France to ditch Windows for Linux

[jack action]

TL;DR

France is trying to move on from Microsoft Windows. The country said it plans to move some of its government computers currently running Windows to the open source operating system Linux to further reduce its reliance on U.S. technology.

France is trying to move on from Microsoft Windows. The country said it plans to move some of its government computers currently running Windows to the open source operating system Linux to further reduce its reliance on U.S. technology.

[...]

In a statement, French minister David Amiel said (translated) that the effort was to “regain control of our digital destiny” by relying less on U.S. tech companies. Amiel said that the French government can no longer accept that it doesn’t have control over its data and digital infrastructure.

[...]

Lawmakers and government leaders across Europe are growing more aware of the looming threat facing them at home, and their over-reliance on U.S. technology. In January, the European Parliament voted to adopt a report directing the European Commission to identify areas where the EU can reduce its reliance on foreign providers.

[...]

France’s decision to ditch Windows comes months after the government announced it would stop using Microsoft Teams for video conferencing in favor of French-made Visio, a tool based on the open source end-to-end encrypted video meeting tool Jitsi.

The French government said it also plans to migrate its health data platform to a new trusted platform by the end of the year.

source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/10/france-to-ditch-windows-for-linux-to-reduce-reliance-on-us-tech/

 

[jedishrfu]

Not a good sign for MS Windows desire to dominate the World's computers. MS was always afraid of Linux and then embraced it when they developed WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

There was the battle for the desktop when MS stopped using Sun's Java after Sun accused them of a contract breach when they installed an MS versions of Sun modules favoring Windows only.

MS also fought with Netscape because Netscape's vision was a web desktop and they didn't like losing the desktop. They gave away iExplorer to undermine Netscape's revenue stream. Pressured vendors to favor MS iExplorer and not install Netscape. Made it difficult to install Netscape.

I wonder how MS will respond to this latest action.

 

[FactChecker]

This makes it sound more serious than some of its government computers. And as the government goes, so goes a lot of civilian computers. "France just handed Microsoft a termination notice for 2.5 million government devices. Every ministry must submit a Linux migration plan by autumn 2026."

 

[AlexB23]

TL;DR: France is trying to move on from Microsoft Windows. The country said it plans to move some of its government computers currently running Windows to the open source operating system Linux to further reduce its reliance on U.S. technology.

source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/10/france-to-ditch-windows-for-linux-to-reduce-reliance-on-us-tech/

This is a good move. No more Copilot mess.

 

[FactChecker]

I sincerely hope this will cause all software developers to make Linux versions. The lack of tax software on Linux keeps me on Windows.

 

[Dale]

MS was always afraid of Linux and then embraced it when they developed WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

My experience with WSL has been very positive. It is much better than a Linux virtual machine. And with Docker containers a lot of my technical computing problems are fixed.

 

[jedishrfu]

Yes, I found that to be true, too.

At work, all Mac users were forced to switch to Windows laptops because we had a firewall setup issue with Apple.

Apple would change the update servers and ports with each new release, whereas Windows didn’t.

—-

Switching in our minds meant we lost access to Unix's rich command set.

But with WSL and MS VS Code, we had the best of both worlds.

VSCode editor allowed editing files in both worlds and handled linefeeds vs. CR/LF that haunted the hapless programmer switching between platforms.

—-

My most ambitious Docker project was creating a Julia dev environment with all plugins of interest. I tried but couldn't get Julia to prebuild them to eliminate the setup delay on your first script run.

It worked, but it still had a noticeable start-up delay. My test case was to draw a sine curve from 0 to $2\pi$, a three-line script that I expected to run quickly, but Julia recompiled all related source files, and plotting is a big chunk of code before running the script.

 

[symbolipoint]

What would really help, regardless of where in the world users are, would be organized community computer literacy instruction for Linux. Somebody or somebodies should decide on which form or edition or version of Linux should made available and used.

 

[sbrothy]

I've also had positive experiences running Windows apps on Linux using Wine. With some limitations of course. Though I realize you're talking the other way around. It just goes to show how versatile Linux is.

 

[Dale]

I am actually surprised that governments don’t generally use Linux for security reasons. A government should worry that a commercial entity might build in secret back doors, etc. Having the source code allows them to ensure that doesn’t happen.

 

[pasmith]

I was working at the UK's Ministry of Defence just over 10 years ago when they rolled out Office 365. This involved the MOD making absolutely certain - no doubt at great expense - that its data remained on secure servers which it controlled and did not leave the United Kingdom.

 

[WWGD]

Il n'aura plus de onzième fenêtres dans la France. IIRC my highschool French.

 

[WWGD]

This is a good move. No more Copilot mess.

I seem to be the only one for whom Copilot works out right, without major issues.

 

[AlexB23]

I seem to be the only one for whom Copilot works out right, without major issues.

Yeah, but for some, it is shoved down people's throats.

 

[fluidistic]

I am actually surprised that governments don’t generally use Linux for security reasons. A government should worry that a commercial entity might build in secret back doors, etc. Having the source code allows them to ensure that doesn’t happen.

It's also true for hardware. As far as I can remember, there was a backdoor in Intel processors giving Intel the possibility to spy on its users.

Been on Linux since 2008 on my personal computer, installed it to computer-illetrate people, a thousands times better than Windows in every single aspect.

I still have to deal with W11 at work, it's unbelievable how they lack vision.

 

[WWGD]

It's also true for hardware. As far as I can remember, there was a backdoor in Intel processors giving Intel the possibility to spy on its users.

Been on Linux since 2008 on my personal computer, installed it to computer-illetrate people, a thousands times better than Windows in every single aspect.

I still have to deal with W11 at work, it's unbelievable how they lack vision.

But can you use all the Windows programs from within Linux? Can I open, say, my .docx files using some program in Linux? I've used wsl , but didn't see there how to open and modify Windows documents there.

 

[fluidistic]

But can you use all the Windows programs from within Linux? Can I open, say, my .docx files using some program in Linux? I've used wsl , but didn't see there how to open and modify Windows documents there.

I don't think there is a perfect port of Microsoft formats to Linux but I didn't do any research. The thing is, if you ever plan migrating, it would be better to switch to LibreOffice which would be compatible with the Linux version. Or use more advanced, albeit harder to learn tools such as Latex and/or programming.

 

[Rive]

But can you use all the Windows programs from within Linux? Can I open, say, my .docx files using some program in Linux?

Not always: especially with the continuous tweaking of those formats/programs. Especially, if you had prior experience only with Windows.

That's why it's so important to make the migration happen as a whole.

 

[nuuskur]

Big opportunities for redhat. Fedora's been a rocksolid choice for a network of devices.

 

[jack action]

Can I open, say, my .docx files using some program in Linux?

Of course. Use LibreOffice, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you can even try it before installing Linux.

• https://en.libre-office.fr/article....-formats-in-libreoffice-a-comprehensive-guide
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice
• https://www.libreoffice.org/

 

[FactChecker]

I don't think there is a perfect port of Microsoft formats to Linux but I didn't do any research. The thing is, if you ever plan migrating, it would be better to switch to LibreOffice which would be compatible with the Linux version. Or use more advanced, albeit harder to learn tools such as Latex and/or programming.

Here is a good video on Linux alternatives for Microsoft Office that compares the compatibility of formats. ExplainintComputers: Best Linux Microsoft Office Alternatives. Most are not exactly the same. None are perfect.

 

[Astronuc]

Maybe it's a good time to dump MS Windows.

Forbes - Dangerous Fake Microsoft Windows Update Confirmed—Do Not Download
https://tech.yahoo.com/cybersecurity/articles/dangerous-microsoft-windows-warning-not-143710388.html

In the article:

Do Not Ignore This New Microsoft Windows Update, Here’s Why And How To Install It Safely​

As mentioned earlier, the second Tuesday of the month sees Microsoft release patches for Windows vulnerabilities and other issues that affect users. The April Patch Tuesday rollout has now dropped, and it’s critical that you don’t ignore it.

Here’s why, by the numbers:

• A total of 167 security issues have been addressed.
• Amongst this number are two zero-day vulnerabilities.
• Eight of the vulnerabilities patched have a critical severity rating.
• Seven of them involve remote code execution as the payload danger of successful exploitation.

This is the highest number of vulnerabilities patched by Microsoft so far this year, up by 88 over last month.

 

[sbrothy]

When I worked at Mærsk Data (now IBM) I had access to a pre-production server. I had it issue a security certificate and I used it to access the production server. Within minutes several people were standing around my desk aking me what I thought I was doing. My only excuse was that I had nothing to do at the moment. Admittedly, this was only possible because I was already inside the intranet, but the next day my inbox was full of work. Obviously they had a talk with my supervisor. I got no thanks for pentesting their production server though. Life is unfair.

EDIT: My point is that I don't think that would have worked on a POSIX platform.

 

[sbrothy]

But can you use all the Windows programs from within Linux? Can I open, say, my .docx files using some program in Linux? I've used wsl , but didn't see there how to open and modify Windows documents there.

I've had some success running FruityLoops on Linux using Wine. I was pretty surprised that worked considering the audio drivers involved.

 

[WWGD]

I've had some success running FruityLoops on Linux using Wine. I was pretty surprised that worked considering the audio drivers involved.

Audio, Realtek drivers in Windows 11 are a complete mess. I had to rollback some upgrades to be able to use WhatsApp video.

 

[neilparker62]

"It’s insane to think that they got on the moon with only 4kb of ram 50 years ago meanwhile nowadays they have their laptops with outlook on it"

Should have used Linux

 

[WWGD]

"It’s insane to think that they got on the moon with only 4kb of ram 50 years ago meanwhile nowadays they have their laptops with outlook on it"

Should have used Linux

Lazy people hate that we went to the moon. Whenever they get something wrong, they're told " You mean we can send a man to the moon and yet you can't get that right?