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France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

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Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#61

Post by dbdr »

harvey9 wrote: post #42
peter-m80 wrote: post #38

should be done at EU level and make it mandatory for all members

France has been doing this in parts of its government functions for years, building expertise and learning what works. What do you imagine the EU institutions would bring to the table?

Good on France for doing that work.

More countries and/or EU involvement could bring economies of scale: apart from translation, a lot of work on fixing bugs and adding features to the relevant open source projects can be done once and benefit all. So either get the same results faster, more cheaply per country, or both. Sure, that adds some bureaucracy and coordination cost too, but should be worth it overall.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#62

Post by embedding-shape »

breppp wrote: post #48
gsky wrote: post #18

Finally Europe grew a spine

Less so against China or Iran, presumably Europe will find itself on the "right side of history" yet again soon enough

At least so against Israel and other countries actively engaging in open warfare against sovereign nations, as a European I'm very happy we're not getting pulled into those senseless conflicts.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#64

Post by embedding-shape »

drstewart wrote: post #33
e2le wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Astroturfing around this is getting suspicious. It's perfectly possible for people to be passionate about the subject.

I've never met a real human that was passionate about what OS a government worker in some local French commune uses, but it's the hottest topic on HN behind AI

Right, what about FOSS developers who care about what guidelines the entire country has regarding OS usage? Maybe I'm living in a bubble, but everyone (mostly Europeans to be fair) seems excited about moving away from US technologies.

This move isn't just "Local French commune thinks about Linux", it's "French government agency that can mandate what others do, set hard guideline for agencies and magistrates to come up with a concrete plan for how to move to Linux", which is worlds beyond what we've seen before.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#66

Post by traceroute66 »

Mindless2112 wrote: post #55
Toine wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As a French" ne veut rien dire en anglais. Il faut rajouter man, person ou quelquechose. Frenchman, French person, French citizen.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

No.

"French" is adjective or a collective noun, but don't use it as a countable noun.

Trying to say "as a French" makes about as much sense as thinking "as a American" is correct.

As has already been said ... "a French (wo)man","a French person","a French citizen" is the correct way to go.

The reason you can say "an American" is because America starts with a vowel.

Same reason why you would not say "a British" but you could say "a Brit".

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#67

Post by ur-whale »

M95D wrote: post #65

I fear this might be just license costs cutting and not something that Linux and FOSS will benefit from.

> I fear this might be just license costs cutting and not something that Linux and FOSS will benefit from.

yup, at this point, nothing but cobwebs and IOU's left in the coffers over there and every little bit of saving helps.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#68

Post by dbdr »

bombcar wrote: post #51
drstewart wrote: post #26

Is this the daily thread on this topic? Astroturfing around this is getting suspicious.

I remember similar articles being posted 20+ years ago on Slashdot. And as we’ve seen, it’s often less of a “use Linux” and more of a “we have an alternate vendor” and there’s often suspicious lock-in (see the case in the EU or some similar country where the vendor was reading emails ).

At least in some cases, it's actually using Linux and open document format, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#69

Post by estimator7292 »

Mindless2112 wrote: post #55
Toine wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"As a French" ne veut rien dire en anglais. Il faut rajouter man, person ou quelquechose. Frenchman, French person, French citizen.

The demonym for France is "French," so it's not wrong (even if it doesn't sound right.)

Technically yes the demonym is "French", but "I'm a French" just doesn't work in English. The word 'French' is almost exclusively used in English as an adjective or the name of the language. It is never used as a noun for anything else. So in context, it reads as an adjective without a paired noun.

In English, you have to disambiguate be adding a noun: French person, French citizen, or Frenchman if you're old and inconsiderate.

Similarly, we don't call people "a Chinese". That construction is considered derogatory, if not outright racist. Demonyms typically cannot be used as nouns alone without a suffix. "A Brazilian" or "a Spaniard" are acceptable.

As usual for English, the rules are vague and inconsistent.

Re: France's government is ditching Windows for Linux, says US tech a strategic risk

#70

Post by embedding-shape »

drstewart wrote: post #31
hdgvhicv wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “main guy” is Finnish. He also got American citizenship recently, but given the US has increased attacks on naturalised citizens [0] and has a history of this [1] it’s not a solid foundation. [0] https://www.npr.org/2026/01/16/nx-s1-5677685/as-focus-shifts... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...

If Japanese internment worried you, you should see Europe's treatment of perceived outsiders [0] and get reallyyyy worried about the ongoing attacks [1] and rhetoric [2]. I would urge extreme caution to anyone in Europe that is at risk. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_Jews_from_Spain [1] https://www.ein.org.uk/news/home-office-remove-euss-pre-sett... [2] https://www.ft.com/content/0e29224f-9d06-4315-a8…

> Expulsion of Jews from Spain [...] On 31 March 1492, the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, issued the Alhambra Decree, ordering all unconverted Jews to leave their kingdoms and territories by the end of July that year, unless they converted to Christianity

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but we (I live in Spain) have come a long way since 1492 (534 years ago) and if that's the most recent example you can find of "Europe's treatment of perceived outsiders" I think you yourself know that stuff like that doesn't happen today, in Europe.

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