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France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

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Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#141

Post by esskay »

ghaff wrote: post #55
esskay wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unless you need some windows-only software In many cases even if you do though, its possible to run it on WINE pretty well these days. It's insane how good it's become in the last few years (partly thanks to proton and Valves investment in it all really)

"Pretty well" is doing a lot of work. I have no horse in the race. I just run native on MacOS or Linux. Haven't run any Windows in a number of years. (I don't really game much and would just use my Xbox if I really wanted to--though that mostly functions as a DVD player these days.) But if "pretty well" causes the random administrative person to have issues with doing their job or increases IT support costs, it will…

We've come a long way in the last 2 years. We're at a point where MOST Windows software works flawlessly. I said "pretty well" as theres no doubt a few that don't and it'd be a bit disingenuous for me to suggest otherwise.

I certainly wouldn't come into this with knowledge on wine older than 2 years and make a snap decision though as its a totally different landscape - no weird quirkiness and tweaking needed for the vast majority of applications anymore.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#142

Post by forinti »

ChocolateGod wrote: post #120
esskay wrote: post #12

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.

> It's nuts Windows is still the go-to for anything these days despite everyone knowing what a parasitic Linux still doesn't have anywhere near as nice and cohesive as Group Policy, Active Directory etc. Plus you can pay Microsoft to host it all for you on Azure.

Yes, liberty comes at a cost. It seems that convenience is no longer the main motivator for many people.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#144

Post by einr »

carlosjobim wrote: post #114
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the American-made computers? The Apple macbook assembled in China with Korean displays and Taiwanese chips?

I haven't mentioned America or any other continent. It is the Europeans who are shouting about sovereignty right now. Americans for their part would probably be very happy to use made-in-Europe software on their computers whenever applicable.

I haven't mentioned America or any other continent. It is the Europeans who are shouting about sovereignty right now.

Well, no one has mentioned computer hardware until you did.

Surely you understand how "all the motherboards are made in Taiwan" is less of an immediate risk to sovereignty than "all of our business and personal data is stored on American servers and subject to US law"

It would be nice if Europe could produce its own computers, but right now no one can except China, so what is your point? That limited sovereignty efforts undertaken in the realm of reality are futile and that enables you to get some cheap shots in for whatever reason?

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#145

Post by toinebeg »

kombine wrote: post #128
vrganj wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France and Germany are actually cooperating on most of these, like the word processor: https://www.techspot.com/news/107225-france-germany-unveil-d... Plus, it's all open source, so the rest of the world is free to use it as well!

This is great! Any plans to add spreadsheets to the suite?

The docs project is part of "La Suite"[1]. They choose Grist[2] as the spreadsheet which is made by an American company but open source and there is a significant contribution from the French it admin.

[1]https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/

[2]https://www.getgrist.com/

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#147

Post by CalRobert »

kombine wrote: post #121
polski-g wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes sense that everyone uses Windows for gaming, because you can't run games in your browser. It makes zero sense for businesses to use Windows if they're only doing PowerPoint and video conferences.

Actually, it's the exact opposite. There is really no alternative to PowerPoint on Linux, unfortunately. I'm saying this as someone who's used Linux for 20 years now.

I haven’t seen power point used professionally for over a decade. All google (though I’ve made the odd prezi)

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#148

Post by samus »

carlosjobim wrote: post #114
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the American-made computers? The Apple macbook assembled in China with Korean displays and Taiwanese chips?

I haven't mentioned America or any other continent. It is the Europeans who are shouting about sovereignty right now. Americans for their part would probably be very happy to use made-in-Europe software on their computers whenever applicable.

At the same time, TFA is about software, not about the computers themselves.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#149

Post by apatheticonion »

faccacta wrote: post #56

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?

A big hurdle to this is hardware vendors locking bootloaders and making it impossible (or impractical) to write or use existing drivers.

Manufacturers maintain long running forks of Android (often very old Linux kernels) with their drivers hidden in their fork's source.

I'm a firm believer in the right to repair software - and the fact that it's illegal to reverse engineer binary blob drivers (or proprietary software at all) is a shame (not that you could even untangle a driver from a binary blob of a Linux fork). I'd go as far as feeling strongly that drivers should be open source, and if they aren't, documentation sufficient for the community to write drivers should be made available by manufacturers.

Linux on M5? Should be easy

Linux on an X Elite Surface Book? Should be easy

Ubuntu Touch on my Pixel 9? Should be easy

Android TV on my TV? Should be easy

Proxmox on my 5g mobile router? Should be easy

No drivers / locked bootloaders = not possible

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