8 ms·

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

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/ https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/ Code bases are on GitHub and they use English there: https://github.com/suitenumerique/ https://github.com/suitenumerique/ Dev handbook (in English): https://suitenumerique.gitbook.io/handbook 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.

aanet 8mo ago
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.
- MichaelRo 8mo ago
  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 8mo ago
    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.
    - yunnpp 8mo ago
      To be fair, Trump seems to be doing more for software freedom and against rent-seeking US monopolies than any previous president. Not saying he's doing it intentionally, but he is doing it. Heck, maybe he applies that policy domestically and US software companies flourish once again without the grip of big tech and unfair business practices that starve their competition. Right to repair, reverse-engineering and modding coming very soon...
    - MichaelRo 8mo ago
      First sentence is genuine and the last, with the Nobel prize, it's sarcasm, so you nailed it. But it confused a lot of Sheldons based on the number of downvotes I received.
- Teever 8mo ago
  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 8mo ago
    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 8mo ago
      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 8mo ago
        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...
        LostMyWords 8mo ago
        I'm out of the loop, how does the EU have access to Windows source code?
- snowpid 8mo ago
  Germany has https://www.opendesk.eu/de https://www.opendesk.eu/de and https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund. both mentioned on HN
  - irishcoffee 8mo ago
    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?
  - aanet 8mo ago
    I had known about the OpenDesk, but the Sovereign Tech Fund is new to me. Glad to hear that it exists... Does anyone know if the German govt has mandated the use of OPenDesk (and its like) across its internal use? I faintly recall there being a Linux distro (?) that was supported by German fed?
- codethief 8mo ago
  > 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.
wolvoleo 8mo ago
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.
- Arathorn 8mo ago
  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.
  - tabbott 8mo ago
    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?
  - sylvinus 8mo ago
    We do support the foundation: https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/dinum-soutien-fondation-matrixorg/ https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/dinum-...
    - Arathorn 8mo ago
      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.
tombert 8mo ago
I am certainly not going to complain about more well-funded FOSS software being out there.
dbl000 8mo ago
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.
quadrifoliate 8mo ago
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.
- input_sh 8mo ago
  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 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 https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html
  - econ 8mo ago
    je maintiendrai!
  - Vinnl 8mo ago
    FWIW, NLNet is distributing EU funds, not Dutch funds. That said, the Dutch government is collaborating with La Suite (fr) and OpenDesk (de): https://minbzk.github.io/mijn-bureau/ https://minbzk.github.io/mijn-bureau/
- latexr 8mo ago
  > 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 8mo ago
    As a francophone, I can tell you that the vast majority doesn't.
paulfitz 8mo ago
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/ https://www.getgrist.com/ A write-up of how the French gov uses it https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/grist-joins-suite-numerique-public-administration https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-so...
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
- sequoia 8mo ago
  wow it reminds me of Microsoft Access, a great piece of software in terms of rapidly building an application! Does grist have forms?
  - flowerlad 8mo ago
    If you want forms try https://visualdb.com/ https://visualdb.com/ it is another tool that aims to be Microsoft Access
    - mkl 8mo ago
      Not open source though?
      - flowerlad 8mo ago
        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.
        paulfitz 8mo ago
mrits 8mo ago
0% chance of working out
- input_sh 8mo ago
  > Used each month by more than 500 000 staff, in 15 ministries and many administrations.
  - mrits 8mo ago
    Right. Just like edge is used on 100% of windows
    - input_sh 8mo ago
      Okay fine, I'll take the bait. How do you define "working out" to conclude that there's 0% chance of it?
    - iamacyborg 8mo ago
      You think government staff just use whatever software they want?
epistasis 8mo ago
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!
- Agingcoder 8mo ago
  This one made me laugh , thanks ! I wish there was some kind of slashdot like ´funny’ tag
- philipallstar 8mo ago
  Zoom isn't buggy I wouldn't say. It's really good.
  - epistasis 8mo ago
    That's been my personal experience, but colleagues on Linux are continually fighting it.
    - distances 8mo ago
      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.
      - VorpalWay 8mo ago
        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.
WhyNotHugo 8mo ago
> Code bases are on GitHub Not a very solid way to move away from American big tech :/
- alpha_squared 8mo ago
  This is probably just the first big step (communications) in a series of big steps.
- bee_rider 8mo ago
  Maybe they have local copies as well, and just figured they might as well take GitHub’s free bandwidth and social networking features.
  - dkga 8mo ago
    Next year: LeGit !
    - amarant 8mo ago
      I propose gitgud.eu
      - irishcoffee 8mo ago
        Foul tarnished, I have given thee courtesy enough.
        chupasaurus 8mo ago
        The full phrase is older than Demon Souls.
    - bilekas 8mo ago
      Or GitOobe.. although I like the idea of ÜberGit.eu
      - 8mo ago
caycep 8mo ago
I mean if they're half as good as Handbrake and VLC I'm up for trying
isisjcisncjanc 8mo ago
[dead]
Aeolun 8mo ago
I like how they go to digital sovereignty on office. And then immediately turn around an host on Github.
morshu9001 8mo ago
Is there not a FOSS solution like this already that they could just deploy?
andai 8mo ago
Here's what I gathered: - TChap - Group chat (looks like Slack / Discord) - Visio - Video meetings - FranceTransfert - File Transfer - Messagerie - Email client - Fichiers - Cloud file storage - Docs - Grist - Spreadsheet
mickael-kerjean 8mo ago
> France is not adopting existing open source software As a Frenchman, this stings. I have been working since 2017 in creating an open source alternative to Dropbox (https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash), the reality is out of 60 customers, only 2 are French and most contacts I've had with French entities only shown interest onto open source because they were not willing to spend a dime on anything. Customers are mostly US entities and other countries in Europe. The gist is our technology is already working accross every possible storage technology and every identity provider, has a clean modern UI, has gateway capabilities to expose your data with open protocols like SFTP, FTP, S3, MCP, with virtual filesystem capabilities that enables a decentralized approach through federation and tons of other advanced setup, is deployed in production in places like US military, MIT, European Commission and many other othher high profile places. We just launched https://www.filestash.eu https://www.filestash.eu a few days ago hoping to talk to people in France who are interested in translating the talk of data sovereignty onto actual actions. If anybody who is reading this is truly interested onto a sovereign Dropbox and is willing to put talks onto a concrete reality, reach out to me, I'd love to talk to you
- munksbeer 8mo ago
  Is your filestash.eu website intentionally only in French?
  - mickael-kerjean 8mo ago
    Yes, the international website is: https://www.filestash.app/ https://www.filestash.app/
- buibuibui 8mo ago
  This looks interesting. Does it also has desktop sync clients? Didn't read anything in that direction while glancing over.
  - mickael-kerjean 8mo ago
    yes there are a few options there as well
badsectoracula 8mo ago
AFAIK - and what is mentioned at the bottom here[0] - La Suite is a joint effort by French and German (and others) governments. I did try a local installation of Docs when i first saw the project a few months ago (i do not remember if it was posted here or on Reddit, though i think one of the developers posted in the comments wherever i saw it), it seems fine though it did feel a bit sparse for all the docker containers it expected from me to setup. I guess for an organization this might be ok, but it did feel a bit overengineered, especially since the actual functionality doesn't seem to be much (and the core editor isn't even written by them). [0] https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs
YousefED 8mo ago
I work on BlockNote (https://www.blocknotejs.org https://www.blocknotejs.org), the block-based editor that powers Docs (https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs). 1.5 year ago DINUM (La Suite) and OpenDesk (Germany) reached out and started sponsoring quite a bit of our work which has really helped us accelerate the project
- trcf23 8mo ago
  Do they have an impact on the roadmap? Like special features for gov work or specific integration? And I believe BlockNote uses tiptap/prosemirror, no? Do they also contribute to those “primitives”? That would be a very nice gift to the OSS community
  - YousefED 8mo ago
    They're pretty mindful of sponsoring things that also works for us. I.e.: we try to align both our roadmaps as good as possible. We're discussing how to work best with downstream dependencies as well. So far they're actively sponsoring Yjs, but not prosemirror/tt. fyi, here are some early thoughts by the PM of Docs on how to collaborate between public sector and OSS (companies): https://github.com/virgile-dev/playbook-work-with-oss-libraries/ https://github.com/virgile-dev/playbook-work-with-oss-librar... (we surely don't check all the boxes yet, but it's good to have the discussion!). Feel free to jump in!
Bendy 8mo ago
Should’ve called it OuiChat
MagicMoonlight 8mo ago
That is awesome

aanet 8mo ago

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.

MichaelRo 8mo ago
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 8mo ago
  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.
  - yunnpp 8mo ago
    To be fair, Trump seems to be doing more for software freedom and against rent-seeking US monopolies than any previous president. Not saying he's doing it intentionally, but he is doing it. Heck, maybe he applies that policy domestically and US software companies flourish once again without the grip of big tech and unfair business practices that starve their competition. Right to repair, reverse-engineering and modding coming very soon...
  - MichaelRo 8mo ago
    First sentence is genuine and the last, with the Nobel prize, it's sarcasm, so you nailed it. But it confused a lot of Sheldons based on the number of downvotes I received.
Teever 8mo ago
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 8mo ago
  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 8mo ago
    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 8mo ago
      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...
      - LostMyWords 8mo ago
        I'm out of the loop, how does the EU have access to Windows source code?
snowpid 8mo ago
Germany has https://www.opendesk.eu/de https://www.opendesk.eu/de and https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund https://www.sovereign.tech/programs/fund. both mentioned on HN
- irishcoffee 8mo ago
  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?
- aanet 8mo ago
  I had known about the OpenDesk, but the Sovereign Tech Fund is new to me. Glad to hear that it exists... Does anyone know if the German govt has mandated the use of OPenDesk (and its like) across its internal use? I faintly recall there being a Linux distro (?) that was supported by German fed?
codethief 8mo ago
> 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.

wolvoleo 8mo ago

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.

Arathorn 8mo ago
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.
- tabbott 8mo ago
  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?
- sylvinus 8mo ago
  We do support the foundation: https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/dinum-soutien-fondation-matrixorg/ https://www.numerique.gouv.fr/sinformer/espace-presse/dinum-...
  - Arathorn 8mo ago
    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.

tombert 8mo ago

I am certainly not going to complain about more well-funded FOSS software being out there.

dbl000 8mo ago

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.

quadrifoliate 8mo ago

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.

input_sh 8mo ago
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 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 https://nlnet.nl/project/index.html
- econ 8mo ago
  je maintiendrai!
- Vinnl 8mo ago
  FWIW, NLNet is distributing EU funds, not Dutch funds. That said, the Dutch government is collaborating with La Suite (fr) and OpenDesk (de): https://minbzk.github.io/mijn-bureau/ https://minbzk.github.io/mijn-bureau/
latexr 8mo ago
> 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 8mo ago
  As a francophone, I can tell you that the vast majority doesn't.

paulfitz 8mo ago

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/ https://www.getgrist.com/ A write-up of how the French gov uses it https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/news/grist-joins-suite-numerique-public-administration https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-so...

deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]
sequoia 8mo ago
wow it reminds me of Microsoft Access, a great piece of software in terms of rapidly building an application! Does grist have forms?
- flowerlad 8mo ago
  If you want forms try https://visualdb.com/ https://visualdb.com/ it is another tool that aims to be Microsoft Access
  - mkl 8mo ago
    Not open source though?
    - flowerlad 8mo ago
      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.
      - paulfitz 8mo ago

mrits 8mo ago

0% chance of working out

input_sh 8mo ago
> Used each month by more than 500 000 staff, in 15 ministries and many administrations.
- mrits 8mo ago
  Right. Just like edge is used on 100% of windows
  - input_sh 8mo ago
    Okay fine, I'll take the bait. How do you define "working out" to conclude that there's 0% chance of it?
  - iamacyborg 8mo ago
    You think government staff just use whatever software they want?

epistasis 8mo ago

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!

Agingcoder 8mo ago
This one made me laugh , thanks ! I wish there was some kind of slashdot like ´funny’ tag
philipallstar 8mo ago
Zoom isn't buggy I wouldn't say. It's really good.
- epistasis 8mo ago
  That's been my personal experience, but colleagues on Linux are continually fighting it.
  - distances 8mo ago
    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.
    - VorpalWay 8mo ago
      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.

WhyNotHugo 8mo ago

> Code bases are on GitHub Not a very solid way to move away from American big tech :/

alpha_squared 8mo ago
This is probably just the first big step (communications) in a series of big steps.
bee_rider 8mo ago
Maybe they have local copies as well, and just figured they might as well take GitHub’s free bandwidth and social networking features.
- dkga 8mo ago
  Next year: LeGit !
  - amarant 8mo ago
    I propose gitgud.eu
    - irishcoffee 8mo ago
      Foul tarnished, I have given thee courtesy enough.
      - chupasaurus 8mo ago
        The full phrase is older than Demon Souls.
  - bilekas 8mo ago
    Or GitOobe.. although I like the idea of ÜberGit.eu
    - 8mo ago

caycep 8mo ago

I mean if they're half as good as Handbrake and VLC I'm up for trying

isisjcisncjanc 8mo ago

[dead]

Aeolun 8mo ago

I like how they go to digital sovereignty on office. And then immediately turn around an host on Github.

morshu9001 8mo ago

Is there not a FOSS solution like this already that they could just deploy?

andai 8mo ago

Here's what I gathered: - TChap - Group chat (looks like Slack / Discord) - Visio - Video meetings - FranceTransfert - File Transfer - Messagerie - Email client - Fichiers - Cloud file storage - Docs - Grist - Spreadsheet

mickael-kerjean 8mo ago

> France is not adopting existing open source software As a Frenchman, this stings. I have been working since 2017 in creating an open source alternative to Dropbox (https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash), the reality is out of 60 customers, only 2 are French and most contacts I've had with French entities only shown interest onto open source because they were not willing to spend a dime on anything. Customers are mostly US entities and other countries in Europe. The gist is our technology is already working accross every possible storage technology and every identity provider, has a clean modern UI, has gateway capabilities to expose your data with open protocols like SFTP, FTP, S3, MCP, with virtual filesystem capabilities that enables a decentralized approach through federation and tons of other advanced setup, is deployed in production in places like US military, MIT, European Commission and many other othher high profile places. We just launched https://www.filestash.eu https://www.filestash.eu a few days ago hoping to talk to people in France who are interested in translating the talk of data sovereignty onto actual actions. If anybody who is reading this is truly interested onto a sovereign Dropbox and is willing to put talks onto a concrete reality, reach out to me, I'd love to talk to you

munksbeer 8mo ago
Is your filestash.eu website intentionally only in French?
- mickael-kerjean 8mo ago
  Yes, the international website is: https://www.filestash.app/ https://www.filestash.app/
buibuibui 8mo ago
This looks interesting. Does it also has desktop sync clients? Didn't read anything in that direction while glancing over.
- mickael-kerjean 8mo ago
  yes there are a few options there as well

badsectoracula 8mo ago

AFAIK - and what is mentioned at the bottom here[0] - La Suite is a joint effort by French and German (and others) governments. I did try a local installation of Docs when i first saw the project a few months ago (i do not remember if it was posted here or on Reddit, though i think one of the developers posted in the comments wherever i saw it), it seems fine though it did feel a bit sparse for all the docker containers it expected from me to setup. I guess for an organization this might be ok, but it did feel a bit overengineered, especially since the actual functionality doesn't seem to be much (and the core editor isn't even written by them). [0] https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs

YousefED 8mo ago

I work on BlockNote (https://www.blocknotejs.org https://www.blocknotejs.org), the block-based editor that powers Docs (https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs https://github.com/suitenumerique/docs). 1.5 year ago DINUM (La Suite) and OpenDesk (Germany) reached out and started sponsoring quite a bit of our work which has really helped us accelerate the project

trcf23 8mo ago
Do they have an impact on the roadmap? Like special features for gov work or specific integration? And I believe BlockNote uses tiptap/prosemirror, no? Do they also contribute to those “primitives”? That would be a very nice gift to the OSS community
- YousefED 8mo ago
  They're pretty mindful of sponsoring things that also works for us. I.e.: we try to align both our roadmaps as good as possible. We're discussing how to work best with downstream dependencies as well. So far they're actively sponsoring Yjs, but not prosemirror/tt. fyi, here are some early thoughts by the PM of Docs on how to collaborate between public sector and OSS (companies): https://github.com/virgile-dev/playbook-work-with-oss-libraries/ https://github.com/virgile-dev/playbook-work-with-oss-librar... (we surely don't check all the boxes yet, but it's good to have the discussion!). Feel free to jump in!

Bendy 8mo ago

Should’ve called it OuiChat

MagicMoonlight 8mo ago

That is awesome