Amid strained relationships between the Trump administration and the EU, numerous politicians in the bloc have discussed pivoting away from US technology firms in the interests of national security, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Now, France has announced it’s moving some of its government systems away from Windows towards the open-source operating system Linux, following Denmark and parts of Germany announcing similar departures from Microsoft products earlier this year.
David Amiel, France’s Minister of Public Action and Accounts, said his country must “break free” and “become less reliant on American tools.”
“We can no longer accept that our data, our infrastructure, and our strategic decisions depend on solutions whose rules, pricing, evolution, and risks we do not control,” Amiel said in a statement first spotted by News.
Linux, as it is open source, means you can run software without using an OS controlled and designed by an American firm—for example, Apple or Microsoft, as in the case of iOS and Windows. France’s government digital agency, DINUM, will be the first to make the jump, with other parts of government following at a later date.
The news comes after France announced it would be migrating its national healthcare database from US-based providers to an unnamed new platform earlier this month. It’s also set to pivot from using Microsoft Teams for video conferencing to the French-made tool Visio across all government departments.
Independence from US tech enjoys broad support in much of the EU. Around two-thirds of EU citizens support greater independence from American technology, according to recent market research from YouGov, particularly in areas like data storage and video conferencing. However, roughly four in ten thought independence was unrealistic.
In January, a clear majority of European lawmakers voted to adopt a report on technological sovereignty and digital infrastructure that directs the European Commission to find ways to reduce its reliance on foreign technology providers in areas like semiconductors, cloud infrastructure, software, and AI systems.
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