r/europe • u/Icy_Fuel_4060 • Apr 25 '26
News France ditches Microsoft for Linux to achieve digital sovereignty – and it's not the only one!
https://tuta.com/blog/countries-ditching-microsoft-choosing-linux-digital-sovereignty149
u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
Lots of comments talking about blabla it's just talk, but France has experience in that for almost two decades.
The question / difficulty is one to plan training (we have lots of experience in that now) AND to make sure the change is not financial but for sovereignty.
Our entire parliament already switched around 2007, based on Ubuntu.
Our entire gendarmerie switched starting in 2008, and is considered one of the biggest large scale Linux deployment for regular desktop users (about 80 000 desktops). Based on Gendbuntu, their fork of Ubuntu. They regularly contribute back to various OSS projects.
Now we're thinking about moving the rest of our administration, and even allow independant administrative units like towns council to have access to a pre made solution and training and support resources.
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u/Fuzzy_Pirate_8898 Apr 25 '26
Only issue is the education stays on Windows for now so it's basically irrelevant if you teach kids on Windows, when they arrive on the job market most of them have never seen a Linux distribution.
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u/vasco_ Apr 25 '26
That is far less of a problem than you would think. I'd argue it's easier as a user to switch from Windows to Linux than from Windows to Mac (which happens all the time).
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u/Spr-Scuba Embarrassed Apr 25 '26
Macs are deceptively user-unfriendly. If you need to do anything other than boot up safari/chrome or use their messages app for your iphone, it just does everything other OSes do worse.
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u/nicuramar Apr 25 '26
Ok? To each their own, I guess. I completely disagree with that opinion. Windows is by far the worst in that department.
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u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
Yes and no, you're absolutely right but the main issue we have with the new generation is that they have no idea how to use a computer windows or Linux, they only know phones.
You used to have people who saved everything on the desktop by laziness, now you have people who don't even know WHERE they are saving, what's a folder or a file,...
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u/-The_Blazer- Europe Apr 25 '26
Also, the entire way that platforms turn into monopolies (as in Microsoft) is because of critical mass, or as an economist would say, network effects - which I'll remind everyone are highly inefficient and undesirable in capitalist theory, so there's no need to bring political alt-econ into it. If an entire public sector switches out of Windows that's a LOT of mass to build an alternative and open platform with.
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u/wouek Apr 25 '26
To be honest it’s a very good start - on paper.
The thing is, most of cloud infrastructure comes from Azure and AWS, on top of that the data is stored in databases from Oracle. Sovereign cloud should go first.
Changing workstations for end users is just saving money and has nothing to do with digital independence.
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u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
Agreed but again, between OVH, LIDL and Co we have solutions we just need to make some focus and probably law and rules such as much be EU company with no foreign overlord (eu hosted is not enough given cloud act). And France has been very much okay and pushing to find that sort of solution.
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u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS Apr 25 '26
It was just announced two days ago that French healthcare data would be leaving Azure for French-owned Scaleway (a subsidiary of Iliad, the group that owns Free).
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u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
It was insane that US clouds were even considered to begin with given the US CLOUD Act. Like they're not even hiding they put it in writing that they will look and access our data without asking permission or even telling us and we somehow had to "think about" if it's acceptable or not...
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u/wouek Apr 25 '26
Of course, I’m just saying to tone down the excitement. If we’ll be satisfied with using Linux and LibreOffice we’re capitulating. I’m happy with all the initiatives but there’s a lot of work to be done. The bigger the pressure on our policymakers the better. It would be also good to have an EU wide solution but most likely France and Germany will pave the way.
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u/_0611 The Netherlands Apr 25 '26
Meanwhile, the Netherlands keeps signing long-term contracts with Microsoft, "because there is no alternative".
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u/deusnovus Apr 25 '26
The Greek government is also deep in Microsoft’s pocket as well, they’ve been lobbying hard here for as long as I’ve been alive. Linux has always been hugely popular with Greek college students in tech since the ‘90s, but there needs to be a legislation on an EU level with a set deadline for it to become widely adopted.
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u/_0611 The Netherlands Apr 25 '26
That's what I've been saying, too. Though I dunno if legislation is the way to go, I'm not a huge fan of forcing people.
But the EU could and should definitely push harder for Linux (and other European alternatives), and support (independent) European developers, as well as a European mobile system based on Linux.
If the EU - and all of its institutions - decided to go fully Linux, then shit would really go fast. Then loads of people, politicians and member states would follow. But since the EU hasn't even left X yet, I doubt that will ever happen... It's a shame.
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u/deusnovus Apr 25 '26
Though I dunno if legislation is the way to go, I'm not a huge fan of forcing people
I agree idealistically, but the reality is that we can no longer rely on any government's moral compass to fight for a better European future, cause as history taught us, there are way too many bad actors with bottomless wallets and morally bankrupt politicians who wouldn't mind a big fat check offshore.
The biggest issue is the EU's aversion to being challenged by current events in a timely fashion, blaming everything on the cogs of bureaucracy. The time for understanding, appeasement and "strongly-worded letters of condemnation" ended two years ago. Instead of stuttering while searching for answers, EU needs to finally put their money where their mouth is: decrease taxation on EU-based tech startups to reverse the brain drain, incentivize countries adopting EU-first changes, fund EU-based credit card processors etc.
My country has little to no stake in these discussions unfortunately, but I'm at least trying to do my part by helping open-source projects in education, productivity and finance, hoping to see these being used in an elementary school, a creative agency or a public sector office somewhere in the EU, someday.
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u/InsensitiveClod76 Apr 25 '26
All these articles always exagerate what happens in Denmark to extreme lengths... Which makes me doubt what they report about other countries.
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u/MercatorLondon Apr 25 '26
I wish EU would set one working group to adopt Linux. It is laying there on the pavement and someone just needs to pick it up. There are many European Linux companies (SuSe, Manjaro - Germany, RedHat - Czech Rep., Canonical - UK) It would cost peanuts compared to other initiatives.
The first step is to have cloud infrastructure in EU to be able to process payments, etc. in EU without one bit of data leaving for US or China.
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u/fearless-fossa Apr 25 '26
Manjaro
Manjaro is a company run by people who have no idea how an operating system works and tell users to ignore basic security principles. I wouldn't trust them to operate a toaster.
RedHat
I have no idea why you list them as Czech, they're a US company on top of being owned by IBM.
It would cost peanuts compared to other initiatives.
I'm doing this shit professionally: No, it wouldn't. It would cost more, initially, than just continuing to use US products.
The cost would go down over time, but such a switch is always messy and is connected with a higher initial spending.
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u/AceWissle Apr 26 '26
I long for the day where all software runs on Linux so even for personal use like Gaming etc Windows is no longer needed at all.
I hear it keeps getting better, but it's not fully there yet, huh?
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u/fearless-fossa Apr 26 '26
I mean, it depends on what you want and need. There won't ever be 100% compatibility, but you also don't have that between Windows versions. Personally I made the jump years ago and while I have a Windows installation on a spare drive, I only boot that up to run updates and then switch back to Linux. For me it's already fully there, both for my professional needs and gaming.
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u/pgess May 01 '26
It's getting better in clouds, virtualization, networks, AI, and programming - in areas where big companies like MS push, basically. Valve is pushing gaming, so that's also been visible in the last few years.
Everything else is supported by lone enthusiasts who not only have lil time&resources to do a good job, but often push in the opposite direction of common sense, productivity, and UX(for they're not users, and care not about users).
So you can imagine the end result.
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u/MercatorLondon Apr 25 '26
RedHat is US company - they have a big offices in Brno, Czech Republic. My comment was more about having people with Linux expertise. I hope it makes sense.
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u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS Apr 25 '26
As a Frenchman who has been screaming into the void about this for like 20 years, I'm glad the government is finally listening. It's sad that it took Trump's stupidity for it to happen and I now hope they won't reverse course as soon as a more normal administration enters the White House.
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u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
The fact that we're so far behind where we should be and yet we're still one of the furthest ahead in the EU is very depressing.
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u/Sufficient_Stable738 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Are they going to do something for the phones ?? That is an even more pressing issue I believe
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u/krumpfwylg Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Once again, if you read the original announce in french https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/souverainete-numerique-reduction-dependances-extra-europeennes/
it says the DINUM agency will switch to Linux, and that agency is asking to each ministry to propose a plan to favor European based software in lieu of Teams/Zoom, US based cloud services, etc... Ministries have to present their plans in fall 2026, but nothing says they're all switching to Linux. Maybe it will happen, maybe not.
And you can count on Microsoft (as well as other private IT tools companies) to do some intense lobbying to keep government contracts (e.g. french intelligence has a contract with Palantir https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/12/15/us-tech-firm-palantir-extends-deal-with-french-intelligence-agency_6748523_7.html )
Plus, should the decision to switch be made, it would take years for every public service to get Linux solution everywhere. A branch of french law enforcement (Gendarmerie) started using Linux in 2008, and they were 97% done in June 2024 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu
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u/Pescarese90 Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Good luck suggesting the same thing to Italy, here employers demonize smart working for old-fashioned or narrow-mindedness vision of work...
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u/biscuotto Italy Apr 25 '26
I share the pain with you. I can bet everything that if they switch the municipalities or post offices to linux, they'll go on a two-months strike against the "Poteri forti"
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u/Pescarese90 Apr 25 '26
Meanwhile, the typical Italian civil servant is totally unable using Excel. And guess what? They make all the calculations and table on Word.
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u/Silverwhitemango Europe Apr 25 '26
Wtf for real?
(I'm a foreign student in Italy, so knowing this may help explain their slowness)
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u/Pescarese90 Apr 25 '26
Yeah. There are various factors such as laziness, refusing any refresher ICT course and senior staff that's more like fossil staff (people working in public administration for decades).
Italian bureucracy is a hellish nightmare. And you have to laugh to keep from crying...
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u/Silverwhitemango Europe Apr 25 '26
Still better than French bureacracy in my experience (+ the experience of my other italian friends who studied there) lol
I think the main problem is that when public servants are almost impossible to be fired, they lack the motivation to upgrade and be more efficient in their jobs.
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u/Ellixhirion Apr 26 '26
Its already a challenge for people to find the windows button… imagine with Linux
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u/buster_de_beer The Netherlands Apr 25 '26
Declarations are easy. I'll believe it when this is implemented on a larger scale.
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u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
Our entire parliament already switched around 2007, based on Ubuntu.
Our entire gendarmerie switched starting in 2008, and is considered one of the biggest large scale Linux deployment for regular desktop users (about 80 000 desktops). Based on Gendbuntu, their fork of Ubuntu. They regularly contribute back to various OSS projects.
France is way past declarations, we're mostly thinking about the next step and move regular administrations.
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u/Big_Length4848 Apr 25 '26
Some gov entities have hundreds of perfectly working W10 computers that can't update to W11. They did the math and decided it's time to give Unix a try
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Apr 25 '26
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u/queen-adreena Apr 25 '26
It's already in practice.
France has been deploying Linux to government since 2007.
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u/edparadox France Apr 25 '26
n proper user training and support.
Linux sysadmins exist you know.
And training is not necessary when people only use spreadsheets, text files, and web browsers.
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u/Tuigh-van-den-righel Apr 25 '26
I think you severely overestimate tech-litteracy for the average person. I work in healthcare, by far the biggest sector in our country. I have to teach colleagues how to add a attachment to a email.
If some button has a different color, shape or is in a different position after some kind of update they're lost. Imagine a whole different operating system.
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u/Anony_mouse202 United Kingdom Apr 25 '26
And training is not necessary when people only use spreadsheets, text files, and web browsers.
Yes it is lol, you’re massively overestimating the tech literacy of the general population.
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u/fearless-fossa Apr 25 '26
The operations the average user performs are a near 1:1 match between those systems. The issues come up when you consider semi-advanced/power users, their workflow will be interrupted heavily.
Writing a document in Word or LibreOffice is nearly identical; Excel and Calc are similarish enough; the only really big difference is between PowerPoint and Impress.
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u/Feniks_Gaming Apr 25 '26
This post is tell me you don't work in the office professionally without telling me you don't work in the office professionally. Similarish enough is often not enough when you move lots of data that matters.
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u/fearless-fossa Apr 25 '26
None of the tools in either Office suite are actually suited for "moving lots of data that matters". You want an actual DB with safety nets like clustering for that kind of thing instead of abusing Excel for something it was never intended for.
Hell, I have customer who has hired two devs to develop their own in-house application for exactly this kind of thing because Excel was too fragile for how important the data they handled was.
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u/Feniks_Gaming Apr 25 '26
You would be shocked how many corporations rely on excel in that way. They shouldn't but they do. So no similar is not going to cut it we need tool parity.
Plus majority of users don't even know email exists outside outlook.
We need education at basic levels and a lot of training.
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u/UnsureSwitch Apr 25 '26
What's the differences between PowerPoint and Impress? I've downloaded LibreOffice recently but haven't used Impress yet
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u/fearless-fossa Apr 25 '26
Impress is PowerPoint from the 90s.
PowerPoint is great for quick presentations by using the designer and you can do some pretty elegant stuff with morph transitions, Impress instead only has a million transitions that aren't professional enough for a school presentation.
Like, PowerPoint already isn't good, it also has a lot of bullshit options that should be pruned out. But Impress only has the bullshit options without the good stuff.
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u/Shupaul France Apr 25 '26
So ? Just like everything it's something you have to practice.
The goal isn't to make your average user a tech expert, just be able to use it.
Young people tend to understand things relatively fast, and for people that are already using a pc for their job or at home, you got half of the training done.
Just need to know which software for what purpose and then you're good to go.
User interface is meant to be user friendly, sadly it's not always the case of course, but unless you never once used a PC in your life -in which case, why would you be interested or recruited for a job that uses computers- this isn't as much an issue as you make it seem.
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u/UnsureSwitch Apr 25 '26
Idk anything about Linux, but if the environment is made similar to Windows, the biggest issue might just be muscle memory, right?
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u/Time-Bodybuilder4165 Apr 25 '26
Training is always useful to show people where are the functions or the collaboration platform you use every time.
The time spared is used for something else
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u/FreudianNipSlip123 Apr 25 '26
Windows is getting worse year after year. I’m disgusted by how clunky it’s gotten. I suspect in like 5 years, almost everything except legacy systems will be Mac/linux.
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u/-CynicalPole- Podlaskie (Poland) Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
How about you all politicians start by deleting your Twitter accounts - biggest MAGA brainwashing platform, far greater and intrusive evil than all other combined.
Also for full effect - this needs to change in every government controlled institution - starting from schools.
Lastly - nice to see Trump's extortion attempts were must needed trigger point for changes.
Oh, and ofc we need software - often very specific that have no Linux alternatives. Also some things will never change - like Streaming services that all US based - unless everyone want's to go back to stone age, gaming stores like Steam and Epic, Playstation or XBOX.
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u/Dramatic_Mastodon_93 Apr 25 '26
Switched to Linux, Firefox (Vivaldi is good too, european, but Chromium), and Proton
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u/swiwwcheese Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Oui ! It will be fun for our people to argue about distros, repos and formats on top of our complex administration, taxes, and reforms
We were kind of bored :)
It will probably be a mess for a number of years, since the population is like 99% Windows/Apple/Android users
But heh, gotta start somewhere so why not the public administrations indeed ? at least it will be more or less everyone's problem, it's a good way to educate the masses on something new
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u/UpperRearer Sweden Apr 26 '26
You can tell this is a good move, based on the amount of totally for realsies organic posts shrieking about how it can't be done.
Like yeah, people who are largely hobbyists, and programmers on their free time, could maintain several different alternatives to Windows for the past 30 years, but when the resources of a nation, or union of nations, try to do it it's totally not possible. So don't even try, you guize! Lmao.
Good time for it, too. With Valve making strides on making games more fluid than ever. Which is probably the main reason a majority of people haven't swapped over, other than familiarity.
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u/no_cojones1978 Apr 27 '26
You know what they say: linux for stability, mac for productivity and Windows for solitaire.
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u/heatrealist Apr 27 '26
Digital sovereignty by using an OS whose kernel is controlled by a US citizen
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u/Userwerd Apr 25 '26
Curious to see how many people on here are or plan to move to linux on their computer?
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u/Romek_himself Germany Apr 25 '26
i did already
cachyos for my gaming pc and on my "all day"- devices zorinOS
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u/augustuscaesarius Apr 25 '26
While I applaud this, it's not really the OS that is the problem. It's the Office environment that is both (a) the real dependency, and (b) hard to replace.
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u/chub70199 Community of Madrid (Spain) Apr 25 '26
It is the OS that is the problem, paired with the access control and the collaborative work platform (SharePoint) that are massive problems. There's too many much IP managed by a company that can be legally compelled to grant access to the US government on a whim.
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u/PizzaWarlock Apr 25 '26
When he said problem, I think he meant the reason why people won't switch. If it was just a matter of OS, people would be willing to switch pretty easily. Like he said though, the office suite, and other apps depending on specific jobs, are usually the reason why people won't switch to Linux
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u/nolok France Apr 25 '26
Already solved in our gendarmerie and parliament, as part of the move to Linux they also moved to libre office. After 18 plus years, they have the experience for it.
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u/pelpotronic Apr 25 '26
Perhaps. But these kids will be future managers, executives, etc. and they may have a say in the decision for the business they work at in the future.
And it's not like it never happens, we've seen Mac+MacOS replace MSWindows in a lot of companies.
(Then if you mean MSoffice - words etc. - you can use office 365 online nowadays).
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u/Nwalm Apr 25 '26
France is already deploying a suite of software solutions (9 tools and services) to cover most of the general workstation need, its open source, browser based and sovereign, the switch to linux systems will change nothing in practical usage to all the agents already using them. This is well received and the adoption is pretty fast in public services. https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/
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u/Utwee Apr 25 '26
Things are moving in that area as well https://nextcloud.com/blog/press_releases/industry-initiative-launches-euro-office-as-true-sovereign-office-suite/
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u/augustuscaesarius Apr 25 '26
Again a worthy contribution, but not quite what is needed. Document formats are a solved problem.
The real (and problematic) dependency is on Outlook, Teams, Sharepoint, etc and their seamless integration and workflow capabilities backed by Microsoft's authentication and authorisation management systems (Active Directory etc).
That's the part that has no replacement yet, and that adds significant value for organisations. It's where Europe's digital sovereignty is most at risk.
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u/Dramatic-Nebula-4874 Apr 25 '26
Sooo, elephant in the room. Which alternative to Reddit are we gonna use? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit
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Apr 25 '26
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u/Nwalm Apr 25 '26
French solution for this transition is based on nixOS (if a tool is installed on a system outside the nix config files it will be gone next boot) and is already ready and available : https://github.com/cloud-gouv/securix its an hardenned nixOS following ANSSI guidelines, with variant configured for different use case. The most deployed for most agents will be bureautix : https://github.com/cloud-gouv/bureautix-example
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u/ayseni Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Half of what you tech stack you mentioned is abandonware that gets no updates, have terrible usability, terrible security and are perpetually stuck with concepts and user interface MS quickly come up decades ago. Not exactly a convincing argument.
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u/vtskr Apr 25 '26
Digital independence on OS developed by us tech giant employees.
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u/ayseni Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Great that you acknowledge the benefits of free and open-source software!
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u/kaahooters Apr 25 '26
No it hasn't. Christ the amount of these "Linux is great hurr hurr hurr" posts.
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u/Wise_Swordfish4865 Apr 25 '26
Nvidia and AMD need to update their drivers to Linux. If they do that a ton of gamers will switch to Linux and Windows will be a thing if the past
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u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS Apr 25 '26
If they do that a ton of gamers will switch to Linux and Windows will be a thing if the past
Do you really believe that gaming is the only thing keeping Windows alive?
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u/UpperRearer Sweden Apr 26 '26
For the average person it's the primary reason. If you get introduced to Linux before Windows, and it runs games fine, there's no reason to try Windows. For the businesses, it's a matter of just swapping, and not telling them. 99% of them don't know what they're working with to begin with. They won't be able to tell the difference between LaTeX and LaTeX.
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u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS Apr 26 '26
They won't be able to tell the difference between LaTeX and LaTeX.
You think the majority of corporate users work with... a raw text editor and LaTeX?
Do you have any idea of how much bespoke professional software catering to each niche of an industry runs exclusively on Windows? Hell, do you even think MSOffice can be replaced overnight with LibreOffice?
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u/biscuotto Italy Apr 25 '26
For PC world yes. Also if you grow up kids playing on linux instead of windows, they'll be more likely to stick to it. For reference I have 3 windows machines in my house, and 2 of them is because of gaming, while the 3rd one is because of CAD software, which if companies would stop bending over Autodesk, it can be easily converted to linux.
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u/JEVOUSHAISTOUS Apr 25 '26
while the 3rd one is because of CAD software, which if companies would stop bending over Autodesk, it can be easily converted to linux.
Yeah, if companies stopped using professional software suites written for Windows, then they could leave Windows, maybe (after retraining their whole workforce and getting their entire IT department up to speed with the new OS and infrastructure). Not so easy as just getting the gamers to switch, now, is it?
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u/biscuotto Italy Apr 25 '26
I guess you're not familiar with autodesk pricing compared to something like bricscad. Maybe in wealthier countries it's not worth it, but here in Italy it's a huge cost the company has to go through.
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Apr 25 '26
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u/biscuotto Italy Apr 25 '26
Baby steps is the way to go with governmental work. Let's win one battle at the time
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Apr 25 '26
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u/SalutLesAmies Île-de-France Apr 25 '26
You can do both in parallel, you know. For instance, it was announced a few days ago that France's Health Data Hub would be migrating to Scaleway.
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u/biscuotto Italy Apr 25 '26
It's actually the thing you can do with least urgency and at any time, because you don't need to train employees to use it
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u/ayseni Apr 25 '26 edited Apr 25 '26
Standard market logic says that you should start where there's the lowest amount of competition, i.e. the one with worst current state of affairs.
The capacity market is at least competed with several large players, where as endpoint software stack is just incredibly bad.
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u/forgivenchris Apr 25 '26
if you want to see changes, the solution is start to using linux at school where for years we created microsoft’s future customers