petersuberJul 5, 2025

The French city of Lyon is dropping #Microsoft software in favor of #OpenSource alternatives. It doesn't want to depend on proprietary, closed-source software, and it doesn't want to depend on *American* software. It doesn't want "potential [US] governmental surveillance."
https://news.itsfoss.com/french-city-replaces-microsoft/

PS: It seems clear that #Trump is playing a role here. While he uses tariffs to boost American companies, he scares foreign buyers away from American companies, at least software companies that collect user data. He's creating a #TikTok problem for American software. Microsoft didn't help itself on this front by giving $1 million to the Trump inauguration.

BTW, many other US closed-source software companies gave $1m to the Trump inauguration, among them Adobe, Amazon, Google, Meta, and Perplexity.

French City of Lyon Kicks Out Microsoft

Microsoft faces growing rejection in Europe whereas open source software sees growing adaption.

It's FOSS News
Show threadpetersuberSep 28, 2025

Update. "#Austria's military has switched from #MicrosoftOffice to #LibreOffice. The move was all about digital sovereignty, not cost savings. Other governments are moving away from Microsoft to protect their citizens' privacy."
https://www.zdnet.com/article/this-european-military-just-ditched-microsoft-for-open-source-libreoffice-heres-why/

#OpenSource #Privacy #Surveillance #USPol #USPolitics

This European military just ditched Microsoft for open-source LibreOffice - here's why

It's not about the cost savings, either. Many government organizations are replacing Microsoft software for a more important reason.

ZDNET
Show threadAdventureTenseSep 28, 2025

@petersuber Interesting read. Thanks for sharing.

Like the Austrian Military has successfully done, I hope that when other sizeable organizations migrate to LibreOffice (which is fantastic), that they still maintain a reasonable budget for funding FOSS donations.

(edited to correct my misunderstanding of the article, as posted by @jedbrown )

#FOSS #OpenSource #LibreOffice

Show threadJed Brown

@adventure_tense
Yes. The article shows how they've been practicing good stewardship:

> Austria isn't just replacing Microsoft software. Unlike typical public-sector and corporate migrations, Austria's military has heavily invested in LibreOffice development itself. The armed forces have been funding the creation of new features and improvements that are now included in public releases. These additions, ranging from improved slideshow editing to better handling of pivot tables, have been rolled into the latest version of LibreOffice.

@petersuber

Sep 28, 2025 at 5:06pmWeb
Show threadAdventureTenseSep 28, 2025

@jedbrown @petersuber
Interesting. The entire "Years in the Making" section at the bottom doesn't show up on my phone, but does so on my computer.

I'll update my original post to clarify. I appreciate the feedback.

Show threadJanPVSep 29, 2025
@jedbrown How fascinating! If only they could also stop images dancing around at random within documents! 😂
Show threadLinux and praxis: part of the resistance 🇵🇸 ☮️Sep 29, 2025

@jedbrown @adventure_tense @petersuber

US military doesn't trust M$ either:

https://archiveos.org/tens/

https://archive.org/details/tens-3.0.3.1-public

LPS>TENS

TENS

Web site: spi.dod.mil/lipose.htm (not active) Origin: USA Category: Specialist Desktop environment: Xfce Architecture: x86, x86_64 Based on: Thinstation Wikipedia: Media: Live CD The last version |…

ArchiveOS