could be possible” thing. The only thing switching for sure is the DINUM, about 250 people, a lot of them already using Linux. But this is the start of an experiment where they are building some NixOS configurations that could be used if a larger switch was to happen. Believe it or not, they NixOS configs are names Sécurix and Bureautix.
The source article from ZDNet they got the information from has been updated to correct the mistake.
Correction on April 16, 2026: An earlier version of this article stated that France was planning to replace 2.5 million Windows desktops with Linux. In fact, the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs is initially migrating only its own internal workstations (about 350) and will coordinate a broader effort. Individual ministries have been instructed to develop their own migration plans by fall 2026. The article has been updated to reflect this clarification.
From 2.5 million to 350, that’s sad
It’s overselling it, but the move towards digital sovereignty isn’t a passing fad.
The various revelations over the years about the US spying on allies and Microsoft famously telling the EU(?) that they could not guarantee that their data would not be turned over to the US government has all but ensured that this is going to happen as a matter of national security.
They can’t have their government dependent on systems that could be disabled at any time for political reasons, like the sanctions applied to the ICC judge on the genocide case against Israel.
It was one thing when the US was an ally, but now we are not a dependable ally and these countries are reorganizing their security posture in recognition of that fact.
Linux is the only viable operating system that is not vulnerable to US government sponsored supply chain attacks. While it may not be deployed everywhere immediately, the directive to agencies to start planning for the transition is the first step in the process and critical services will transition much sooner.
This will happen regardless of what happens in the election, Trump has exposed the weaknesses in our system of government and the attitude of US elites towards other countries. No sane country would trust US tech given the direction of things.
Honestly if I had one wish is that government would be banned for saying any rental agreement was an investment.
It’s so frustrating, and brings me hope to see it change, that RnD and infrastructure investment funds got put into software rental agreement for windows and VMware and more recently into proprietary Cloud ecosystems.
Like you own nothing from that. That money is gone from the public good. It’s not an investment. I didn’t invest in an apartment, I rented, I don’t have any value left from that agreement I had my wants and needs temporally satisfied.
That is just the constant issue these people put in the public trust are learning but have to held to task to.
That is just the constant issue these people put in the public trust are learning but have to held to task to.
I think the people who’ve gained a career in politics understand the rent seeking game and it is the people who have forgotten what the stakes are.
I don’t buy for a minute that these highly educated people with degrees from prestigious universities don’t understand the historical context that they’re living through. The amount of corruption on public display is shocking to anyone who is paying attention.
We’ve just become complacent and have, collectively, forgotten what the stakes are.
You’re right, the people who are able to make decisions are able to make objectively bad long term decision and the amount of people who want to hold them to task is so massively diluted by a bunch of people who’ve grown complacent due to being born in and living through a period of time that has, historically, been largely positive.
(( Huge asterisks there, obviously. I mean there’s no world wars, widespread slavery or feudalism. Totalitarianism is limited to corners of the world where we’re largely discouraged from thinking about. North Korea is, objectively, an ongoing crime against humanity but most people living in western democracies have no context to understand that reality so it’s feels like a fantasy setting in a movie or TV Show. ))
There are still functioning democracies that haven’t gone off the cliff despite everything and the Internet has given us an organizational tool that has never existed in human history. We’re living through Interesting Times, but there’s still hope.
Free software activists in Europe have been saying for decades that it’s a matter of sovereignty and the investments may be painful at first but will end up saving untold amounts of money.
The Marshall plan goodwill has run out now.
I’m a USian and also have worked in tech for decades. I hope Europe succeeds, there needs to be competition.
The US is in a similar position when it comes to manufacturing. The various business interests have sold our country’s capabilities in exchange for short-term profits.
Offshoring was wildly profitable for decades, why pay people domestically to do a thing when you can pay less to people in another country to do the same thing. Thanks to this, we now import the vast majority of things from overseas because we have little to no domestic manufacturing capability. The massive industrial manufacturing base that carried the US economy after WWII was deconstructed in a few decades
Most of the money that was being poured into US tech companies from all around the world was funneled back out into foreign manufacturing centers who now control the market for electronics hardware. Apple has spent hundreds of BILLIONS investing in SE Asia’s electronic hardware manufacturing industry because it was cheaper. This helped create an entire industry that renders any attempt to create domestic production unprofitable.
The US made a lot of billionaires and not much else. Today our tech sector is largely just software running on hardware that was manufactured elsewhere and imported. (It would be a shame if someone invented a thing which could create software at scale)
The only reason that the US remains dominant in these fields is because we’ve strong armed every other country into accepting our Intellectual Property laws which subordinates your laws and regulations into a system for enforcing our monopoly.
Once that link is broken, and the EU imports their own hardware and writes their own software irregardless of US IP laws then the US tech sector will collapse.
Here’s Cory Doctorow explaining what that would look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39jsstmmUUs
Linux is the only viable operating system that is not vulnerable to US government sponsored supply chain attacks
Well I certainly don’t agree with that, and in many cases (at least with specific Linux distros) I would even argue it IS vulnerable already. Maybe we have different definitions of “viable” or something. The Linux kernel itself has also been forced to make political decisions at the demand of the United States, such as removing support for Russian CPUs (but somehow Chinese ones are A-OK).
It’s viable because all of the important components are open source. That’s the entire genius of open source, if you’re capable enough then you’re immune to future changes. You can fork a project and take over development. It only costs developers and that’s well within the budget of a modern western country.
Any country who is going to undertake the effort to move away from Windows will have the resources to support distros which align with their country’s interest or create their own. Even North Korea has their own distro of Linux, I’m sure the EU countries can find the talent required to ensure their software meets their needs.
As an individual, you’re right. You’re largely at the whims of the people who volunteer their time to the kernel, the software ecosystem and the individual distributions. If you have infinite money then those problems become a line item in your budget.
But if the definition of viable is merely “open source”… there are many other such operating systems out there.
You seem to assume our president and its government act with intelligence and in the interest of our country. You could not be any further from the truth.
I hope you’re right but I can assure you our government is very good at making grand announces not followed by anything, or even by the opposite. Also our far right, which might very well win the next election, is very much pro-Trump.
Our education ministry keeps signing huge Microsoft contracts, our health data is stored by Microsoft, our intelligence agency use Palantir, our government is mostly on X… I’m forgetting a lot of other things. They are also pushing hard for regulations against privacy, weakening encryption, chat-control…
There are some small nice things here and there like our Gendarmerie using Ubuntu, the DINUM making a lot of open-source tools… But it’s really a drop in the water.
Our elites and politicians share a similar playbook when it comes to doing exactly what they want while pretending to struggle to do anything else.
Technology is important for making the government run more efficiently and the US tech sector has historically provided the tools for making that process more efficient. It was easier to use the tools available from a close ally than it was to devote the resources towards building up a domestic technology sector.
We’re in a different world now, both politically and technologically. The US government has been using this dependency to gain advantage in other areas by spying on our allies. The trend towards right-wing nationalism also creates a real danger that this could escalate into even more coercive tactics.
Now, the cost of cultivating a domestic tech sector is now much lower than the cost of having all of your government functions held ransom by a foreign power. Especially when everyone can see how rapidly the US’s posture towards allies has changed.
That being said, it takes time to build a tech industry and swap to domestic production. The US’s tech sector growth was subsidized by the entire world and built over decades. It will take time to replicate that in the EU (and even longer if there isn’t a unified initiative).
Until then, your governments cannot help but be dependent on Microsoft and other US technology companies who are using emerging technology to enable new capabilities (i.e. Palantir).
As one commoner to another, I hope your country is shocked by the turmoil that we’re going through and can build something better.
Using NixOS as an imaging tool by distributing a config is pretty neat and I would love to see it happen. I’m surprised they were competent enough to see that route; I wonder who’s behind this initiative?
That’s the Interministerial Digital Directorate, they are very competent.
Nice, France
No, I think it’s everwhere.
🤣
Hon Hon hon.
lmfao
why, great news!
So I suspect they are also dropping their plans to require age verification on social media?
After all, public code repositories which are essential for developing the software they’re switching to are… also a form of social media, correct? Surely they do not want to sabotage its development by requiring those repos to implement costly age verification? Right?
I can tell you one thing: French authorities don’t give a flying fuck about any right to privacy for commoners.
Would be lovely if my Government would even consider that.
I hate using Win11, but it seems we’re so entrenched with Microslop that they’re even giving “officially endorsed” courses on how to use Co-Pilot.I understand that AI and Neural Networks have their uses, but why are people so willing to give up their ability to think and write for themselves??
Time is the main reason. In jobs where you write dozens of client-facing emails every day, small time savings compound fast.
Most people working in Outlook all day are doing exactly this kind of work: responding to clients, coordinating projects, clarifying requests, following up, documenting decisions, and managing constant communication.
Instead of writing every email from scratch, I can give AI instructions like:
“Read the email chain. The client needs X, Y, and Z. Write a draft reply in my voice.”
That takes seconds instead of several minutes per email. Across an entire workday, that can save hours.
Fair enough, but if you’re a manager isn’t that kind of the whole job? Communicating with people. If you’re not doing that, what are you getting paid to do?
I can’t imagine out-sourcing the skill-set you’re being paid for to an AI tool is a great way to build up that skill. Sounds like humanity’s typical great short-term idea with horrible long-term consequences.
I can write an amazing email word by word, or I can have my digital secretary draft it while I review, edit, and approve every part of it.
I don’t send anything I haven’t personally read and approved. The judgment, accountability, and intent are still mine.
You’re absolutely right that outsourcing learning and critical thinking to AI would have serious long-term consequences. But using AI to accelerate execution after you’ve already developed those skills is different.
I’m paid for the experience and judgment to know what needs to be said, what matters, and what outcome the communication is supposed to achieve.
Again, fair enough - treating it akin to a draft making machine isn’t a terrible idea…
But I would argue that reviewing an existing draft, while a perfectly valid skill to have, is not the same skill as actually writing that draft.
I can say from plenty of experience making and reviewing documentation, that making the first draft is always a much more demanding task than reviewing and making corrections.
And while there’s nothing wrong with making life a bit easier, maintenance of skills is just as important as making them in the first place. If you want to maintain skills for the latter, you need to let yourself write some drafts too.
I mean I have a microchasm example of this myself. I used to be good at remembering phone numbers prior to being able to store them all on a smartphone. Now, even if you put a gun to my head, I can really only remember my own. And that is because I outsourced that part of my memory to my phone, just as most people have - without any attempt to reinforce it.
I’ve genuinely enjoyed this exchange. It’s rare to find someone willing to refine an argument instead of just defending a position. I appreciate that you’re actually thinking through the implications instead of reducing this to “AI good” or “AI bad.”
And honestly, I think we agree on more than we disagree.
I don’t think replacing human thought with AI is healthy. Your concern about skill atrophy is legitimate, and your point about drafting versus reviewing is stronger than many people realize. Creating a first draft exercises very different cognitive muscles than critiquing an existing one.
Where I think we differ slightly is that I see an important distinction between:
- using AI to avoid developing competence
- using AI to accelerate execution after competence already exists
To me, that distinction matters enormously.
Someone blindly accepting AI output without understanding it puts themselves in a dangerous intellectual position. But someone who already has strong writing, reasoning, and communication skills can use AI more like a junior assistant or drafting tool while still retaining judgment, accountability, and intent.
What concerns me more is exactly what you’re pointing at: competence itself is becoming rarer.
If people start outsourcing the very processes that develop critical thinking, writing ability, synthesis, and communication before those skills fully mature, then we could absolutely weaken society’s long-term cognitive resilience.
That should concern everyone, regardless of whether they’re optimistic or pessimistic about AI.
97% of their police computers run on gendbuntu since at least 2017… they know linux already :)
