00:00France is ditching Windows on a very big scale.
00:03They're moving 2.5 million government PCs to the open-source system Linux.
00:08It's not because Macron hates Outlook or Excel, though.
00:11It's part of a wider French push for more digital sovereignty,
00:15meaning reducing the country's digital dependencies.
00:20Right now, European countries, including Germany, are kind of trapped.
00:24Chips, cloud storage and code – most of it is provided from companies abroad.
00:28And this isn't just about administration.
00:31U.S. tech is the backbone of Europe's cybersecurity and military.
00:35If your payment systems, your energy grid or your weapons run on tech you can't fix or control,
00:41the provider has a potential kill switch.
00:43And what happens to the data the systems process?
00:46The cooling of relations with the U.S. under Trump has brought the whole issue even more into the European
00:51focus.
00:52Yet there is no easy fix.
00:54There are coordinated initiatives like Eurostack and even a Declaration of Digital Independence signed by many EU companies.
01:02But it will be a long road to switch to alternative software and it will be even harder to build
01:08the necessary infrastructure.
01:10France sees itself as the European front-runner.
01:12The country is set to spend billions on digital transformation until 2030 for programs like the EU's Digital Decade Roadmap.
01:21By the way, replacing Windows on millions of government computers might save costs in the long run.
01:26Linux has already been rolled out to over 100,000 computers in the Gendarmerie Nationale.
01:32This move saves 2 million euros a year on license fees alone, according to government figures.
01:37phив brothersены
01:38Final
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