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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

#681

Post by mastermage »

himata4113 wrote: post #676
fluoridation wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to run a Windows VM anyway, why not just reboot into Windows?

Because I would have to reboot into windows including any active applications I have? That also means I would have to maintain TWO operating systems instead of just one. Now I have a form of WSL (LSW heh). There is a reason why everyone on windows uses WSL these days, same concept applies for LSW, but for games.

Do you have anything on your LSW because i have a handful of software that i do not want to miss on Linux.

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

#682

Post by bulbar »

orochimaaru wrote: post #240
sph wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because until literally a year ago, the country that hosted Microsoft was one of France's most trusted allies. It takes time to find a suitable replacement to a global monopoly.

Not really. I mean Trump has amped the rhetoric, but there have been no new laws passed. The privacy threats were always there.

There were general and abstract privacy threats. The current US administration however has managed to alienate the EU population as well as EU politicians.

Trump has basically ended the alliance between the western world and the US and everybody has started to built around that fact. Just one example is that the EU has finalized multiple huge trade contracts, some were in the making for decades.

I don't think the next US administration - if the US remains a democracy - will be able to fix that. The US lately has been very vocal that they don't want to be the center of the western world anymore and the western world got the message.

Reorganizing the post-WWII world order will take some time, of course, but I feel like the world is proceeding quite fast.

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

#683

Post by pizza234 »

himata4113 wrote: post #676
fluoridation wrote: post #553

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have to run a Windows VM anyway, why not just reboot into Windows?

Because I would have to reboot into windows including any active applications I have? That also means I would have to maintain TWO operating systems instead of just one. Now I have a form of WSL (LSW heh). There is a reason why everyone on windows uses WSL these days, same concept applies for LSW, but for games.

> Because I would have to reboot into windows including any active applications I have?

In a gaming-only setup, Windows requires virtually no maintenance. Plus gaming itself is a monotasking activity.

I actually find it positive having to reboot, so I start with a gaming session, and I only play, and when I'm done I'm done. I get the appeal of everything-in-Linux (it was my setup) but it's also a hassle.

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

#684

Post by tekchip »

benj111 wrote: post #663
Goronmon wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do Windows users ignore the faults of Windows? How many people care about support for Red Alert 2 and OG Xbox controllers on Windows 11 (assuming either of these truly don't work) versus people who care about the ability to play games like Fortnite?

So really the conversation should come down to how well Linux plays Fortnite then. And bringing up games that 'no one plays' is irrelevant. You can't have it both ways. Either it's only relevant that Linux plays the big games that are on steam, or people can bring up edge cases where windows doesn't do so well.

Edge cases? There's a long history of brand new triple A games running poorly or not at all on Windows. Evstablished games have plenty of problems. There are millions on millions of support pages, forums, and the deep dark recesses of discord stacked with Windows gaming problems. Just because some folks don't have problems with Windows doesn't mean the problems don't exist. The windows user base is so vast it's easy to think there's no problem just because an individual doesn't see it in their little corner of the world.

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

#685

Post by WhyNotHugo »

fsloth wrote: post #192
WhyNotHugo wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not convinced that replacing one proprietary OS with another is the solution. That said, I won't deny that Jolla is much more trustworthy than Google or Apple.

> I'm not convinced that replacing one proprietary OS with another is the solution. Consumer don't care if the OS is proprietary, as long as it works and there is a responsible party they can trust to serve them the offering.

> Consumer don't care if the OS is proprietary, as long as it works

I agree entirely (and they also don't even care if there's a trustable party who they can trust, just look at how many people happily use Google).

And this is exactly the mentality that's gotten us where we are. Consumers don't care about these things, and then end up lock into vendor ecosystems like the one op is describing here.

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

#686

Post by WhyNotHugo »

Garlef wrote: post #622
WhyNotHugo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux on Mobile has been progressing steadily in recent years, and is in a state suitable for very early adopters and tech enthusiasts. Definitely not for the general population IMHO. See: https://postmarketos.org/ FWIW, it's not just the EU that needs this urgently: most of humanity sorely needs a trustworthy mobile OS that's not designed against their interests.

Linux on the desktop has been progressing for many many years... and a lot of stuff still doesn't work out of the box I've recently had some fun at the intersection of "moving windows between screens" vs "ui scaling" vs "ambient system is wayland but the snap uses x11 internally".

Multiple displays with different scales has worked fine since at least 2017 (which is when I stated using sway, and precisely for this reason).

OTOH, I know that recent versions of GNOME struggle with this. Just last year I saw plenty of situations where moving windows across displays triggered all kind of quirks. This is a GNOME-specific issue, and like most of its issues, doesn't affect all other compositors.

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

#687

Post by mixmastamyk »

2000UltraDeluxe wrote: post #649
mixmastamyk wrote: post #521

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hetzner exists. The claim above of 30 is not particularly important, the point is to lean on the community. Millions a year would get you incredibly far. Many are already helping for free. 24/7 linux webservers existed already by the late nineties.

"Helping for free" doesn't cut it when dealing with governments. Even if everyone had gone the Linux route 20 years ago we'd still have an entire ecosystem of commercial businesses selling and operating it; imagine what Red Hat would look like with Microsoft actually out of the picture. We'd have just as many consultancy firms and layers of beuraucracy without Microsoft, and France wouldn't be operating their entire…

The difference is that because of open-source there would be competition in those services. And they could take any of it in house at a discount with reasonably priced govt workers. IOW, they'd have choices instead of handcuffs.

They'd be in better situation on all counts. It pays to think ahead to the future and remove dependencies. Where do you want to be in five years? Still in an abusive relationship?

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

#688

Post by benj111 »

p_ing wrote: post #670
benj111 wrote: post #666

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not up on my current windows security, but windows has been dominating for decades, much of which it's security was non existent, being originally a single user system. Linux being a nix is multi user from the ground up. So you seem to be making a conclusion that isn't warranted. That isn't to say any of this is wrong per se. Just that being the best does not necessarily lead to success.

NT was designed as a multi-user system from the ground up.

Right but windows also aims to be backwards compatible which means it was trying to run things designed for a single user system undermining protections.

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

#689

Post by mixmastamyk »

Zetaphor wrote: post #536
JustFinishedBSG wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the cost (to the government) for Windows is "support" (in a very general sense) and that cost isn't disappearing with Linux. Especially since it is easier to find badly underpaid (and not particularly competent) Windows sysadmins than it is to find badly underpaid Linux admins.

Are you implying that need for support would go away? If anything the demand would be artificially high at the start of a mass migration, and then presumably level out to something similar to what we see today with Windows. This is basically RHEL's entire business model.

Not a thing any longer, for the most part. People know how to open a browser on any operating system these days. Go to the menu, run it. Get bored and click the X on the top bar. Source: nearby kids. A few times I've said... "this is Cinnamon, or KDE, or... Windows."

"Ok, whatever," (old man) is the response I get.

And, you don't have to move 100% of their workflow in a single day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47730137

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

#690

Post by benj111 »

tekchip wrote: post #684
benj111 wrote: post #663

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So really the conversation should come down to how well Linux plays Fortnite then. And bringing up games that 'no one plays' is irrelevant. You can't have it both ways. Either it's only relevant that Linux plays the big games that are on steam, or people can bring up edge cases where windows doesn't do so well.

Edge cases? There's a long history of brand new triple A games running poorly or not at all on Windows. Evstablished games have plenty of problems. There are millions on millions of support pages, forums, and the deep dark recesses of discord stacked with Windows gaming problems. Just because some folks don't have problems with Windows doesn't mean the problems don't exist. The windows user base is so vast it's easy…

I don't disagree but when the conversation is about red alert 2 and steering wheels and the response is nobody uses those, then it isn't valid to use the argument that Linux is useless when it runs everything.
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