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HOW EASY IS IT TO MOVE FROM MICROSOFT?

TECHNICALLY: Very feasible. Strong FOSS alternatives exist for everything:
Windows → Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora)

Office → OnlyOffice, LibreOffice

Exchange/Teams → Matrix/Element, Nextcloud

SQL Server → PostgreSQL, MariaDB

Benefits: No per-seat licenses, data sovereignty, transparent security, longer hardware life, no forced obsolescence.

THE REAL CHALLENGE: Organizational, not technical

Legacy Windows-only apps & VBA macros (need rewriting or VMs)

User retraining & change management (people lose muscle memory)

Political will & leadership commitment (critical!)

External partner expectations (.docx, Outlook, Teams)

SUCCESS FACTORS (proven by Lyon & Gendarmerie):
• Strong political backing at highest levels
• Adequate budget & realistic timeline
• Comprehensive training programs
• Willingness to maintain hybrid systems during transition
• Local/regional procurement (Lyon: 100% French contractors)

CURRENT MOMENTUM:
Denmark, Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), Netherlands, Italy, and Slovenia are all pursuing similar digital sovereignty initiatives through FOSS

Bottom line: #France proves that digital sovereignty through open source works at massive scale (103K+ workstations). They're not reinventing wheels—they're making smart use of mature, proven technology with European hosting and governance.

Lyon Register article: theregister.com/2025/06/26/lyo…

#OpenSource #DigitalSovereignty #Linux #FOSS #France #Lyon #PublicSector #Ubuntu #Matrix #GendBuntu #Europe #Microsoft

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French city of Lyon ditching Microsoft for open source office and collab tools

: Ingredients of future software salade Lyonnaise will include Linux, PostgreSQL, and OnlyOffice

^{Simon Sharwood (The Register)}

Eh, pls #boost my request to #getfedihired, if you could spare two clicks? 🥺

I've been humming and hawing about posting this, it feels strange, something about generational guilt & working class shame & ... but it's either this or start putting my CV through LLMs to include every buzzword on the listing I'm applying to. I haven't been able to stomach that, even though I presume that's a lot of my competition.

I simply can't get to an interview. Historically, I've done three interviews and got the job each time, because I'm a real human being who is friendly and chatty and presents himself sincerely (or, that's my guess, anyway).

#Christmas miracles appreciated!

In #Ireland with my partner, but we've lived in different places and would move happily. I've a year experience doing an IT support role the last year, but have transitioned to this stuff later than usual.

Before I've done: bartender; bicycle courier for Deliveroo in #Berlin for two years (best job ever); private tutor for five years in #Lyon (mostly piano but also maths, Irish, English, flute, tin whistle); bookies clerk for a short period; a few other odd bits - one highlight was writing reviews for a theatre company.

Oh, very comfortably fluent in #French, pretty fluent in #Irish (my first love), and intermediate #German (which I would love to have a chance to go back speaking and learning).

Tech-wise, it's been mostly on the #Linux / #Emacs / #Lisp side of things. I would happily work on anything that is one or more of challenging, interesting, useful, or moral.

Money doesn't rule me. I want to live with a humane level of comfort, that's all.

CVs and references available, DMs open. Thanks so much for any and all help!

The French city of #Lyon will also be replacing Microsoft for #opensource solutions. Really curious what #Linux distro they will choose 👀

Also featured; #Jitsi for video conferencing, #Nextcloud paired with #OnlyOffice for document sharing and co-editing, #Zimbra for email, #Chamilo for online training, and #Matrix for instant messaging. 🔥

news.itsfoss.com/french-city-r…

French City of Lyon Kicks Out Microsoft

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

^{Sourav Rudra (It's FOSS News)}

New hardcore #PDF rendering performance benchmark for #Poppler:
"Jesus Christ it's a #Lyon (map), get in the car!"

That map takes 26 seconds to render with Poppler on #Linux, but only 6 seconds with PDFjs, or 15 seconds with XPDF: gitlab.freedesktop.org/poppler…

I've profiled the issue on the various Poppler rendering backends, and there are some hypotheses about the slowness. If anyone can help fix this, that would be fantastic.

#Okular #GNOMEPapers #Evince #Sysprof #profiling