April 14, 2026 France has formally ordered all government ministries to replace Windows with Linux desktops as part of a national push for digital sovereignty. The directive requires every ministry to map its reliance on non-European technology and submit a migration plan to Linux and sovereign tools by autumn 2026.
The move comes from France’s Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM), which framed the transition as a strategic shift rather than a pilot or policy experiment.
“The State can no longer simply acknowledge its dependence; it must break free,” said public accounts minister David Amiel, adding, “Digital sovereignty is not optional.”
France’s plan is sweeping in scope. It covers roughly 2.5 million civil servants and extends beyond operating systems to collaboration tools, cloud services, AI systems, databases, and network infrastructure. Earlier this year, the government also mandated a transition away from platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom toward a domestically built alternative called Visio by 2027.
Unlike previous attempts in other countries, France is not starting from scratch. Its national police force, the Gendarmerie, has spent nearly two decades running a custom Ubuntu-based distribution known as GendBuntu across more than 100,000 machines. That deployment, which began in 2008, is now being used as the operational blueprint for a nationwide rollout.
The financial argument is also established. France says GendBuntu already saves about €2 million annually compared with Windows-based systems, and a full migration could push savings beyond €40 million. Just as important, officials point to operational resilience, citing the system’s ability to handle large-scale upgrades without disrupting critical services.
Technically, the new desktop environment is expected to build on modern Linux infrastructure. The current GendBuntu system runs on Ubuntu 24.04, but a national rollout would likely align with Ubuntu 26.04, incorporating a newer Linux kernel and transitioning fully to the Wayland graphics system. The desktop layer will rely on GNOME 50, while core applications include LibreOffice, Firefox ESR, Thunderbird, and GIMP.
Alongside the operating system, France is standardising a full sovereign software stack under La Suite Numérique, already used by 600,000 civil servants. The suite includes tools for messaging (Tchap), video conferencing (Visio), document collaboration (Docs), spreadsheets and data apps (Grist), file storage (Nextcloud-based Fichiers), email (Open-Xchange) and large file transfers (France Transfert). All services are hosted on EU-based infrastructure with unified identity via ProConnect and built-in interoperability.
The system is designed to replace both American software and cloud dependencies. France has already banned the use of foreign messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram for official communication, shifting instead to Matrix-based secure messaging. Similar replacements are being rolled out across every layer of the digital stack.
The policy also aligns with broader European initiatives. France is working with projects such as the Netherlands’ Common Ground and Germany’s Sovereign Cloud Stack to build interoperable public-sector systems across the EU. The aim is not just independence, but compatibility between national platforms without relying on external vendors.
For now, implementation details will be finalised at the ministry level, with migration plans due later this year.
