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If France goes through with this I retract the sillier half of shit I have said about france.
I'm sure they look forward to you waving their flag in surrender 🏳️
Lmao
Every euro country or agency that has done or announced this has simply used it to extract concessions from Microsoft and either stayed with or switched back to windows.
I thought this program was still going no? https://www.raconteur.net/technology/schleswig-holstein-open-source
There was the Munich public administration before that ran everything on Linux 2003-2017 until MS paid for a big new HQ in Munich - I don’t know if the then mayor, Dieter Rieter, had any direct incentives. The French Gendarmerie have been using their version of Linux too (Gendbuntu) since 2005. Regions of the PA in Spain use it too. It’s also fairly common in European militaries.
Thanks. The big driver was the EU’s European Interoperability Framework (first version 2004), which promoted: Open standards, Vendor neutrality, Long-term accessibility of public data. It was envisioned for public administration, businesses and citizens: And notably the framework was updated 2015-2017 - the period the Munich administration steered away from it. Though I see they are now saying they should reconsider their move to MS, or maybe that’s just a negotiation tactic.
Afaik it is, but it only started in 2024…
Right, but I would imagine now there's going to be more pressure to become less dependent on US tech with the US becoming openly hostile to Europe.
Doubtful. Us hostility to Europe is overwhelmingly in rhetoric rather than deed and on the off chance that tech independence is a European ambition (to the extent that a European identity, let alone European governing body survives prolonged American hostile deeds) the smart play is to use an open software test case to figure out what your requirements are then get a contractor like Microsoft to fulfill them even if that means making a spinoff company.
Even if the idea of some kind of libre Europe wasn’t idealistic utopian thinking, its actual existence would be just another elephant on the open source dance floor to be avoided, not a powerful ally to be celebrated.
I disagree, Europe simply doesn't hold the same strategic relevance for the US as it did in the days of the Cold War. The tariffs under Trump and the Inflation Reduction Act under Biden were both direct economic attacks on Europe. Blowing up Nord Stream was also an attack on European economy. Europe is also one of the main victims in the current war on Iran being further cut off from energy. If Europeans still don't understand that the US is going to cannibalize whatever industry from Europe that it can and turn it into a cheap labor market, then they deserve everything that's coming to them.
I kind of agree with you but the whole point of the eurozone and eu was to elevate the interests held in common across the region to avoid balkanization and competition between constituent states.
Once the us is aligned against that construction the cheese stands alone and European crack up is inevitable.
Of course American anti euro aktion has overwhelmingly been in word instead of deed, despite your handful of good examples.
It’s very likely that European politicians will follow their unique european polities and place the interests of their individual nations over the interests of their region.
The handful examples are incredibly consequential. Europe is basically entirely dependent on the US for energy. And with energy prices in the US being around three times lower, the US is using that as leverage to lure industry away from Europe. The US is also actively meddling in European politics and uses their social media platforms to shape public opinion in Europe.
It's kind of hard to see what positive actions the US has taken towards Europe over the past few years. It's an abusive relationship where Europe continues to accept one humiliation after another.
Now that the Iran fiasco looks to have failed, it's entirely possible that Trump will remember about Greenland again. Meanwhile, there's very little indication that EU actually does much of anything to protect any common interests. The EU immediately folded in the trade war with the US, while China and many other countries held firm.
I agree that the action is very consequential, the pipeline in particular was an unexpected shock with real tangible effects. I only was saying that the overwhelming majority of anti euro stuff is rhetoric, not that the actions weren’t important.
It was worth saying that most of what is done against Europe is rhetoric because a subsequent American regime could walk those positions back (not that any smart leader of a European state would trust them). Specifically if in the future one of the pressures that could be urging European nations to move to Microsoft alternatives were to disappear, it would be common sense to use the ms alternative program as a bargaining chip to get what the state actually wants: to not change anything and not have to retrain everyone.
That's precisely why I pointed out that the role of Europe has changed from the American perspective in my original reply. It's not a question of a specific leader, but the structural change in the material realities of the empire. A future president in the US may be less crass than Trump, but the policy itself isn't going to change. The US is no longer going to see Europe as being worth the investment. The empire is contracting, and Americans will husband their resources either to dominate their own hemisphere or to try and contain China.
Yeah, the material reality isn’t gonna change, but I could see a ‘28 dem administration caring about Europe and the various coalition governments aligned against nationalist parties responding to it.
Romeo and Juliet but the houses aren’t alike in dignity.
Again, I see no material basis for 28 administration caring about Europe. Things are only going to get worse economically in the next couple years, and the US is going to have to husband their resources that much more as a result. The rise of nationalism in Europe is also inevitable for the same reason. As the economic situation continues to deteriorate, the countries that are better off will start pulling up the ladders.
Absent the belligerents industrial capacity to wage war, what will the second Great War look like?
Personally, I think a major war is not a likely scenario. I'm expecting something more akin to the Soviet collapse in the 90s.
There are cases of but also on going programs.
Do you know what they call operative systems in France? A Royal with Linux
What do they call a Debian?
Debian's a Debian, but they call it Le Debian.
Or simply Lebian not to confuse with LeSbian 😛
I have this mental image of a migration like this leading to critical mass and the Year of the Linux Desktop, but has something like this ever lead to a significant upsrtreaming of improvements or new features?
What is "The Year of the Linux Desktop" exactly? How do we measure this exactly and what does that even mean? (I use that phrase for memes usually.)
I'd argue SteamOS has done a lot for Wine. Nowadays, a huge chunk of Windows games works on Linux seamlessly. If governments start mandating Linux, then every company working with the government will be forced to be Linux compatible as well. That means having file formats that work natively on Linux, drivers, and all the other things that come with mainstream use.
would also probably mean more contributions to wine to support legacy software
VIVRE LIBRE OU MOURIR
VIVRE LIBRE AU PAIER TRIBUTE!
Wexit? Windexit?
Defenestrit
Windone.
Windon't
Doug Dimmadone?
The press release also requires each ministry, including public operators, to develop a plan by autumn 2026 addressing desktop systems, collaboration tools, antivirus software, AI, databases, virtualization, and network equipment.
I wonder if Dassault will release a Solidworks for Linux now?
Can’t wait for Schleswig-Holstein and France to fight distro proxy wars.
They should develop inter-incompatible file formats
this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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