I wanted to spotlight a quietly massive success story in European digital sovereignty: GendBuntu - France’s custom Ubuntu distribution used by the National Gendarmerie.
The GendBuntu project derives from Microsoft’s decision to end the development of Windows XP Back in 2005, France’s Gendarmerie began switching from Microsoft products to open-source software - starting with OpenOffice. Fast forward to 2024, and GendBuntu(Linux) is now running on 97% of their workstations (over 103,000 computers!).
France has shown what’s possible when a government actually backs open-source, in-house, and EU-grown solutions.
More countries should follow suit.
I found just one, and it’s some time ago :-)
French police move from Windows to Ubuntu Linux – (October 2013)
In other news:
Yet another European government is ditching Microsoft for Linux: Schleswig-Holstein - Germany’s most northern state - switches to Linux and Open Source - (June 2025)
And:
Why Denmark is dumping Microsoft Office and Windows for LibreOffice and Linux - (June 2025)