4 ms·

Great to see this on HN. fyi, La Suite is an umbrella project built by DINUM in France that started several years ago, mainly to enable people in the public adm

Great to see this on HN. fyi, La Suite is an umbrella project built by DINUM in France that started several years ago, mainly to enable people in the public administration to use more independent tools. It's built in-house, often on top of other open source technologies. E.g.: Matrix powers chat and LiveKit powers Visio (which was recently featured on HN as well when they announced it's rolled out to replace Zoom / Teams, etc [1]) I'm fortunate to be collaborating with them as their Docs product is built on top of our open source BlockNote text editor (https://www.blocknotejs.org https://www.blocknotejs.org). Docs specifically started as an international collaboration with Germany [2] to explore how different EU countries can collaborate in building sovereign workplace solutions (several other countries including NL have shown interest as well). They're actively supporting us, and related projects like Yjs (https://yjs.dev https://yjs.dev) by sponsoring feature development. I'm sure many of the team members will follow along here as well! Happy to answer any questions. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873294 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46873294 [2] https://www.zendis.de/en https://www.zendis.de/en

nickthesick 8mo ago
Glad to be working as part of this initiative too!
- nhatcher 8mo ago
  Hi! Congratulations to you and Yousef. And I am lucky enough to be in a position from learning from both of you. Anyone think what they might about La Suite, but blocknote is a solid product!
  - nickthesick 8mo ago
    Very much appreciated! We put a lot of effort into it!
drstewart 8mo ago
[flagged]
- Gud 8mo ago
  That's the hacker spirit!
  - drstewart 8mo ago
    [flagged]
    - saubeidl 8mo ago
      Real hackers care about open source software.
      - ipaddr 8mo ago
        Real hackers don't necessarily care about open source software. Closed source offers more low hanging fruit attack vectors.
        Gud 8mo ago
        Hacker, as in capable… not as the media redefined term
        ipaddr 8mo ago
        Was referring to an actual hacker who does look for holes in systems not the 60s idealist version of a hacker as someone who plays nor the media evil shadowly character.
        saubeidl 8mo ago
        I was referring to a hacker as Stallman would've used the term. This sorta stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture > Richard Stallman explains about hackers who program: > What they had in common was mainly love of excellence and programming. They wanted to make their programs that they used be as good as they could. They also wanted to make them do neat things. They wanted to be able to do something in a more exciting way than anyone believed possible and show "Look how wonderful this is. I bet you didn't believe this could be done."
mmooss 8mo ago
The description of the Docs project, at least on the OP page, is interesting: "A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React." An office suite's 'docs' component is usually a word processor and people sometimes try to (mis)use it for the functions you actually list - i.e., you can try to use Word as a wiki, linking pages somehow, but it's not nearly as efficient as a purpose-built wiki. Based on the quote description, it looks like your project inverted the thinking: Is word processing not a/the primary function? Are the other functions truly prioritized - e.g., is the wiki somewhat as efficient as MediaWiki?
- nickthesick 8mo ago
  I think that the point of the project is more: “Content over form” so you don’t really need all the formatting options of something like Word when you are just trying to write meeting notes. They are definitely trending more towards a wiki, but it is still early days for this whole experiment. Though, many of the municipalities in the French gov are using it for their day to day work so it is clearly useful in some capacity. I don’t have numbers, but it’s definitely respectable
- YousefED 8mo ago
  Think of Docs more of a modern, kind of Notion-style collaboration tool. It's not meant to be a Word replacement for full-scale document authoring (I believe La Suite will work with LibreOffice for that, but might be wrong here). The product vision is that Docs should focus on "Content over Form"; i.e.: make it easy to create well-structured documents (content), as opposed to Word which makes it easy to change every little visual detail of your document (form). In addition, there are some advanced integrations with other products in La Suite. For example, video calls made in Visio can be automatically AI-transcribed and presented in a Docs document, etc.
  - mmooss 8mo ago
    Thanks. I think your vision is much more useful for most day-to-day work for most people. It's interesting that a new office suite would aim in that direction.
larsiusprime 8mo ago
I had a question since there's growing interest in open source adoption for digital sovereignty purposes in Europe; I produce open source software for civil servants as well (for mass appraisal/property tax valuation specifically), and I was wondering if you could offer any advice about how to best meet the needs of/approach European governments (both local and national) about open source collaboration? Do they prefer to develop their own things in house, or do they like to work with community projects?
- nickthesick 8mo ago
  I think it definitely depends on the country, there isn’t a one-size fits all answer to this for the countries in the EU. Even in this example, the French are building this in-house, but the Germans are repackaging this into their suite. And the Netherlands is on their way to do the same. So the approach would be different depending on which country you approached. My advice to you would be to follow government events like Hackdays to get yourself in front of people who can point you in the right direction
  - larsiusprime 8mo ago
    Cool. I'm already in touch with a handful of civil servants in both Germany and the Netherlands, so I'll do as you say and look for more government led initiatives, and I'll follow up with my existing contacts. Which countries do you think are the most interested in this sort of thing so far?
    - Muromec 8mo ago
      Check out this one: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2025/07/04/nederlandse-digitaliseringsstrategie https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2025/07/04... https://vng.nl/nieuws/meer-regie-nodig-op-technologie-voor-digitale-autonomie https://vng.nl/nieuws/meer-regie-nodig-op-technologie-voor-d... https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/stappenplan-digitale-autonomie/ https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/stappenplan-...
stevetron 8mo ago
I'm a little confused. You said LiveKit powers Visio. But isn't Visio a CAD and drawing app inside of Microsoft Office?
- hommelix 8mo ago
  Visio here is most likely a shorted "visioconférence", the French word for video conference, or online meeting.
  - snakeboy 8mo ago
    It's the name of a french-developed open video conferencing software[0]. See the 1st prize result in TFA... [0] https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/produits/visio https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/produits/visio
- deleted 8mo ago
  [deleted]
fleroviumna 8mo ago
[dead]
aatd86 8mo ago
Do these administrations still purchase licenses for software or do they just create open source maintained by government employees? How much are they willing to pay? Because people in Europe are notoriously paid less so I am curious of the financial aspect. Also curious about the logistics of ownership and support...
- johannes1234321 8mo ago
  I know that my city's administration has a quite active development department. I don't know the current salary ranges,but they offer other values like vacation days, Work-Life-Balance (proper time tracking to avoid extra hours etc), part-time.offera, child care options and some other benefits, which most corporations won't give in addition to being the state, which means they won't go bankrupt, won't do reductions in force in the way companies do it, ...
  - deaux 8mo ago
    Does getting these roles require French citizenship? Asking for a friend ;)
    - mzi 8mo ago
      To work in French civil service (as a fonctionnaire) you need to be a EU/EEA citizen but not necessarily French.
      - deaux 8mo ago
        Interesting. Have you ever seen a non-French(/Walloon/Monegasque/French Swiss) person work in French civil service? I could see there being.. biases that make it much harder in practice. Not particular to France, but anywhere in Europe. My friend might just start brushing up on their French.
        johannes1234321 8mo ago
        I would say that for most jobs you just need a work permit. Only when doing "core" tasks where one acts on state's authority the barriers are higher.
smartbit 8mo ago
Last week’s presentation on Docs, bloknotejs & Yjs https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/DC97FQ-building_digital_workplace_solutions_on_top_of_foundational_libraries_blocknote_/ https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/DC97FQ-building_digit...

nickthesick 8mo ago

Glad to be working as part of this initiative too!

nhatcher 8mo ago
Hi! Congratulations to you and Yousef. And I am lucky enough to be in a position from learning from both of you. Anyone think what they might about La Suite, but blocknote is a solid product!
- nickthesick 8mo ago
  Very much appreciated! We put a lot of effort into it!

drstewart 8mo ago

[flagged]

Gud 8mo ago
That's the hacker spirit!
- drstewart 8mo ago
  [flagged]
  - saubeidl 8mo ago
    Real hackers care about open source software.
    - ipaddr 8mo ago
      Real hackers don't necessarily care about open source software. Closed source offers more low hanging fruit attack vectors.
      - Gud 8mo ago
        Hacker, as in capable… not as the media redefined term
        ipaddr 8mo ago
        Was referring to an actual hacker who does look for holes in systems not the 60s idealist version of a hacker as someone who plays nor the media evil shadowly character.
        saubeidl 8mo ago
        I was referring to a hacker as Stallman would've used the term. This sorta stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture > Richard Stallman explains about hackers who program: > What they had in common was mainly love of excellence and programming. They wanted to make their programs that they used be as good as they could. They also wanted to make them do neat things. They wanted to be able to do something in a more exciting way than anyone believed possible and show "Look how wonderful this is. I bet you didn't believe this could be done."

mmooss 8mo ago

The description of the Docs project, at least on the OP page, is interesting: "A collaborative note taking, wiki and documentation platform that scales. Built with Django and React." An office suite's 'docs' component is usually a word processor and people sometimes try to (mis)use it for the functions you actually list - i.e., you can try to use Word as a wiki, linking pages somehow, but it's not nearly as efficient as a purpose-built wiki. Based on the quote description, it looks like your project inverted the thinking: Is word processing not a/the primary function? Are the other functions truly prioritized - e.g., is the wiki somewhat as efficient as MediaWiki?

nickthesick 8mo ago
I think that the point of the project is more: “Content over form” so you don’t really need all the formatting options of something like Word when you are just trying to write meeting notes. They are definitely trending more towards a wiki, but it is still early days for this whole experiment. Though, many of the municipalities in the French gov are using it for their day to day work so it is clearly useful in some capacity. I don’t have numbers, but it’s definitely respectable
YousefED 8mo ago
Think of Docs more of a modern, kind of Notion-style collaboration tool. It's not meant to be a Word replacement for full-scale document authoring (I believe La Suite will work with LibreOffice for that, but might be wrong here). The product vision is that Docs should focus on "Content over Form"; i.e.: make it easy to create well-structured documents (content), as opposed to Word which makes it easy to change every little visual detail of your document (form). In addition, there are some advanced integrations with other products in La Suite. For example, video calls made in Visio can be automatically AI-transcribed and presented in a Docs document, etc.
- mmooss 8mo ago
  Thanks. I think your vision is much more useful for most day-to-day work for most people. It's interesting that a new office suite would aim in that direction.

larsiusprime 8mo ago

I had a question since there's growing interest in open source adoption for digital sovereignty purposes in Europe; I produce open source software for civil servants as well (for mass appraisal/property tax valuation specifically), and I was wondering if you could offer any advice about how to best meet the needs of/approach European governments (both local and national) about open source collaboration? Do they prefer to develop their own things in house, or do they like to work with community projects?

nickthesick 8mo ago
I think it definitely depends on the country, there isn’t a one-size fits all answer to this for the countries in the EU. Even in this example, the French are building this in-house, but the Germans are repackaging this into their suite. And the Netherlands is on their way to do the same. So the approach would be different depending on which country you approached. My advice to you would be to follow government events like Hackdays to get yourself in front of people who can point you in the right direction
- larsiusprime 8mo ago
  Cool. I'm already in touch with a handful of civil servants in both Germany and the Netherlands, so I'll do as you say and look for more government led initiatives, and I'll follow up with my existing contacts. Which countries do you think are the most interested in this sort of thing so far?
  - Muromec 8mo ago
    Check out this one: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2025/07/04/nederlandse-digitaliseringsstrategie https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/rapporten/2025/07/04... https://vng.nl/nieuws/meer-regie-nodig-op-technologie-voor-digitale-autonomie https://vng.nl/nieuws/meer-regie-nodig-op-technologie-voor-d... https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/stappenplan-digitale-autonomie/ https://www.amsterdam.nl/nieuws/nieuwsoverzicht/stappenplan-...

stevetron 8mo ago

I'm a little confused. You said LiveKit powers Visio. But isn't Visio a CAD and drawing app inside of Microsoft Office?

hommelix 8mo ago
Visio here is most likely a shorted "visioconférence", the French word for video conference, or online meeting.
- snakeboy 8mo ago
  It's the name of a french-developed open video conferencing software[0]. See the 1st prize result in TFA... [0] https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/produits/visio https://lasuite.numerique.gouv.fr/produits/visio
deleted 8mo ago
[deleted]

fleroviumna 8mo ago

[dead]

aatd86 8mo ago

Do these administrations still purchase licenses for software or do they just create open source maintained by government employees? How much are they willing to pay? Because people in Europe are notoriously paid less so I am curious of the financial aspect. Also curious about the logistics of ownership and support...

johannes1234321 8mo ago
I know that my city's administration has a quite active development department. I don't know the current salary ranges,but they offer other values like vacation days, Work-Life-Balance (proper time tracking to avoid extra hours etc), part-time.offera, child care options and some other benefits, which most corporations won't give in addition to being the state, which means they won't go bankrupt, won't do reductions in force in the way companies do it, ...
- deaux 8mo ago
  Does getting these roles require French citizenship? Asking for a friend ;)
  - mzi 8mo ago
    To work in French civil service (as a fonctionnaire) you need to be a EU/EEA citizen but not necessarily French.
    - deaux 8mo ago
      Interesting. Have you ever seen a non-French(/Walloon/Monegasque/French Swiss) person work in French civil service? I could see there being.. biases that make it much harder in practice. Not particular to France, but anywhere in Europe. My friend might just start brushing up on their French.
      - johannes1234321 8mo ago
        I would say that for most jobs you just need a work permit. Only when doing "core" tasks where one acts on state's authority the barriers are higher.

smartbit 8mo ago

Last week’s presentation on Docs, bloknotejs & Yjs https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/DC97FQ-building_digital_workplace_solutions_on_top_of_foundational_libraries_blocknote_/ https://fosdem.org/2026/schedule/event/DC97FQ-building_digit...