Will the France ditching of Windows for Linux for tech independence herald a new era of Linux growth
Posted by kishaloy@reddit | linux | View on Reddit | 91 comments
The past 1 year has been chaotic to say the least especially in the world of technology forcing governments across the globe to look for ways to gain tech independence from US companies.
Already France has mandated movement to Linux desktops and it’s likely that more governments in EU will follow. India already has a in-house version of Linux for secured operations but may follow suit as well.
I personally have faced one case where one of our business partners were denied M365 support in Venezuela due to sanctions.
Looks like this climate will push for greater adoption of more resilient OSS options specially Linux by governments across the globe and may percolate to industries as well.
mwyvr@reddit
Until there’s proven office grade mail and calendar solutions capable of being deployed and managed across tens of thousands of users, adoption is going to be slow. Dead slow.
The OS matters a lot less than the tools government workers rely upon each day.
New solutions and a host of support companies that don’t exist today will be needed.
TheGlennDavid@reddit
There are only ever two things that trump usability/"convenience" -- budget and Security. My suspicion is that foreign governments are internally very very very concerned in a post-Kimberly Prost world. They're in a situation where if the US President gets mad at them, he can demand all their shit stops working.
If they really internalize the idea that using software that is owned or managed by a US based company is a National Security Risk then suddenly "but le new calendar app is le shitty" isn't going to matter.
KnowZeroX@reddit
There are a ton of proven office grade mail and calendar solutions, in the case of France and other governments of Europe, they are using OpenXchange.
mwyvr@reddit
You aren’t going to find rapid adoption with browser based solutions like Open-Xchange. I’m a government buyer of tech and choose desktop office over web office any day of the week even if it hits my budget more.
Swapping out the MTA but leaving Windows on the desktop might be a strategy but hardly worth it.
KnowZeroX@reddit
OpenXchange is for mail and calendar which you asked for. You can still run it through Thunderbird if you want a desktop app.
I mean MS discontinued their desktop outlook in favor of a web version in electron.
If you mean for office itself, Collabora unlike MS Office is the full LibreOffice suite in the browser.
Coolcricri3@reddit
Maybe, but it is important to stay realistic, true progress is slow and steady. Server infrastructure has always been dominated by linux, so it is a realistic conclusion that some of the business world will follow, but government technology is notoriously ancient and unchanging
pdxbuckets@reddit
Very much so. When I worked at the Social Security Administration, we didn’t change from 32-bit to 64-bit until maybe 2018? due to aging custom software stack with a skeleton crew for maintaining it. We were issued these boat anchor HP laptops with quad core i7s to do basic office work, and yet they were constantly straining at the 4GB RAM limit of 32-bit.
Even then we stuck with Windows 7. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for that org to switch to Linux.
FamuexAnux@reddit
At the start of the pandemic, I was due to get unemployment payments from NJ but they were massively delayed due to the increased pressure from the mass unemployment event. I understand a major (if not the) reason they were so delayed is because their system ran on COBOL and they couldn’t find anyone who could work on it.
pdxbuckets@reddit
Imagine having 70 years of tech debt.
SirGlass@reddit
Yea but even in the corporate world in the USA its been easier and easier to get off windows
Lots of applications have moved to "The cloud" ; meaning you can access it through some webbrowser
In my company there is a big push to get away from exel files or access databases , use cloud based tools to host everything. So everything runs inside a browser
Now USA based companies may still own this, but you may not need every client machine running windows and its getting easier and easier every day as web based applications slowly take over
Meaning even if your company is running some MSFT ERP system , well the client computers can be Linux of Mac or doesn't need windows
pdxbuckets@reddit
Very much so. When I worked at the Social Security Administration, we didn’t change from 32-bit to 64-bit until maybe 2018? due to aging custom software stack with a skeleton crew for maintaining it. We were issued these boat anchor HP laptops with quad core i7s to do basic office work, and yet they were constantly straining at the 4GB RAM limit of 32-bit.
Even then we stuck with Windows 7. I can’t imagine how difficult it would be for that org to switch to Linux.
Bitsu92@reddit
the year of the linux desktop
Ok-Lab-6389@reddit
emphatically no for mom, pop, G-ma, G-pa, uncles, and aunts because nothing they do with windows or mac requires technology effort and Linux does. Unless Linux machines built for Linux start selling in Brick and Mortar or Amazon because something inevitably goes wrong like wifi, bluetooth, media/ sound, etc, and these users aren't capable of terminal and don't want to learn if they don't have to so spend they will.
As previously stated by others, progress is slow and the assimilation of Linux into society will have to start at the education level and be formed in generations so any hope for that will have to wait for a B.O.E. to bring it to fruition.
No-Insurance-4417@reddit
Yes, but slowly
Powerful_Deer7796@reddit
You can say about the french what you will but when it comes to sovereignity these guys stand their ground. In most of the areas of delivering EU alternatives to big tech, they are leading the way.
Kurgan_IT@reddit
No, this project will fail as every other project that tried to de-microsoft the European public sectors. Too many bribes are being paid to be sure that it will never happen.
KnowZeroX@reddit
France switched over 100,000 pcs to linux almost 2 decades ago and continues to this day. If they succeeded once, why do you think they will fail a second time?
Kurgan_IT@reddit
Wow, I'm happy to know about it. I actually looked up the MX for some government sites from France, and I have found not traces of Google or MS. They actually don't use google or MS as mail service providers, as a lot of European countries do. Good for France.
Adventurous_Way_2660@reddit
Proof? Or just your feeling?
Kurgan_IT@reddit
Feeling, and it happened before when some place in Germany tried getting away from MS and went back to MS.
SagariKatu@reddit
When did Germany, not a bundesland, but the country of Germany, decide to go with linux and foss?
Kurgan_IT@reddit
I wrote "some place in Germany", not the whole Germany.
Anyway, go on, dream of a MS-free public sector in Europe. It will not happen. I'd like to, but it will not happen.
Cube00@reddit
Given the concern when Microslop locked out the ICC, I'm hopeful this time they'll make progress.
Kurgan_IT@reddit
I hope so, but I don't think it will happen.
oxez@reddit
My hope is that the people who will be doing this transition will document everything:
It'd be nice to have this all documented to other government entities from other countries could have a template to at least look at. "See, this country (France) did it, they told us how they did it, maybe we should give it a shot too"
that_one_wierd_guy@reddit
they'll switch back in six months to five years. however long it takes them to realize that people hate learning new things to do their work, and will absolutely use weaponized incompetence to force a rollback
fubar_67@reddit
It may. It also may herald a new era of Linux malware and attacks
Actual__Wizard@reddit
Yes, the world is sick and tired of big tech telling us what we're going to do with our hardware.
Natural_Night9957@reddit
Isn't that French initiative too modest? What am I missing here?
1-800-I-Am-A-Pir8@reddit
Well we've heard this before so...
On the plus side, plasma is actually really good now. If euro office is good enough to win the users over then this might actually stick.
PenaltyGreedy6737@reddit
My guess is that France will probably end up going back on the decision because it will end up costing a lot more than just buying Windows licenses.
Understand that hundreds of thousands of people (eventually, millions) will have to be trained on how to use a computer, basically from the start again. To say nothing of the manhours which will be spent helping non-tech people bumping their heads against Linux for the first time.
"Where did all my Windows go!" - switched to a virtual desktop. "My computer is broken, everything is black!" - switched to TTY. "I copied stuff to my USB but I can't find it" - yanked the thumbdrive out after the copy dialog closed, but before
syncwas finished.This is also to say nothing of people who will have to be trained on Libreoffice and the panoply of new tools that France is cooking up to replace Office 365.
Yes, it's going to be a lot of fun. This is why it would have been nice if ReactOS was a real project because you would have a desktop-first OS which is intended to be a drop-in replacement for Windows. Oh well...
KnowZeroX@reddit
I don't understand the notion why you think it will fail.
Almost 20 years ago, France converted over 100,000 federal police computers to linux. And they continue to use linux to this day.
If they succeeded with such a wide deployment in the past, why do you think they would fail their second deployment?
PS Hooking up a USB to a government computer? Surely you jest. USB ports for transferring files is always blocked.
morphick@reddit
It depends.
If their idea of migrating to Linux is forking and developing a purposely-made distro, then the answer is "no, and the initiative will most likely fail".
If, on the other hand, they'll adopt a "stock" distro and add to it custom apps and security settings (while supporting said distro's development), then thîs gas a decent chance at driving meaningful change.
It's more of a matter of strategy rather than execution.
KnowZeroX@reddit
They chose to make a custom immutable distro based on NixOS
morphick@reddit
Welp...
SeaworthinessHead460@reddit
This isn’t the first attempt, but I hope this one succeeds. I’m considering the LIMux attempt by Munich, Germany. The open-source nature of much software makes it impossible to support. Moreover, the inevitable compatibility issues with other Windows users will eventually undermine the effort. I’m saying likely, but I know there are third parties trying to prove that the software’s support is feasible, etc. Is it cheaper than Windows? You end up swapping one unreliable vendor with many questionable niche vendors, and all of them will have something like “when you notice…when you find closures” in their EULAs.
KnowZeroX@reddit
France has already switched over 100,000 pcs to linux almost 2 decades ago for their federal police. So it has already had experience doing this before.
And linux already runs the backbone of the internet, it has long proven its reliability.
mattiasso@reddit
Usually, in Europe, there's to imagine that governmental institutions will adopt outdated, heavily personalized and unsupported distros. I wouldn't be surprised if in italy you'd have something based on Ubuntu 16.04LTS, with some horrible desktop environment that will make the already technologicallly illiterate people miss the "Good Old Windows".
We can hope they will go for latest and greatest, and make it a nice experience for the employees, that later pushes for a personal adoption, but I sadly doubt it happening.
KnowZeroX@reddit
Governments don't adapt outdated distros, that never happens. What can happen though is governments adapting an LTS distro and by the time it passes all bureaucracy it ends up outdated. And they didn't set enough resources or authority to do updates thus ending up in limbo.
But that is usually the case of limited pilot projects and such, for real attempts it isn't the case. France military police already has been using ubuntu on 100,000+ pcs and they have kept it updated.
This new initiative, they are going even more bleeding edge, picking immutable linux based on NixOS with KDE plasma desktop.
Adventurous_Way_2660@reddit
No different to windows though in some respects. The Uk NHS was brought to a standstill by ransomware because they had unsupported windows xp running everywhere
mattiasso@reddit
I’m more talking about the user experience, as I bet many of the people I’m targeting would rather go back to XP than learn Linux, but your point is completely valid and relevant as of today.
tdammers@reddit
FWIW, the "technically illiterate" people I've met that are made to work on corporate-configured Windows installs are already hating it with a passion; and additional disgust is more likely due to a new system being equally bad, but also being a different kind of bad (i.e., one they have yet to learn to work around). I've seen organizations move from thin clients accessing an outdated Windows Server environment through Citrix, to brand new Macs, and it led to complete carnage. Heck, just moving to a newer Windows version usually produces a ton of friction already.
aeiedamo@reddit
I highly doubt that it would "The thing."
As long as major OEMs don't offer Linux-based PCs/laptops on their stores and retailers, there will never be year of the Linux desktop. Microsoft is to be blamed for this btw because of their anti-competitve contracts.
However, most people can happily use Linux and they won't even notice a difference. If France will use KDE for their desktop, most of their employees will not notice a difference except for the wallpapers ig.
More and more countries are considering to break from Microsoft weird stuff. Microsoft is reconsidering its whole W11 strategy and plans because of the pushback and they didn't think much of it when it started and now they're paying a heavy price and I'm happy to watch this happen.
Also Trump's dumb actions are a major factor in all of this and I guess we can say he "pushed for" the year of the Linux desktop.
KnowZeroX@reddit
Based on the git repo, it seems to be KDE.
pizdachio@reddit
No. Even if all governments switch to Linux, that would not constitute an incentive for private parties to also switch. In the end, the ball remains in the hardware sellers' court. If they continue to flood the market with PC's with Windows licences, there's not going to be any real change. And of course Miscroslop has the financial means to keep hardware producers on their side.
KnowZeroX@reddit
It will to some extent, if government switches, it can also means schools switching, it also can influence things like companies wanting government contracts switching. Take for example CAD software, yes there are enterprise grade CAD like BricsCAD and ARES, but many people often times demand the same software they had on windows. And if governments switch, then the companies would either have to switch CAD software or pressure the CAD software they use to support linux.
On top of that, the switch would also encourage use of open formats like odf and etc. Which again makes it easier to switch.
AmarildoJr@reddit
Exactly this. Over here in Brazil a lot of local, state, and federal government PC's were using Linux. Even in the public libraries you'd find Linux. Still, people just didn't like it. This was like in 2006 or so, I don't even remember which distro it was.
The government even created a "Computer for all" program, which I believed they subsidized a portion of the cost for computers, which made them very cheap so more people could buy their first PC, and they also came with Linux. People still didn't like it.
I remember the PC shops over here making loads of money from these people sending their computers over so they could install Windows XP on them.
The experience just.... wasn't there at the time, specially for printers.
Now, obviously this wasn't Linux's fault because the printer makers could make drivers for Linux, but in the end people just don't care about these things, they bough a PC and now their stuff doesn't work anymore (printers, regular programs, you name it).
This is where I found my love for Linux, actually. I just loved the look and feel and how well it worked, how powerful it was. It was a distro based on Fedora if I'm not mistaken, called Insigne Linux 4.0. It came with KDE 3.5 or similar. Amazing experience. I spent like 14 years looking for this distro, until I found someone here in Brazil that had it and they uploaded it to Archive.org lol (link here)
Anyways... I think government/libraries/etc PC's having Linux has zero impact on how consumers will use their PCs.
What is really making a difference is, well, us :) the ones who been using it forever and just talking about it everywhere. We're likely one of the reasons VALVe ported Steam for Linux in the first place, and why more and more people keep discovering the platform.
tdammers@reddit
It would at least remove some potential barriers. Any government-mandated (or quasi-mandated) software would have to be compatible with government systems, and if those government systems ran Linux, switching to Linux as a private user would no longer carry the risk of being unable to run that government software, or not getting any support. It would also incentivize government workers who want to access their work computer from home (using their own equipment, where that is allowed) to use Linux for that, simply because remote access to any machine generally works most smoothly when both ends run the same OS - yes, you can log into a Windows/Citrix environment using a Mac, but it's a horrible experience - screen resolutions will be off, the keyboard mappings will be all wrong, and you'll get spurious errors that IT has no idea how to fix.
So it's not like there are no incentives; just that they aren't big enough to make a landslide change.
There's a much bigger elephant in the room though, which is that "desktop PCs" are a dying breed entirely. A lot of people I know just don't own a PC at all anymore, they just do everything with their smartphones and tablets; this has already led to a significant "increase in market share" for Linux-based desktops, but not so much because of people moving from Windows to Linux, but because of Windows users just abandoning desktop PCs entirely.
kansetsupanikku@reddit
It's not just that. Users who don't care wouldn't be interested in "no OS" options. And options with GNU/Linux preinstalled would require all the hardware components to demonstratedly work - and hardware vendors have no infrastructure / staff to test it. Neither do they want to, because some weirdly vendor locked Windows-only hardware components tend to be cheaper. That's why only specialist vendors and top workstations have Linux options.
Microsoft has already made the hardware producers locked into Windows, and the financial means you mention aren't even required at this point.
Demache@reddit
I don't think this will be the moment, but it might be one more step.
Earlier attempts to do this were back in the mid-00s, when desktop Linux and application support was still very immature, and Web 2.0 was a brand new, up and coming buzzword. And the political climate was far different.
The assumption that it will fail purely because it didn't work in the past, isn't taking into account that the game has changed in 20 years.
krumpfwylg@reddit
Errr... no.
Original announce (in french) : https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/souverainete-numerique-reduction-dependances-extra-europeennes/
This means the DINUM agency will switch from Windows to Linux. Not the whole government.
That means each ministry will have to propose a plan to favor European based software. The OS may be included, or not. Should a full Linux adoption be decided, it would take years to make it happen on every public service computer.
Plus, some french agencies have contracts with US software vendors (e.g. french intelligence hired Palantir https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/12/15/us-tech-firm-palantir-extends-deal-with-french-intelligence-agency_6748523_7.html but cloud services as well), and I doubt those vendors (Microsoft included) will let go government contracts (hundred of millions $$$) that easily, they'll do intense lobbying to save such a golden goose.
On the other hand, a branch of law enforcement - Gendarmerie - started migrating to Linux in 2008 (to reduce maintenance costs) and they were 97% done in 2024 - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu
Still, don't expect a change to happen anytime soon, between the political and logistical decisions, years if not decades will pass.
RetroGrid_io@reddit
Do you know what DINUM is? Do you know why this is a big deal?
Hint: It's France's agency responsible for upgrading technology used by the government.
krumpfwylg@reddit
That announce is mostly about the french government to stop the usage of tools like Zoom or Teams, and replace those by French/European solutions, as they intend to do with other tools where it can be done.
Maybe in the future they'll do a full switch to Linux, but there's nothing here pointing to that.
Ytijhdoz54@reddit
Its great and a big step forward in the market that linux still struggles with and thats the end user space, but you have to look at what its competing with on the corporate level. As someone who works within a Microsoft environment id love to see us move on but the key things I see being an issue are
Office Alternatives, yes LibreOffice is great and I use it almost daily but for excel power users and compatibility with share point it will never be able to out do those two.
Sharepoint, Exchange online, Onedrive, like I stated above all the cloud offering that “work” natively with windows and office are a huge selling point.
*Azure services, kinda replaceable but at-least the US and Local/Sate govs really likes these because they “can” be complainant to regulations out of the box. And azure virtual desktop, intune, entra all fill a need as well.
*Legacy desktop apps, despite everything going to cloud there are still a plethora of desktop apps that are gonna be hard to replace/run in a linux environment. The push to cloud based software is actually a huge win for the linux desktop world.
I do see a path forward for linux to grab a large % of the desktop market share. It’s also in the hands of microsoft as well, if they started making their productivity apps work with linux based systems then I could see a shift. We could see this happen if orgs keep moving over if they’re able to and this will force Microsoft to adapt like they had to in the server space, we’ve seen this happen before which is where the “Microsoft ❤️ Linux” stuff came from. At the moment it doesnt make sense for them to support linux in a desktop mannor, but if more of this happens like with france’s gov we could see them adapt to the market. I dont even think windows is their money maker anymore, they mostly rely on subscription/licensed based serivces for their income so I wouldnt be supprised if they would be willing move away from windows. Right now it really just serves as a way for people to access their actual profitable products and it kinda shows with how they’ve been treating windows 11.
Alex_Strgzr@reddit
If there is more money thrown at developing open source office suites, that will make the biggest difference
rabbit_in_a_bun@reddit
no
natermer@reddit
Probably not.
Governments are terrible at IT. Too much bureaucracy and it is virtually impossible for them to learn from their mistakes.
Doing migrations like this are almost entirely bureaucratic. Very little actual development or improvements go on besides just spending time adapting software to meet requirements and specific needs. Which means that most development that goes on is going to be pretty much worthless outside of specific elements of the French Government.
And that is on top of the 10 or 20 years this is probably going to take. Nothing gets done quickly anymore. The days of competent politicians and administrators getting big projects done in 2 or 3 years is long long gone.
People, in general, shouldn't be dependent on big public corporations from anywhere. Doesn't matter what country they are in. They are completely untrustworthy.
It is ok to use them and pay them for services. Just not to be dependent on them. You have to maintain the ability to jump ship if you want to keep them in line. Ultimately the only thing they want from you is your payments and that is the only leverage you have.
They want to get you trapped in some idiotic subscription model and build on their platforms and "special secret sauce" software so that it is more expensive/difficult to get away from them then it is to keep paying them in the short term.
If your organization sticks to depending on open source software and standard APIs and services that anybody can provide, even self host, then that allows you some form of leverage. Some way to negotiate with these untrustworthy big corporations.
are people figuring this out? I don't know. Some have.
Osayidan@reddit
Assuming the project itself is a success, on its own no it won't do much. It needs to spread to more governments.
With multiple countries government/public sector on linux desktops this inevitably means millions of users are now learning how to work with linux desktop. This is the real win more so than just the quantity of government-owned PCs running linux.
This now means some percentage of those users would then go on to request linux on their personal devices when they make purchases, be it to save money, to protest microsoft/america or just because they like the user experience.
With enough demand manufacturers may start to offer that option if they don't already. Then hopefully it snowballs into more adoption over time.
All that relies on multiple governments having successful linux migrations though, which is unlikely to happen, but hopefully I'm wrong.
RealSharpNinja@reddit
It may actually lead to a thorough standardization of the desktop.
deep_chungus@reddit
no, it will herald a small bump in constant, steady growth
i_lost_my_bagel@reddit
no
gramoun-kal@reddit
France's elected representatives said they have a plan.
You know about politics don't you?
donut4ever21@reddit
I think that that's just natural. And if they comply with the licenses, you could say, they'll contribute back and make Linux as a whole better. Or we can just hope.
euclide2975@reddit
Microsoft will send more lobbyists and things will be back to normal.
Or they will promise to hire some bean counter at the ministry of finance and those will determine that the DINUM has been infiltrated by LFI (the French radical left) and everybody there will get a new job on the devil’s island in South America
fellipec@reddit
I'm afraid it can push for government spyware in Linux
sofloLinuxuser@reddit
To answer your question....not sure, but with the increase of Microsoft's "abrupt" changes it may have countries and groups make the switch but as someone who has been trying to follow this for a long time I have seen this switch happen multiple times and my guess is "only time will tell". Here is a breakdown of all the times I have seen this happen since I made the switch in 2010. I have a list in Google keep for Everytime I notice this that I have titled "it's finally happening, the year of Linux".
NOTE: I used AI to bring up the critical changes to make it easier to remember. My list just had the year, country, and what version of Linux and why.
French Year: (2014) One of the earliest large-scale successes, completing a migration of over 70,000 workstations to GendBuntu (a custom Ubuntu flavor) to save millions in licensing fees and increase technical independence.
Munich, Germany Year: (2017/2020) After successfully running LiMux for a decade, the city famously voted to switch back to Windows in 2017 due to political shifts.
However, in 2020, a new coalition reversed course again, establishing an Open Source Program Office and prioritizing free software for the future.
South Korean Government Year: (2019–2020) Following the end of life for Windows 7, the Ministry of Interior and Safety began a massive transition of government PCs to Linux distributions like HamoniKR and TmaxOS to reduce reliance on a single vendor.
China Year: 2022–2027 Under a strategy known as "Document 79," China mandated that state-owned enterprises (massive international entities) replace all foreign software, including Windows, with domestic Linux alternatives like OpenKylin and UOS by 2027.
Indian Ministry of Defence Year: (2023)
In response to rising cybersecurity threats, the ministry announced a full switch from Windows to Maya OS, a hardened Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, for all internet-connected computers.
France Year: (2026)
France's Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) officially ordered all government ministries to "break free" from American tools. Every ministry must submit a roadmap by Autumn 2026 to replace Windows with Linux on their workstations as part of a major "digital sovereignty" push.
PS: The Munich Germany one had me excited about taking my Linux skills international and leaving the US but that idea, just like the year of Linux, has been TBD
First_Translator_962@reddit
They will just clone linux and give there mark and say our 'homegrown OS'
Repulsive-Year896@reddit
Probably not
jason_abacabb@reddit
So you are saying that this is not the year of Linux on the desktop?
mrlinkwii@reddit
their never will be a year of the linux desktop
Repulsive-Year896@reddit
I don’t think so. People who are going to take on the burden of using Linux have already done so. Most people want a plug and play experience but you only get that with windows and Mac, particularly when they come pre installed.
Commercially we won’t see Linux used large scale in our industries until all the software we use day to day works troubleshooting free on Linux which a lot of it doesn’t yet.
None of the above will change this year I don’t think
someone8192@reddit
How do you even define year of the Linux desktop?
I use desktop Linux for over 25years by now.
mrlinkwii@reddit
not really no ,. germany changes to linux and back to windows every few years
torar9@reddit
Small steps at a time...
The more issues people find the better chance it gets fixed.
Just look at Valve and how much they improved the experience on Linux.
xxCorsicoxx@reddit
I don't imagine so. Linux is the de facto roer in backends anyway, and this is a very specific low scale thing tho cross country. I can't imagine there's more than a few thousand computers migrating in total, definitely less than 100k absolutely not in the millions, to be a major dent in either direction.
I think windows is digging its own grave + fewer and fewer people doing desktops and opting for phones and tablets is what will lead to the death of windows inevitably but that shan't mean a higher consumer adoption of Linux, and the Linux desktop will likely remain a niche. Just cos home computers are also being more and more niche. And the kids and their go to for " i want to be free from big tech" is analog consumerism cos it's the cool aesthetic revival, not learning how to break free, home server and other cool useful shit 😅
Nah, it won't make a difference that way but it is useful in the way it is, a more secure and local government infrastructure model than one would hope other countries adopt themselves.
whatstefansees@reddit
It is a signal, but not much more than that so far.
There will be strong opposition (why something new, the old works perfectly well) and also a bit of a learning-curve. I hope it will be implemented fast
kansetsupanikku@reddit
Much like the "year of Linux" is being announced annually, such attempts are nothing new. And it's the same shit every time - implemented in the way that only confirms that such a migration is undoable. Just think about who works in public administration and what skills they have.
It would work if a large budget has been assigned to train the employees, and reassign ones who are unable to pass the exams at the end of training. Also cover for ones who temporarily perform less tasks because their working hours are devoted to said training. Can the public administration offer good enough working conditions to find all the extra hands required? Consider that they are understaffed already.
And such projects never estimate this kind of cost honestly.
NightOfTheLivingHam@reddit
maybe, I know right now microsoft is trying to fix things desperately
Own-Replacement8@reddit
This won't meaningfully increase Linux adoption on home desktops but more Linux users = more better as far as growth is concerned.
ElMachoGrande@reddit
Yes. If someone proves it can be done, others will follow.
However, the main issue isn't where most people think it'll be. People can learn to use another office package, that's not harder than a new version of MS Office.
The issue is all the billions poured into making custom systems, running on Windows. Replacing them isn't easy. These are system that have 20-30 year lifespans. It will take time.
But, at least, the trend towards web frontends means that the clients can be replaced, and Windows can be hidden in server rooms. Kind of like how old AS/400 and VMS systems still exist there.
edparadox@reddit
France was already using Linux in some areas of public service. It knows tries to see if this can be replicated in the areas where Microslop has huge contracts thanks to lobbies.
Many journalistic and governmental investigations had popped up in the past, especially about the Microsoft army contracts. Let's that, to this day, everbody knows that these contracts should not exist, but some people have the leverage to enforce these contracts. People up the chains never bothered question that. Until a few months ago, hence this new initiative.
UpsetCryptographer49@reddit
No - the only good thing France has ever done is get rid of the mass murderer Napoleon, and they had to donut twice before they succeeded.
And anybody business that use m365 for outlook or excel should be exiled
tdammers@reddit
They also did the metric system. Just saying.
Accurate_Hornet@reddit
Not sure what all the negativity comes from. The answer is YES. Any increased adoption of linux, whether it's consumer (SteamOS), corporate (Ubuntu, SUSE etc...) or public sector (France, Germany) will inevitably lead to more adoption.
This is how it starts.
Remarkable-Reply-768@reddit
I built Lindy - a desktop app that auto-mounts your Windows folders on Linux dual-boot
checkout
https://www.reddit.com/user/Remarkable-Reply-768/comments/1sk5b0o/i_built_lindy_a_desktop_app_that_automounts_your/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Fuckspez42@reddit
I’m amused imagining how much time will be spent trying to rename directories because the French have a very long history of coming up with their own word rather than using an English word.
sylvester_0@reddit
It will bring us one step closer to Fully Automated Luxury Gay Space Communism
IcyHeadTime@reddit
Yes, 50% of the world’s population works in the French military /s
Jumpy-Dinner-5001@reddit
No. It isn’t really a big deal apart from politics and headlines that can be made about it.
A lot of countries already use Linux in many public institutions or agencies and you don’t really see anything from that.
They’ll have a specific set of requirements and will choose some provider for that. For the general desktop it’s highly unlikely that anything significant will change.
PraetorRU@reddit
EU likes to create media waves. Reality is usually very different, especially when USA corpos and politicians make a visit to talk about lost profits and potential sanctions.
So, we'll see in a year or two, but don't hold your breath.
poulain_ght@reddit
Indeed, can't read the future but my biased linux fanboy intuition tells me the same!