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Comments (376)

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  lionkor
  All the comments about Linux gaming make me want to give my $0.02. I've been gaming on Linux, with no Windows installed anywhere, for around 6 years. In the first 3 years, it was a massive pain. Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would consistently have issues with mouse input, weird acceleration, a lot of games wouldn't run at all. This is NO LONGER the case at all. Things run very well out of the box.All games I want to play run very well and mostly the process is just "install -> play".If a game has an aggressive anticheat, like Battlefield 6 or Valorant, it will not work and you can forget about it.Controllers work fine, so do some wheels and other peripherals, but a good number of wheels, pedals, joysticks, VR headsets, and other wild and wacky input devices might not work that well or not at all. It mostly depends on whether the software for them runs on Linux, runs in Wine, or is needed at all. Not sure about VR, but I know it was a bit dire 1-2 years ago.If you don't play hardcore simulator games, and don't play one of the competitive shooters with aggressive anticheat (e.g. CS2 and other competitive shooters run perfectly well), you can just install Linux, install Steam or one of the other launchers, and just hit play.If you're not sure, you can check the status on https://protondb.com.
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  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.
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  sylens
  Many government orgs have spent the last decade and a half slowly transitioning old legacy applications and platforms to browser-based alternatives. That old ERP software that used to require a thick client? Now it runs in Chrome. Microsoft recognized this and smartly moved to keep these customers locked in via an ever growing Microsoft Office bundle - subscription based, with Teams for their chat and then building up additional capabilities to extend the dependency, like InTune.Where we are at now is that the pain of moving away from Windows is acceptable for many larger organizations and governments, especially those with flat or decreasing budgets. You can just swap out the OS layer and keep other processes the same - keep using Office with just the browser versions if you want, or move to an alternative (like EU-based). Teams works on Linux. There is no moat on Windows anymore
• ngomez
  Interestingly, Microsoft has been trying to get ahead of this for a couple of years now with their National Partner Clouds program [0], which they describe as:> designed for scenarios where full ownership and operational independence from Microsoft is requiredIn France's case, Capgemini and Orange have a joint venture to operate datacenters that Microsoft runs Azure and Office on top of [1]. Moving away from Windows and Teams would still reduce their dependence on Microsoft substantially. But if the core goal is to reduce dependence on non-European suppliers, I would be wary of the French government buying services from "Bleu" when it's mainly Microsoft and a couple of consultancies in a trenchcoat.[0] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sovereign-clou...[1] https://www.capgemini.com/news/press-releases/capgemini-and-...
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  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.
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  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?
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  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!
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  benterix
  At this point I wouldn't be surprised if American companies started using it if the French get it right. The instability of the current administration is one thing, but Microsoft disregard for its user deserves an appropriate response that will actually hit them where they care.
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  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.
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  derfurth
  It would be great, however the title is misleading: the only announcement regarding linux desktop is that the DINUM - a relatively small but perhaps influential government agency pledges to leave Windows.I believe the largest Linux Desktop initiative in France is GendBuntu[1] for the National Gendarmerie[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu
• 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
• 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.
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  guenthert
  I puzzles me to no end why the typical office clerk should care about the OS at all. I understand that secretaries will be trained on MS Word and will then have a strong preference to use such (or at least something which very closely resembles it). Same for accountants with Excel. But clerks in e.g. Revenue Service? Those I expect to interact (perhaps these days via a Web interface) with custom software. Why would those ever see a 'Start' button or somesuch?
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  JaggerJo
  Hope we’ll do the same in germany.
• looksjjhg
  It’s quite remarkable what the current administration have “achieved” in a year or so
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  hereme888
  Hopefully the rest of the world can benefit from their efforts. I hope the whole EU starts moving to Linux.
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  sjdv1982
  I am actually a research engineer paid by the French government. They take digital sovereignty pretty serious over here, which is sometimes good, sometimes less so.Definitely the right call on Windows, though. Even my parents (in their mid-seventies) moved to Linux this year.
• socketcluster
  Great to see France purging itself of corruption. Why did they pay for an inferior product for so many decades when a superior free alternative was available? It was regulatory capture; corruption.
• xandrius
  My main reasons not to be able to fully switch 100% to Linux are the following:1. Graphic design software is subpar (expecially when compared to mac) and very often under supported. And GIMP has absolutely the worst UX of any program I've ever seen for such a widely recommended software. 2. Gamedev (i.e. Unity) is much less stable and annoying to work with (mac is much better but Windows still wins) 3. Older hardware support, most of the times you can use a super old software (say a printer) and it works. Linux much better than mac for this, from my experience 4. Lots of things on Win are plug and play, Linux is a pain of custom drivers from dead githubs. Mac slightly better or worse, it might either exist as a stupidly expensive application or have to jump hoops to get a driver in.And I know people say "just use Wine" or "GIMP is actually great and free" but at the end of the day, I want my main driver to be stable and good to use. If anytime I save a project running via Wine has a non 0% chance of it crashing and bringing down my entire work, it's not going to happen.I do use and recommend Linux quite extensively but that's why I always have 3 different systems at any given time:1. Win: gamedev, hardware stuff or bigger games, some design, GPU heavy work. 2. Mac: design, light GPU work, browsing and portability (battery life and cooling is fantastic) 3. Linux: everything elseThis hasn't changed in the past 10+ years, even though now I can see much more gaming happening on Linux, which is very nice.
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  motbus3
  This should have been done years ago. This will certainly drive bad actors to harm Linux too unfortunately
• 999900000999
  What are my options if I want an independent phone OS ? Can I go into a store in Paris and buy an independent phone ?
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  apatheticonion
  Hopefully this results in investment in desktop environments and Wine!
• Frieren
  Europe in general have great software engineers. What it lacks is investment. To see the goverment serving its own country instead of foreign billionaire interests is good change of pace.And Linux development and adoption helps everybody not just France. A win win.
• tom-blk
  Got my full support, go go go!!!
• 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).
• 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.
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  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.
• zoobab
  What they should launch is an abuse of dominant position on the desktop/laptop market, with appropriate remedies such as fines.
• simmerup
  Switched to Nobara after getting fed up with one too many Windows bugs. Been a really pleasant experience to be honest
• buttersicle
  Government is the perfect place to do this. It doesn't matter if it craters productivity because the organization's budget is not conditioned on delivering impact.
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  mrtksn
  Prediction: If USA ends up attacking EU, EU will freeze all the US tech company money and compel them to open their platforms and move all the backend services to EU soil in exchange of unfreezing it and continue operating in a free but regulated market.For example locked communication devices are huge national security risk, so Apple will have their money frozen and given two options:1) Open up iOS etc, bring all the servers to EU. Continue business as usual, EU financial institutions may choose to use Apple services as Apple pay but they may choose to bypass it. EU developers may choose to use Apple App Store services and pay the Apple's fees or they may choose to bypass it. Apple may chose to make Xcode a paid software, developers may choose not to purchase Xcode and use other non-Apple tools and pay nothing to Apple.2) Use credit against the frozen money to refund your users if they bring their devices to you. All the Apple devices will be locked out from EU mobile providers(technically very easy for iPhone, simply by blocking devices with Apple IMEI on EU networks) and any remaining devices of the users will be refunded with the Apple's money. After some grace period, any money remaining in Apple's account will be transferred to Apple and if Apple wants to do business in EU again will have to do the option 1.I'm bit on the doomer side of things, so I think that if Trump keeps his current course and power, at the end of the term American software industry will shrink by %90 as it will be expelled from most of the world and will be serving to 350M people instead of 8B people. Its amazing how US is screwing up its dominant position in this incredibly lucrative industry that lets them serve a market of 8B people and accumulate huge wealth in the process.
• michaelashley29
  been a long time coming for windows. wonder who else will follow suit
• soggybread
  Honestly the only thing keeping me from bringing up the idea of moving to linux is that Windows has active directory and domain wide group policies - if linux had something similar that was easy to manage I'm sure a lot more corporations would move to linux. The ease at which I can adjust system settings throughout the company or within each department such as disabling/enabling features, mapping drives or printers. I haven't found a better alternative than active directory
• throw88555
  Every nations should avoid US based products and services. USA, China and Russia are rogue states. they pose a great risk to every other nation
• haritha-j
  Ah Windows. The Temu wine.
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  Eldodi
  French administration is about to become even more inefficient it was!
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  self_awareness
  It's kind of good news, but it's also bad news -- with Linux popularity, crapware will be more popular. I kind of liked times when Linux was used only by power users. Today it's slightly different, and with more popularity... we get things like age verification in systemd.But well, I can always switch to FreeBSD I guess. And that's my plan B.
• supliminal
  I think the commentary here is mostly in agreement, we are just debating the finer points.This should have happened already, is the general theme. I still have my Shrike CDs around and the modern-day Fedora (I think 44 is about to launch next week?) is more than sufficient for many, many use cases within the government, regardless of which distro they end up with.My hope is that the backing of EU software development teams to open source will lift all boats and in addition to Linux, BSD may get some fruits of labor out of it.9front as always is to be strictly forbidden without a security clearance.
• cicko
  About f'ing time.
• vfclists
  Will the French government view open source software as software which should be well-funded and well structured, ie Blender level quality and organization, or are they going to underfund it and thus have it succumb to the shenanigans of Redhat, aka IBM, the infamous pushers of Gnome and Wayland?
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  CalRobert
  But will they use azure?
• wslh
  I hope they also help in improving battery management on Linux notebooks, even pressing vendors via regulations.
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  HumblyTossed
  This is traditionally how you renegotiate with MS.But seriously, how long before MS offers them a deal they would rather not refuse?
• w4yai
  Vive la France !
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  UK-Al05
  These are almost always negation strategies rather than serious initiatives.
• OtomotO
  I've been on Linux (I use Arch btw) since 2011.I've been dual booting the first couple of years, then dumped Windows completely in 2016.Since then I am on Linux only. Private and corporate.Yes, sometimes I need to access a Windows machine or do work in one (I am my own boss), but then the client pays a "pain tax" as I call it.There are some games I can't play I would've played in the past. Mostly competitive online games.Technically that's annoying, but for me personally it's not a problem as I am not in my teens of twenties anymore and I have other hobbies and obligations.
• OtomotO
  France is doing many thinks way better than Germany.This is one of them.
• bloqs
  Fantastic news
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  gib444
  Efforts like this are good for people to realise there is a lot of talent in Europe that just gets overshadowed by USA's dominance.USAians tend think everything is less popular in Europe simply because it is inferior and fails purely on its technical merits. I know nothing will ever change their minds, but at least non-European non-USAians might recognise the efforts a bit more.We are also willing to accept 'good but not perfect' and understand tradeoffs.
• 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.
• cynicalsecurity
  Vive la France !
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  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.
• dkga
  de Gaule v2.0 :)
• fHr
  Holy based
• sneak
  Next up: governments rejecting use of AWS.
• 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.
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  sgt
  That might work for government employees using webapps all day. But for power users it is unlikely to be friction free.