Switcher 2026: Some Thoughts About France, Linux, and Digital Sovereignty ⭐️

When it comes to personal technology, something that works inconsistently is worse than something that doesn't work at all. And my recent experiences with Linux are nothing but inconsistent. I see different results with different distributions on the same PCs, and I see different results with the same distribution on different PCs. And it's a problem for someone who, in my case, likes to be definitive as much as possible. But Linux is like a roulette wheel, you never know what you're going to get.

To be clear, I've had some stunning successes with Linux. Fedora Workstation, which I wrote about recently is terrific. And Zorin OS 18, which I've not yet addressed in this series but will soon, is likewise top-notch. And there are promising distributions like Zenclora. And others.

But I've also had curiously terrible experiences. Debian, the basis for so many other Linux distributions, can be balky, but the most surprising failures have come from unexpected places. I'm still struggling to get the KDE Plasma Desktop version of Fedora Workstation working on any PC, for example. I hope to figure that out eventually.

With that as a backdrop, I was interested to see that France intends to replace Windows with Linux. Which is not an accurate description of the news, as it turns out. "France" is not replacing Windows with Linux. And it's not even "the government of France" that is replacing Windows with Linux. Instead, a French government official said that France should "break free" of its dependence on Big Tech–which he described as "American tools"–and achieve digital sovereignty. One French governmental agency, the Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM), is "exiting from Windows in favor of workstations running on the Linux operating system."

That DINUM employs fewer than 500 people seems to have been lost in the desire to write ridiculous, click-baity headlines. But let's not underestimate the impact of this change. Yes, there are famous examples of governments announcing and implementing a switch from Windows to Linux, failing badly, and then sheepishly returning to the same embrace of Microsoft. (We're looking at you, Munich.) But that was decades ago. Linux has improved dramatically in that time. And Windows, like the rest of Big Tech has, well, you know. Succumbed to the customer-averse financial allure of enshittification.

And this tiny French governmental agency isn't alone: Equally small governmental agencies in Denmark (~400 employees) and the German state government of Schleswig-Holstein (~30,000 employees) had previously announced similar initiatives. These numbers are insignificant compared to the over one billion customers running Windows 11 worldwide, of course. But that's how avalanches can begin: A tiny snowball, picking up size and speed as gravity does its thing. Inertia is a powerful force whether you're big or small.

Behind these announcements is a broader call for the European Union (EU) and...