The digital department in France will switch from Windows to Linux and the State is embarking on a major project to reduce "extra-European digital dependence"»

The subject of digital sovereignty has been a major issue in the public debate since the beginning of 2026 in the face of a hypothesis: what if the United States cut off access to some of its technologies in Europe?

In France, the Prime Minister has tasked the Interministerial Digital Directorate (DINUM) with "reducing the State's extra-European digital dependencies". It is this body that supervises the IT equipment and the deployment of services to the various State administrations.

The first target is now known: Windows.

The switch to Linux has begun

In a press release published on Wednesday, April 8, we learn that the DINUM will migrate workstations to Linux.

The Interministerial Digital Directorate is therefore inspired by the work carried out by the French gendarmerie. The latter has been running successfully on Linux since 2008.

Recently, it was the Directorate General of Public Finances (DGFiP) that raised the idea of a transition from Windows to Linux-based systems for its services.

Strengthening French solutions

That's not all, the DINUM reminds us that administrations can switch to sovereign solutions such as the tools of the Digital Suite. It offers equivalents to the services of web giants such as Google. For example, Google Meet is replaced by Visio.

All administrations are concerned

Moving machines from DINUM to Linux is one thing, but what about the rest of the administrations and the State? The DINUM announces an interministerial plan to "reduce extra-European dependencies".

In concrete terms: "Each ministry (including operators) will be required to formalize its own plan by the autumn, focusing on the following areas: workstations, collaborative tools, anti-virus, artificial intelligence, databases, virtualization, network equipment. »

A major project whose progress will have to be observed over the months.