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Re: French government to move to Linux

According to this

 * France orders all government ministries to ditch Windows
   for Linux in digital sovereignty push
   <https://thenextweb.com/news/france-linux-windows-migration-digital-sovereignty>

the scope is as follows:

   *DINUM <https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/numerique-etat/dinum/>* (La
   direction interministérielle du numérique) itself, which employs
   roughly 250 agents, will migrate its workstations from Windows to Linux.

   All other ministries, including their operators and affiliated
   bodies, must produce their own reduction plans before autumn 2026.

   The plans are required to address eight categories of dependency:

     * workstations and operating systems,
     * collaborative and communication tools,
     * antivirus and security software,
     * artificial intelligence and algorithms,
     * databases and storage,
     * virtualisation and cloud infrastructure, and
     * network and telecommunications equipment.

France's *Gendarmerie Nationale* has been migrating to Linux as a strategic initiative, starting as far back as *2004*. How far they have progressed is made clear by the following excerpt in that article:

   *By June 2024,* *GendBuntu
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu>* ran on 103,164
   workstations, representing *97% of the force’s computing estate.*

If you think France will "realise the error of their ways" in pursuing this new initiative, think again:

   *David Amiel, Minister of Public Action and Accounts*, who led the
   announcement alongside Le Hénanff, stated that France “/*can no
   longer accept* that our data, our infrastructure, and our strategic
   decisions depend on solutions whose rules, pricing, evolution, and
   risks we do not control./”

There is no turning back.

If you are specifically interested in knowing which software they are "*committed*" to as core tools, the link provided by Richard Leir <https://github.com/suitenumerique/> will offer that.

But if you are looking for the /full range/ that they have provisionally "*endorsed*", the guidance on those is available at:

 * *Socle Interministériel de Logiciels Libres*
   <https://code.gouv.fr/sill/list>
 * *2021 list of SILL
   <https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socle_interminist%C3%A9riel_des_logiciels_libres>
   *software at Wikipedia

For those who are interested in some highlights about other European efforts, there is this other reference site:

 * *EU OS* <https://eu-os.eu/use-cases> - Use Cases (specifics on some
   countries)
 * *EU OS <https://eu-os.eu/specs>* - Specifications


Hope Group members find the above useful!


Eric Marceau


On 2026-05-07 13:05, Rick Leir via linux wrote:
https://github.com/suitenumerique/

I had to hunt a bit to find the repo.  Bit surprised that they are using GitHub


/Richard Leir/
/_Happy Canoeing and Hiking and Biking!_/


Sent from Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> for Android.



-------- Original Message --------
On Thursday, 05/07/26 at 09:53 Lucas Fryzek via linux <linux [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org> wrote:

    Hey,

    Not sure overall the open office compatibility but their "word"
    version (https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/en/produits/docs)
    <https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/en/produits/docs> mentions that
    it uses open formats and supports export to PDF/Word/ODT in the
    FAQ (its in French). From that I assume the doc format they use
    internally is something else and they just export to ODT.

    It seems that they are trying to make an open source version of
    gdocs/office365 more than Microsoft office. The screen shots of
    their document tool, and spreadsheet tool give me that impression.
    I believe it needs to be hosted, that is there isn't a standalone
    desktop application.

    BR,
    Lucas

    On Wed, 2026-05-06 at 21:39 -0400, Rob Echlin via linux wrote:
    Is their suite able to read and write Open Office formats?

    It would be interesting to have our govt cooperate with either
    theirs or open office.

    Alice

    Apr. 10, 2026 12:39:54 Lucas Fryzek via linux
    <linux [ at ] linux-ottawa [ dot ] org>:


    Hey,

    Not sure if you guys saw the news (link in french)][1]

    But the french government is trying to move all government
    departments
    from windows to linux with 80k employees from the national health
    insurance fund already moved over. They set a deadline for fall
    of this
    year for each department to have a migration plan.

    Really interesting stuff, especially with the "LaSuite
    numerique" they
    been developing to replace office365 and google docs. [2]

    Would love to seen something similar happen in Canada. That way
    more of
    our tax dollars could support open source software and ideally
    Canadians working on that open source software instead of
    sending out
    money to big tech in the US.

    Thanks,
    Lucas

    - [1]
    https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/souverainete-numerique-reduction-dependances-extra-europeennes/

    - [2] https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/