Overview
- France’s digital agency DINUM announced an exit from Microsoft Windows in favor of Linux for government workstations, with DGE, ANSSI and the state procurement office DAE backing the plan.
- Authorities have not set a rollout timeline or named a Linux distribution, and they aim to finalize a broader plan in the fall after mapping needs across workstations, collaboration tools, security, AI, databases, virtualization and networks.
- The government also set targets to move the national health data platform to a trusted solution by the end of 2026 and to shift roughly 80,000 National Health Insurance Fund staff to sovereign tools on a similar schedule.
- France has already replaced Microsoft Teams for official video calls with Visio, a French tool built on the open‑source Jitsi platform, and Microsoft has not commented on the broader move.
- Ministers frame the effort as reducing reliance on U.S. vendors, and observers say France’s stance as a leading EU member could shape how other European governments buy and run core tech.