France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins

sgt

That might work for government employees using webapps all day. But for power users it is unlikely to be friction free.

Latitude7973

France has been making good moves to achieve software independence from the US. It would be an even better move to allow those in Europe or indeed the rest of the world to also benefit.

esskay

Yeah good on them, everyone needs to do this. It's nuts Windows is still the go-to for anything these days despite everyone knowing what a parasitic, buggy mess it is. "Easy" shouldn't be the excuse in this day and age. Big orgs and especially government entities should be hiring the people that know what they're doing and get off that crummy platform.

JaggerJo

Hope we’ll do the same in germany.

spiderfarmer

Being dependent on US tech feels the same as when we were dependent on Russian energy: strategically unwise and avoidable. We have alternatives, they just need work.

Jyaif

Unless you need some windows-only software, using windows at this point is masochism. I was never a fan of Linux, but the Microsoft driven enshitification is so strong that Linux is now a better option. To win, all Linux had to do is stand still, and that's exactly what it did! Ubuntu in 2026 is pretty much the same as Ubuntu from 2006.

tom-blk

Got my full support, go go go!!!

UK-Al05

These are almost always negation strategies rather than serious initiatives.

schnitzelstoat

It's a good move. Hopefully, they stick with it. I remember some cases in Germany where they switched and then later switched back. It's a shame that we have no equivalent to Google or AWS in Europe and now that it seems LLMs might eat search, we don't have any of those either.

faccacta

It seems like what Europe really needs to do this is a viable mobile OS. It's been true for a while that Linux + LibreOffice is plenty to handle most government workers' needs on the desktop, but that's only good for when they are at their desks. Are there any viable alternatives to iOS and Android that are totally free of "dépendances extra-européennes"? What's the plan?

cynicalsecurity

Vive la France !

simmerup

Switched to Nobara after getting fed up with one too many Windows bugs. Been a really pleasant experience to be honest

21asdffdsa12

There should be a chapter in economic books on how entrenched monopoly companies become on the inside, like small states where little companies (called departments) play freemarket for promotion points, the outside forces completely suspended while the endoplasmic reticulum of the monopoly company lasts.

harlequinetcie

I find fascinating how so many people are moving away from Microsoft decades after they should have because of simply the inertia that large organizations have on adoption. Above all, I'm also surprised on how those same organization are using Anthropic or OpenAI or other close source solutions for their agent harnesses instead of going for Open Source. Malte just yesterday showed how powerful innovation with small teams can be achieved particularly in EU. I hope they start looking for those alternatives too for their agentic systems, beyond using pi-mono.

morog

I used Linux 10 years ago, but then due to job or corp. and needing Teams and Outlook I was forced to uses Windows. Now with corp job over I was finally able to switch to Linux this week (Fedora + KDE). Loving improvements made in the last 10 years, KDE will always have its quirks, but it is fast and smooth with no crashes yet. I got Claude to make me a migration script which worked brilliantly, haven't needed to boot Windows yet. Browser sessions and everything worked like nothing had changed. All my various ssh / putty configs migrated to Konsole, Thunderbird carries on like nothing has changed. Ahhhh freedom!

a-dub

hmm. hoping that all the weird business requirements get confined to a specific distro with careful gating prior to upstreaming. it would be bad if they were allowed to pollute the ecosystem more generally (which one could argue is why windows is the way it is).

shevy-java

At the least the french government has a plan. Now please have a look at Germany - the current leading guy is absolutely clueless as to what he wants to do. From appeasing Trump to ... actually doing what else? Germany with regards to its politicians is a problem for the EU. Yes, we also have Hungary etc... but it's a small country that is over-hyped by the media due to its intrinsic corruption in the leadership; the real problem really is Germany. In the past it always was "too much bureaucracy" - the problem goes much deeper. The THINKING process in Germany is broken. France, Sweden, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, Norway (not EU but clever nonetheless) and so forth, are much better at THINKING. Something is broken in Germany and Merz is the showcase of cluenessness here.

LightBug1

Excellent move. Hopefully these moves continue the trend spreading through Europe. With another 3 or so years with the Orange Dildo in charge, there's a decent chance the momentum will turn into something tangible.

VadimPR

Anyone here familiar with the details of GendBuntu[1], the Ubuntu distro used by the French Gendarmerie? I'd love to hear what is working and what isn't on the ground. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu?useskin=vector

motbus3

This should have been done years ago. This will certainly drive bad actors to harm Linux too unfortunately