| ▲ | input_sh 5 hours ago |
| Worth pointing out: France is not adopting existing open source software, they're building their own software and releasing it under the MIT licence. Most of it (or all of it?) is Django backend + React frontend (using a custom-built UI kit). Home page for the entire suite (in French) with some screenshots: https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/ Code bases are on GitHub and they use English there: https://github.com/suitenumerique/ Dev handbook (in English): https://suitenumerique.gitbook.io/handbook Not French and I can't say I personally tried deploying any of them, but I've been admiring their efforts from afar for a while now. |
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| ▲ | paulfitz 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I work at Grist, the "tableur collaboratif" (collaborative spreadsheet) listed on the La Suite homepage. We're in the interesting situation of being both a NYC-based company, and open source software the French gov has adopted and is helping to develop. Grist is mostly a node backend. So it is a complicated story. The key is having code the gov can review and trust and run it on sovereign infrastructure. Grist https://www.getgrist.com/ A write-up of how the French gov uses it https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-so... |
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| ▲ | mentalgear 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Kudos, Grist is great ! Super features, quite seamless only the UI could be more modern (or user stylesheet customizable) if you get to it. | |
| ▲ | sequoia 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | wow it reminds me of Microsoft Access, a great piece of software in terms of rapidly building an application! Does grist have forms? | | |
| ▲ | gpm an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Form support is touted on the homepage: https://www.getgrist.com/forms/ For what it's worth, which isn't much because this is probably outdated: I remember trying grist a few years ago and leaving mildly unimpressed with form support (I think because I was hoping to have image upload in the forms and that wasn't supported yet). | | |
| ▲ | paulfitz 13 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Grist forms support uploads since 2025 https://github.com/gristlabs/grist-core/pull/1655 Since it is relevant here: support for uploads was code written by a French contributor, and reviewed by a developer working for the French gov (ANCT/DINUM) and a developer working for Grist Labs. Grist Labs has since maintained and improved on it. The forms feature itself was inspired by an integration built by Camille Legeron at ANCT. |
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| ▲ | dylan604 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I'm not an MS dev type, but I've often seen these forms questions. What made their forms so easy, or more in general what is so complicated about forms that this was even a tool so many liked? | | |
| ▲ | znhll an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | MS Access was on its way out by the time I started working in software, but the simplest explanation I can give about why the "forms" question is this, let's say you're a business person and...: * You have a huge Excel document that's basically a DB. (What Access kinda was)
* You want users to interact with said data document, i.e add record, find/query record(s), edit records
* You add a "form" for users to do just that. You can also add a "login" form to give some users more permissions.
It's basically if you could turn a SQlite file into a low-coded desktop app. | | |
| ▲ | p_ing 44 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Access is an FE for db — JET Red, specifically. JET Blue aka ESE is currently used by products like Active Directory and Exchange. |
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| ▲ | inanutshellus an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | | With Access, a business doing data entry could -- with a business user not a software engineer -- craft a Form and voila, easy onboarding to train new employees instead of filling out sheets of paper and filing them. |
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| ▲ | flowerlad 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If you want forms try https://visualdb.com/ it is another tool that aims to be Microsoft Access | | |
| ▲ | mkl an hour ago | parent [-] | | Not open source though? | | |
| ▲ | flowerlad an hour ago | parent [-] | | Right but it is cheaper than open source products if you self-host. Most open source products in this space, including grist, are only partially open source. | | |
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| ▲ | 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | [deleted] |
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| ▲ | dbl000 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I've been using the docs tool in my homelab for ~3 months now as a knowledge base for some projects I've been working on with some friends. It's really good. The typing experience "feels" right and the collaboration features work. I haven't played with the other solutions yet but I'm very excited if they are up to the same standard. I deployed it with docker and it was relatively smooth. I had to play a bit with the OIDC but I'm pretty sure that was more a me issue than anything. |
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| ▲ | tombert 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I am certainly not going to complain about more well-funded FOSS software being out there. |
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| ▲ | WhyNotHugo 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > Code bases are on GitHub Not a very solid way to move away from American big tech :/ |
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| ▲ | cortesoft 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | If the move away from American big tech is for practical reasons rather than political, there is no harm in using GitHub. The worry with using an American firm is that the US government could force the company to handover confidential information, or shut down access. For open source code, there is no risk of confidential information being given to the US government (since there is no confidential information), and moving to another forge would be pretty simple if necessary. | |
| ▲ | bilekas 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The other commenter nailed it down. But I want to add that removing dependance on US companies is not some kind of spiteful act. It's purely down to both privacy and reliability. Having private companies in the US becoming more involved with politics is fine for the US apperantly, but the EU just don't want to be involved. | | |
| ▲ | jepj57 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | Open standards, private software is the way to go. It makes sense for any entity to control their own destiny. | |
| ▲ | nxm 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | As if EU doesn’t involve itself with software, policy and censorship which has its own inherent risks |
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| ▲ | bee_rider 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Maybe they have local copies as well, and just figured they might as well take GitHub’s free bandwidth and social networking features. | | | |
| ▲ | 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | alpha_squared 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | This is probably just the first big step (communications) in a series of big steps. | |
| ▲ | thrance 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I remember seeing some projects by the French government on their self-hosted Gitlab. Maybe these are just public mirrors of their private repos? |
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| ▲ | wolvoleo 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Hmmm not entirely true. The text chat of their suite is simply element.io (matrix) and they're paying them for development. Visio does seem built from scratch but I wonder if it's a temporary thing until element is feature complete with their move away from Jitsi. You can find more about la suite on their website and the opendesk one (German project using mostly the same software). Unfortunately I don't have the links to hand here. |
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| ▲ | Arathorn 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Tchap (the chat part of the suite) is indeed a fork of Element. Unfortunately they haven't funded upstream development for many years (otherwise both Element and Tchap would be much much better!) Visio (aka meet) began in parallel with Element's work on MatrixRTC and Element Call. Hopefully the two can converge, given they are both built on LiveKit. | | |
| ▲ | sylvinus 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | We do support the foundation: https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/dinum-... | | |
| ▲ | Arathorn 29 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yup, DINUM does support the Matrix Foundation, which is appreciated in terms of helping keeping Matrix itself alive and independent. However, this doesn't help support the folks improving & maintaining Element (either its clients or servers), which is the actual upstream product that Tchap is dependent on. Just like donating to the W3C doesn't help improve Firefox, if you were operationally dependent on a Firefox fork. |
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| ▲ | tabbott 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It really has been a huge disappointment the extent to which governments using open source projects for mission critical work go out of their way to avoid financially supporting them. How much better could open source alternatives to Teams be in this moment if only 1% of what Europe paid Microsoft for Teams went to investing in open alternatives? | |
| ▲ | dfex 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | It boggles the mind as to why they choose a name for this application that is very clearly a Microsoft trademark. In understand it's also the French word for Videoconferencing, but even still... | | |
| ▲ | KPGv2 an hour ago | parent [-] | | If French trademark law is even remotely close to US trademark law, it can't be applied to videoconferencing because you can't apply a trademark that is just the term for the category of product that is covered. So for example, I can't trademark "Apple" for my apple orchard. But I can trademark it for my computer company. Similarly, MS likely has chart visualization tools covered by "Visio" in France, but not telecommunications software. Trademarks aren't granted to a company for unrestricted use. They're granted for specific use. Like I can't found a computer company, get Apple trademarked, and then buy an orchard, use Apple for the orchard, and then sue every apple orchard for saying "XYZ Apples" in their name. It remains restricted to a specific use that was included in the initial application for TM. |
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| ▲ | aanet 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Refreshing and impressive indeed. I wish other governments did this, esp those that are larger / have a reasonably large tech scene (e.g. Northern Europe, Nordic, AUS, Japan, Canada, Germany, India, etc). It's time governments realize(d) that IT sector is as strategic as the Defense sector, which is usually/always given preferential treatment (e.g. Airbus, etc) and that they don;t have to be beholden to American tech behemoths. If this realization happened ~20 years ago, they might have stopped FB, Goog, Amazon, MSFT, etc. much earlier, and wouldn't be hand-wringing now trying to stop or delay the evil effects of social media. I am pleased that AUS has banned social media for teens < 16yrs, and perhaps Finland is thinking the same route. Already, China, Russia have their local tech companies supply their critical infra needs. Other governments should be wise enough to catch up, and not just to support + enhance local languages but to grow their critical ecosystem. |
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| ▲ | codethief 20 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | > Already, China, Russia have their local tech companies supply their critical infra needs. Other governments should be wise enough to catch up, and not just to support + enhance local languages but to grow their critical ecosystem. As a European, I agree. Zooming out a little, though, this whole decoupling process of entire economies (which has been well underway for a while) is going to increase the probability of armed conflict as the repercussions of military engagement will be lower. | |
| ▲ | snowpid 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Germany has https://www.opendesk.eu/de and https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund. both mentioned on HN | | |
| ▲ | irishcoffee 18 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Have Germany supplanted office for these alternatives? It’s super cool they exist, if they’re not used… I mean, it’s still super cool they exist? |
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| ▲ | Teever 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I agree with this totally. But while they certainly talk the talk I’m not totally convinced that European governments will actually walk the walk and follow through on this. To me a really significant signal that they’re serious will be when there’s an official Linux version of Solidworks. It’s remarkable to me that France has control over one of the premiere CAD suites but theyre entirely dependent on an American OS to use it. | | |
| ▲ | cianmm 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Why would a private company deciding to release a Linux version of their product signal a government's follow-through? As far as I can tell, there is no current connection between Solidworks and the French government. | | |
| ▲ | Teever 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Solidworks is produced by a company that is owned by the Dassault Group. There is always a connection between the military industrial complex of a nation and the state. If France feels that it is an existential threat they will not let the design and maintence of their weapons be dependent on an operating system produced by a company based out of a country that has threatened them. I'm not saying that this will happen. I'm saying that should this happen you know France is serious about eliminating dependencies on unreliable and threatening countries. | | |
| ▲ | bigfudge 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | EU have access to Windows source code. Presumably if the shit really hit the fan we'd have a European build without all the spy/crapware added? Not much of a consolation given we'd have to be on the brink of WW3 for it to happen... | |
| ▲ | irishcoffee 15 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | 500k and 3 really smart people can get solidworks running under wine in a few months. The barrier of entry seems pretty low. |
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| ▲ | MichaelRo 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Well I would definitely prefer to use globally popular established solutions like Zoom and Teams and the English language and America as a reliable democracy. Weather or not they get Greenland, Trump and his supporters in the US administration have changed the world. Guy should definitely get Nobel prize for pushing decentralization. | | |
| ▲ | bulbar 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Completely confused about which parts are sarcasm. Pretty sure the last sentence is and by this the rest must be as well. But oh boy in what kind of world do we live where you seriously can't tell easily anymore. |
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| ▲ | epistasis 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Looking through the resources you've linked is one of the most hopeful and awesome software experiences I have had in a while. There's a chance to unlock tremendous value for society here. Imagine if you could fix all the awful bugs making video conferencing software shitty for you! It's perhaps the most bug-plagued software out there in the world, with the highest number of complaints I have ever seen. We've had a large detour away from open-source running the core of the internet, at least outside of web pages, but this sort of software feels like we're getting back to the 90's and earlier. Vive la France! |
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| ▲ | philipallstar 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Zoom isn't buggy I wouldn't say. It's really good. | | |
| ▲ | epistasis 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | That's been my personal experience, but colleagues on Linux are continually fighting it. | | |
| ▲ | distances an hour ago | parent [-] | | I gave up on the native Zoom client on Linux right away, it was completely broken. It worked well enough on a browser to get through the project though. Same with Teams, the video calls work fine on a browser. You just can't use any background pictures or effects. | | |
| ▲ | prmoustache 12 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | > You just can't use any background pictures or effects. Thanksfully it is fairly easy to present a virtual webcam that is a composition of what your real physical webcam is showing and whatever background you want. | |
| ▲ | VorpalWay 33 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Teams in Firefox on Linux does work with backgrounds for me, and since a few months you can even upload custom backgrounds. Actual calling works well enough, I would say it is more stable than the native Windows client ever was. |
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| ▲ | Agingcoder 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | This one made me laugh , thanks ! I wish there was some kind of slashdot like ´funny’ tag |
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| ▲ | morshu9001 41 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Is there not a FOSS solution like this already that they could just deploy? |
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| ▲ | quadrifoliate 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Gotta give them props for all the English. I know that can't have been easy. Now they just need to change the name so it's not so obviously French, and invite collaboration from the other large EU countries. I wonder how many Dutch or German will think of "La Suite Numerique" as an EU-wide office suite. |
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| ▲ | input_sh 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | That website is specifically to explain it to French audiences. German version is here, but unlike France they're mostly boosting already-existing German open source software (like Nextcloud and Open Xchange): https://opencode.de/en/home I don't know how the Netherlands really fits into all of this, but I know they're one of the biggest funders of open source projects in general via NLnet. Seriously, their list of projects they've given money to is ridiculously comprehensive, you're going to struggle naming some that are not listed here: https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html | | | |
| ▲ | 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | latexr 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > Gotta give them props for all the English. I know that can't have been easy. Why not? Plenty of French people speak English at a native level. | | |
| ▲ | phito an hour ago | parent [-] | | As a francophone, I can tell you that the vast majority doesn't. | | |
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| ▲ | Aeolun an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I like how they go to digital sovereignty on office. And then immediately turn around an host on Github. |
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| ▲ | caycep 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I mean if they're half as good as Handbrake and VLC I'm up for trying |
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| ▲ | isisjcisncjanc an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| [dead] |
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| ▲ | mrits 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| 0% chance of working out |
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| ▲ | input_sh 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | > Used each month by more than 500 000 staff, in 15 ministries and many administrations. | | |
| ▲ | mrits 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Right. Just like edge is used on 100% of windows | | |
| ▲ | input_sh 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Okay fine, I'll take the bait. How do you define "working out" to conclude that there's 0% chance of it? | |
| ▲ | iamacyborg 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | You think government staff just use whatever software they want? |
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