GendBuntu, Free Software, and Microsoft in the French Government

by Lucas & Alva Vially

Once called to testify on a police case, I came to visit a station of the gendarmerie (the French military rural police).

I was brought to a room where I sat down in front of an officer and waited for the interview to begin.  He booted his computer and I was surprised to see a uniformed Tux appear on the screen.  Dressed as a gendarme, the penguin was nested on the side of the GendBuntu desktop, which I came to learn to be the force's OS.

Discovering the use of free software in such a branch of the government was a surprise, especially in a country where Microsoft is so prominent among institutions.  Windows is the norm in public schools; the Office suite is used in most ministries... it is a partner of choice for the government, which has a tendency to favor the company.

In 2015, the Ministry of National Education accepted a consequent patronage from the tech giant, letting it provide free Office suites, Minecraft-themed coding exercises, training for the use of Windows products, and more.  It was contested by EduNation, a free software promotion group that criticized many aspects of the deal, such as the unfair advantage the company would gain by advertising itself in classes or how a "trust charter" was advertised as a priority to protect the data of students but was never actually signed.

In 2020, the French government launched the Health Data Hub, a platform meant to collect data from all relevant databases in order to be used for medical research.  Microsoft's Azure cloud was chosen to host the information.  Once again, the choice led to much criticism: no proper call for tenders was made, which some called illegal and the usual favoritism for the firm.  Microsoft is also subjected to the CLOUD Act, which authorizes the U.S. government to access all data hosted by American companies, a concerning point for the sovereignty of the French data.

Why does the French government have a tendency to turn to Microsoft when so many alternatives exist - when often, free software can be just as efficient?

Free software has an important advantage: it is, well, free.

The gendarmerie switched to GendBuntu at the end of Windows XP development.  The next logical move would have been to turn to Vista, but the cost of training and the purchase of licenses was one of the factors that motivated the change to a free OS.  According to early numbers shared by General Xavier Guimard, hundreds of millions of euros can be estimated to have been saved by the move.

While saving public money is a strong case against Microsoft, some can argue that the company often provides its services for free, like it did in 2015.  But the cost is a population for which digital education turns into Windows education, and the building of a monopoly in which one company's whims can have an impact on a country's entire society.

The decisions can make more sense when you see by whom they're made.

The current digital transition and telecommunications minister at the time of writing, Jean-Noël Barrot, has much more experience with money than technology.  An economics student, then an economics teacher, he later joined the National Assembly's finances commission.

When he was put in charge of the government's digital decisions, it looked like an off afterthought.  But most of his predecessors followed a similar path, and his ministry itself is just a branch of the Ministry of Economics and Finance.  He's in charge of the digital economy before anything else.

And when, most of the time, it is other branches of the government that deal with Microsoft (like the National Education Ministry), the decision-makers are once again not specialized in all the relevant fields.  Even though they are educated people who work with assistants with more specific knowledge, ministers might tend to see Microsoft from an economics or unquestioning viewpoint.

It is a powerful ally which pays back the favors it receives and has the means to stimulate the country's economy, it provides quality services, and its general expertise proves particularly useful when it is used systematically for all aspects of the government's digital life.

A one-fits-all partner with great services in cloud, office services, education, and more is all that's needed, and could outweigh the issues of cost, monopoly, and even data safety.  But when Microsoft has repeatedly been accused of tax evasion and accumulating hundreds of millions of euros in unpaid taxes, it might start to look like it isn't such a perfect friend, and like depending on it wasn't necessarily the soundest economical choice.

Years of decisions in favor of Microsoft have had an impact on the local digital landscape.

University students pay for expensive Office 365 licenses simply to take notes because their teachers instructed them to do so, unsuspecting that free and efficient alternatives like LibreOffice exist.  Schools and administrations have computers running on Windows to perform simple tasks that could be done with a Linux OS.  Microsoft products are everywhere, and many people can't even fathom that they're not a necessity.

Thankfully, some changes in the right direction could create a shift.

In 2021, Prime Minister Jean Castex communicated about the importance of the use of free software in ministries.  The SILL, a database of free software recommended by the government, has been growing for years and attests that more than 300 free software services and programs have been used in public administration.

The controversial Health Data Hub is set to be hosted by a French company by the end of 2025.  While announcements aren't worth much until they lead to actual progress, we can see that the actions of those who work for the use of Libre software can make a change.  Maybe that shift will eventually be important enough for Microsoft to have less power.

Not because we shouldn't ever need the firm, but because the room for options and alternatives is healthy for most of those involved, whether it's public finances, concurrent companies, or citizens.