Typographic errors included for free. 
None of which I have had and still find it easy to navigate, easy to use and know my data is not being sent back and auctioned.
1 Like
Frying yand fire comes to mind.
I assume the 2026 date is an error. It will require no less that 5 years and probably 10 years and take all of the software engineers to stop what they are doing now.
This isn’t an issue of replacing M$ products like Word/Excel/Powerpoint with linux equivalents. Most of that will be easy by comparison. Every large organization, government and industry, has lots of their in-house written software. The odds of simply rebuilding any big program to run on linux is precisely 0%. The process of building any large piece of software is complicated and the control files to do that building will all need to be changed before you can even start. All large pieces of that software will have many M$-dependent systems calls, all of which will need to be changed. There is software used to test software, all of which will need conversion to linux.
Writing the list of all the software changes needed will take large organizations well past the autumnal 2026 deadline. Everyone here will retire before the job is done.
I haven’t looked up what DINUM is. Perhaps the ministry of people who can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
2 Likes
Hi welcome to the forum, please introduce yourself and let us know about your connection to France.
Yes and … No.
Yes, the cost of switching software can be high - getting users, support teams and administrators up to speed is a long process frequently fraught with difficulty - but that is true even if you stay on the same operating system.
Quite a bit of software these days is web based - of the systems at work which I use regularly most are not running on the computer in front of me but are being accessed via a browser. Which means they will look and behave the same whatever OS, and to an extent whatever browser, is being used.
Plus there are systems - such as Wine or Mono which can allow native Windows applications to run on Linux, sometimes spectacularly well.
If you start with the attitude that it can’t be done you will probably prove yourself correct - ifyou are more open minded then you will probably find it can be done - especially if you have government backed resources to throw at the problem.
I agree it’s not a weekend project though.
2 Likes
After re-reading the English version I understand the directive only requires plans to be in place by autumn.
France has made great strides in building its own software products. Visio is a fine example. Other messaging and collaboration software is also in production now.
The manpower and perhaps hardware costs are going to be high but licensing costs will drop significantly at the conclusion of the migration.
C#/.NET is common in enterprise backend enviroments to access AWS. Enterprise software is potentially the most intensive migration task because of dependencias on COM/DCOM and advanced .NET calls. Defense, Tax, Energy, and healthcare likely have lots of M$-specific code in places.
Wine is good (for many reasons) but are licensing costs for a M$ product the same whether it is running on Windows or Wine?
Summary -
Can detailed plans for the migration to linux across the government be in place by autumn? Yes.
I think the required increase in manpower and budget will be scary.
I was referring to companies, large and small - a totally different thing as an individual, businesses need to remap their business processes to a different technical platform, hence the investment needed for training, etc
1 Like
All of which is true - but this is not saying that all businesses have to ditch M$ products - just that the government is going to do so.
1 Like
Depending on the type of work, Linux is not compatible with all software. I know this because I was going to switch to Linux but can’t use two of the major programs on my PC. Does that mean new or different programs would need to be used and if so, means retraining the workforce.
1 Like
My gut feel is that replacing Microsoft at the front end may not be so daunting. The ‘nix world there is not SO different that people need extensive retraining. And as many apps are either web/cloud based (as already suggested), and/or written in cross platform languages requiring little or no rewrite (a bit of tweaking maybe) retraining is not even necessary. It’d be more-or-less transparent. The back end might not be so straight forward,
Many back end data servers are unix based, so major issue there either. But what of COBOL? Is that included in the directive?
Whilst COBOL is not Microsoft it is US tech, and IBM is dominant. I’m quite sure there are hundreds of COBOL mainframe servers out there, particularly in government applications, and it’d be by no means a easy task to migrate all of that data off, and port/rewrite any software, to a unix box.
Such tasks really are case-by-case with their own unique hurdles being found along the way. Ime, there’s often a little bit of vital software, fulfilling a pivotal role (particular when it comes to cross platform applications) that nobody knows anything about anymore, that won’t be discovered until someone runs into it - and a workaround will have to be found. It won’t be a walk in the park, even if theoretically do-able.
Depends on what he programs are of course - which you didn’t specify.
Autodesk Fusion 360 for 3D modelling and CNC work. Affinity photo and Luminar Neo.
Ah, yes that is a tricky one. There seems to be an effort to run it using Wine (but I would not recommend that for serious use as Autodesk are very unlikely to give you any support in that scenario.
It so happens that I used to work for a CAD/CAM company which was ultimately bought out by Autodesk.
Catia? No wait, I think we used a program prior to Fusion, can’t remember the name. Inventor?
1 Like
Duct
I appreciate what they are doing but could it be an own goal in terms of training costs? In UK kids come through school using Windows and other Microsoft packages like Word and Excel - is the same true in France? Most people use Windows based home PCs too!
Duct duct go 
well you said used to
2 Likes
Alternative Linux versions are very similar, only took me a short time to adjust. The MS versions used to shift functions around with each version just to be a nuisance.
3 Likes
True - in practice because it is preinstalled.
2 Likes
Sure, but they also use iOS and Android so will be quite comfortable on using other user interfaces, with Linux being less of a leap.
2 Likes