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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

#141

Post by icar »

idoubtit wrote: post #108

The chain of facts makes me sad: 1. The French government announces its digital agency is to write a plan, by the end of the year, so that France could reduce its extra-European dependencies. The communiqué is wrapped up with minor facts (e.g. the digital agency is to switch to Linux on dozens of computers) and big promises from Ministers. 2. Various news sites state that "France is ditching Windows", at least in the…

What about https://github.com/cloud-gouv/securix, though?

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

#142

Post by Leomuck »

cmiles8 wrote: post #114

They’re still going the almost certainly end up running this on US designed chips, with US designed networking equipment and a bunch of other assets tied back to US companies. They should do what they want, but it’s “sovereignty theater” at best.

Maybe, but chips cannot hold you hostage during work. I don't care where things are built (except when they are built somewhere where human rights are being treated like shit), software is what locks you into whatever bullshit the company decides on, not chips. So it is a good step I think. We don't have to be all "we don't use anything from outside the EU" - why? Some countries are better than others at stuff. Fair enough. The movement is about moving away from software monopolies that decide on what you can and can't do, not about having everything inside a certain geographical location.

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

#143

Post by Leomuck »

e-dant wrote: post #41

Microsoft is a strategic risk for the US, too

Microsoft is a strategic risk for everybody, looking at their track records the last few years.. I don't love Linux, but I like it. It's no-bullshit. It doesn't always do everything perfectly, but it has the right mindset. It doesn't want to screw me over.

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

#144

Post by Leomuck »

jhawk28 wrote: post #119

AI finding vulnerabilities in open source software is going to make it super unpleasant for a time. I expect there to be a shift back to closed source until we get through that period.

Fair. But also I look at it as a chance. We get to fix lots of bugs. Bugs that bad actors can't use anymore.

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

#146

Post by Leomuck »

M95D wrote: post #113
samrus wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why wouldnt linux and FOSS benefit from usage? At the least it result in social validation, if not bug reports

Social validation brings incompetent users expecting something like Windows that "just works". Even if they could bring some bug reports... We have lots of those already! We have decades of ignored bug reports.

Wait, do we not want incompetent users on Linux? That's a weird take. Linux is not for elite technologically profound users, it's for everybody. If things don't work for non-technical users, we should strive to make it better?

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

#147

Post by Leomuck »

jlnthws wrote: post #111

Nice! Now moving from Windows to Linux is the "easy", visible part. Replacing US cloud + US AI dependence end to end is much harder, and that’s the real deal today.

I think you're right. Even though France might not have done much yet, it's a sign many people will read about and maybe think Linux is a good alternative. That's a win in my book.

AI and cloud are another thing altogether. Mistral is alright, open-source AI models are alright, but overall I think they can't compete yet. And I don't think there are fully capable cloud alternatives to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud yet. EU pushing Nextcloud-based alternatives really doesn't fuel confidence honestly. I mean Nextcloud is fine, but that's not the big alternative push we need here.

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

#148

Post by slibhb »

idoubtit wrote: post #108

The chain of facts makes me sad: 1. The French government announces its digital agency is to write a plan, by the end of the year, so that France could reduce its extra-European dependencies. The communiqué is wrapped up with minor facts (e.g. the digital agency is to switch to Linux on dozens of computers) and big promises from Ministers. 2. Various news sites state that "France is ditching Windows", at least in the…

Performative anti-Americanism has become one of the major features of European culture (and especially French culture).

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

#149

Post by AlotOfReading »

raincole wrote: post #123
idoubtit wrote: post #108

The chain of facts makes me sad: 1. The French government announces its digital agency is to write a plan, by the end of the year, so that France could reduce its extra-European dependencies. The communiqué is wrapped up with minor facts (e.g. the digital agency is to switch to Linux on dozens of computers) and big promises from Ministers. 2. Various news sites state that "France is ditching Windows", at least in the…

This is EU, what else do you expect? European officials saying they're ditching Windows has become a ritual: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/german-open-source-expe... : > The German Foreign Office first moved over to Linux as a server platform in 2001... the Foreign Office of Germany made the announcement (translated news report) that it is migrating away from Linux back to Windows as its desktop solution. http…

The LiMux/Munich saga was actually successful to a large degree. What happened is that Microsoft put enormous efforts into killing it. High level people like Steve ballmer and Bill Gates made personal visits to Munich officials to win them back, Microsoft put a headquarters in Bavaria, and there were huge concessions. It's about as far as you can get from the image of empty promises and no action.
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