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Software Freedom / Digital Sovereignty: Copyleft, France, and "More confessions from a FOSS enthusiast"
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Software Freedom Conservancy ☛ AGPLv3§7¶4 Empowers Users to Thwart Badgeware
This article discusses a current-headlines situation regarding Affero General Public License, version 3, Section 3, paragraph 4 (AGPLv3§7¶4.). I begin however with an explanation of the problem that clause sought to solve and how the clause works. This may seem an estoric license issue, but in fact this issue regularly impacts users today — particularly with the advent of “badgeware” (software that allows redistribution but includes annoying advertising that cannot be removed). Hopefully, this explanation helps readers understand the importance of the issue and gain vigilance when reviewing potential “further restrictions” placed on their copylefted software.
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April ☛ Free Software : Will the DINUM Trigger Meaningful Change in the French State ?
The French Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs (DINUM) organized on April 8th, 2026, an interministerial seminar with the purpose of "reinforcing the collective dynamic to reduce extra-european digital dependencies". In it's press release, the DINUM announced several things, including the soon to come migration of their staff's work stations on a free system. 1
This seminar was organized at the initiative of the Prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, of the minister in charge of the budget and public action, David Amiel, and the minister in charge of artificial intelligence and digital affairs, Anne Le Hénanff. When she was member of Parliament, Anne Le Hénanff was the co-author of a parliamentary report "on the challenges of cybersecurity" that warned against "the Microsoft trap"
The DINUM's press release lists several commitments : [...]
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Joel Chrono ☛ More confessions from a FOSS enthusiast
Well, controversial decisions happen on an individual level as well so, whatever, I’ll just share some more of those. Make sure to check the first one though, most of them are still valid…
Linux Magazine:
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France Says "Au Revoir" to Microsoft » Linux Magazine
Au revoir, Windows. Bonjour, Linux.
That's right, France is cutting ties with US technology, beginning with Microsoft, and it plans on migrating the government to Linux.
TechCrunch was one of the first to report this story, where it stated that French minister David Amiel said (translated) France's goal was “to regain control of our digital destiny” and that the "French government can no longer accept that it doesn’t have control over its data and digital infrastructure."
This is part of a broader movement across Europe toward digital sovereignty and the reduction of dependency on foreign providers, which began in January when the European Parliament voted in favor of a report to direct the EU Commission (EC) to help reduce its reliance on technology providers from other nations.
The first piece of software to get the ax from the EC was Microsoft Teams. In its place came Visio, which is based on open source and was created in France.
According to one Reddit post, France will adopt a hardened Linux distribution that is based on NixOS. According to that same post, the migration will be modest, starting with only 234 agents at the DINUM (Interministerial Digital Directorate).