French government says au revoir Windows, bienvenue Linux

America's Big Tech companies whitethorn soon study that saddling up pinch Donald Trump doesn't thin to activity retired successful nan end. As nan president sows chaos and distrust astir nan globe while taking aim astatine EU tech regulations, Europe is looking for ways to adopt its ain alternatives. The latest illustration is France, which said it's dropping Microsoft Windows successful favour of Linux.

On Wednesday, France said (via TechCrunch) it plans to move its workstations from Windows to nan open-source Linux. It's portion of a broader movement crossed Europe toward integer sovereignty, aimed astatine reducing reliance connected overseas tech — particularly American and Chinese. Although homegrown alternatives aren't disposable successful galore areas, nan EU seems prepared to wean itself disconnected wherever it can.

In January, France announced that it would move its videoconferencing from Zoom and Teams to nan French-made Visio. As portion of this week’s Linux announcement, France added that it would besides migrate its wellness information to a caller level by nan extremity of 2026.

Since taking office, Trump has utilized tariffs and different measures to effort to bully European nations into dropping their regulations connected America's tech industry. In August, he vowed to "stand up to Countries that onslaught our unthinkable American Tech Companies." (The unusual capitalizations are his, not ours.) His management has described laws for illustration nan EU's Digital Services Act arsenic "censorship" and "a tax."

So far, Europe has stood firm. "I want to beryllium very clear: our integer sovereignty is our integer sovereignty," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said astatine nan Munich Security Conference successful February. "We person a agelong contented successful state of speech. Actually, nan Enlightenment started connected our continent."

Christian Kroll, CEO of German hunt motor Ecosia, foresaw Europe's predicament soon aft Trump's 2024 reelection. "We, arsenic a European community, conscionable request to make judge that cipher tin blackmail us." He added that "if nan US turned disconnected entree to hunt results tomorrow, we would person to spell backmost to telephone books." Granted, nan feline is trading a European-made hunt engine, truthful his bias is clear. But nan salience of his constituent stands.

Giorgos Verdi, argumentation chap astatine nan European Council connected Foreign Relations, said nan Trump administration's behaviour underscores nan request for Europe to break free. "Could nan US usage its power complete AI chips, its power complete unreality successful Europe, its power complete AI systems successful bid to exert much pressure?" Verdi asked CNN rhetorically successful January. "In bid to build much resilience for Europe… location is simply a geopolitical lawsuit for European innovations to emerge."