France announces a crucial step toward phasing out Windows
The digital directorate in France will switch from Windows to Linux and the state is embarking on a major project to reduce the “outer European digital dependency”
The subject of digital sovereignty has been imposed in the public debate since the beginning of 2026 in the face of a hypothesis: and if the United States cut off access to some of its technologies in Europe.
In France, the Prime Minister commissioned the Inter-Ministerial Directorate of Digital Affairs (DINUM) to “reduce the state’s extra-European digital dependencies”. It is this body that supervises the computer equipment and the deployment of services to the various government administrations.
The first target is now known: it is Windows.
https://www.frandroid.com/marques/microsoft/3059607_la-france-annonce-une-etape-cruciale-vers-sa-sortie-de-windowsOpen linkView original on reddthat.com
43 replies
Meanwhile in Denmark: "Let's buy US cloud only."
Meanwhile in Bavaria: "We're switching the entire public administration to M365. We already signed the contracts with Microsoft. Questions of data security and privacy will be addressed later during the implementation phase."
In 6 months: why did noone think of the security and privacy issues we re doomed 🙊
It'll be "We realize German citizens are concerned about all their personal data being sent to ICE and used to train AI.
We have opened a ticket with Microsoft and are awaiting a response. There's nothing more we can do at this point, but we'll keep you updated."
A little bit later: Your data are safe with Microslop and ICE, and your privacy is not violated, because just we made a law that says so.
It's almost like the genious idea when Ankela Merkel wanted to rely all German energy on Russian Gas and Oil, because then there would be peace in Europe.
I seriously envy German and France public institutions right now. I would love to work inside a linux/opensource environment and being one to bring it to life. (I only have linux at our household incl. Some falily members) I hate that my job doesn't atleast offer the option of a linux machine. I mean intune works on Ubuntu and redhat
I guess it depends.
For you it might be a blessing. For someone that isn't comfortable with computers in general that may be very intimidating.
Also this process of going full linux might takes years.
And finally a job is a little more than the tools provided. I worked on linux system in said public administrations and they suffer almost always from very very limited budgets. The cyber security culture is almost non existent. The fear of change is prevalent everywhere. Leadership changes his mind all the time for major IT projects.
So it's absolutely not rosy.
So for now this is the first step toward sovereignty and much less expensive systems but this will be a very painful process.
For people "not comfortable with computers", remembering their own username tends to be a barely surmountable challenge. They need their hands held for practically any interaction with a computer anyway, it really doesn't matter what operating system and application software they have to use.
Users using computers is almost always a very painful process for everyone else.
The computer is the only tool where a professional whose daily work pretty much completely consists of using that tool will regularly get away with having no idea how to use it at all.
Does your gouvernement stop they whims about wanting to read all the private messages ?
Competition, in my free market? JD Vance, threaten them on twitter
With what would that creep threaten them? That he'll come over and fuck their couch? I mean it's disgusting, but if you prepare the couch appropriately, it'll hurt him more than you.
He could threaten them with a friendly visit, like when he visited the Pope or Orban.
Meh. Just hide your couch and replace it with one from the dump you can simply throw away after he's done with it.
They could threaten to buy a load of French red wine and then pour it in the gutter. And rename french fries to freedom fries. It all worked so well the last time.
Where did this Vance fucking couch thing come into origin??? I need to know
It all started when he fucked a couch.
I don't know, but it deserves to be disseminated further. That guy needs to go down in history as some weirdo known for fucking couches.
His autobiography
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fs.yimg.com%2Fny%2Fapi%2Fres%2F1.2%2FBhsmhe8yUtdF.nMctNHvlA--%2FYXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU5NQ--%2Fhttps%3A%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fthe_telegraph_258%2F90b2e4ff4bb0674210af22268b72e613&f=1&ipt=16047bbb7977079ed3045cbf3dea38848a2808fc8fdd5b3db268bf67214bf781
With all these news of France divesting from the US lately, I feel like they're about to declare Independence.
Considering how many times France told the US to go fuck themselves (Irak, Iran, its own nuclear weapons, among others), I think we can consider it pretty independent.
L'année du Bureau Linux, c'est là!
Oui oui baguette
(Mais oui c'est vrai)
J’utilise arche, par ailleurs
Good news ofc, but Russia is where they really need to get rid of windows /jk
Great to see, the more institutions do this, the easier it becomes
Allons-y!
Finde ich zwar gut, allerdings Frage ich mich ob Linux nicht langfristig darunter leidet wenn es einen relevanten Marktanteil bekommt. Damit wird es lohnendes Ziel für Viren oder browser exploits, was bisher bei einem Windows Marktanteil von 95% kein Thema war.
see, windows is so much better. You can just download an .exe to encrypt all your shit!
Nix fixes this
Linux wird für viele Server verwendet und war damit schon immer ein interessantes Ziel. Denker höherer Marktanteil kann nur nützlich sein
Ja, nur nutzen Heimanwender nicht die selben Programme die auf Servern laufen sondern Office Software, desktop usw.
Also deine Sorge ist nicht Linux selber sondern Linux Anwendungen?
Ach, du musst dein System nur aktuell halten. Das meiste wird doch schnell gepatcht. Und Browser Exploits funktionieren ja wohl ohnehin schon lange.
Ja, nur werden neue Lücken mit AI heute viel schneller und öfter gefunden wenn man genug Rechenleistung oder Geld hat. Anders als vor 5 Jahren wo man genug qualifizierte Leute finden musste.
Wenn wir die öffentlichen Mittel, die bisher an Microsoft verschwendet werden nutzen würden, um Sicherheitsforscher:innen und kernel devs zu beschäftigen sollte sich das Problem doch lösen lassen. Das schafft Arbeitsplätze, Kompetenz hier vor Ort, lässt die Bürger:innen direkt von den Steuerausgaben profitieren und macht Deutschland/Europa zu einem echten Software- und IT-hub.
Mit der
CDU wird sowas natürlich nicht passieren, aber man wird ja wohl noch träumen dürfen.Are you aware that you're responding in German but with an English content label?
to an article written in french 😂
I work in a french administration. We're going Microsoft only for the next 5 years. And health data of french citizens ? Microsoft. So yeah, that article isn't about what's really going on.
📎 Bonjour, je suis Clippy!
Good!