Why governments worldwide are abandoning Windows for homegrown Linux alternatives

Published Aug 31, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT David has been lifelong fan of technology who loves putting his passion into words. A journalist by training, he discovered the power of Unix-like operating systems when learning how to edit video on macOS, back when it was still called Mac OS X, in the mid-2000s. A lover of retrocomputing, he appreciates the vast history of Unix that Linux continues today. He also enjoys experimenting with mathematical and statistical programming in Python. David holds a BA in communication from California State University, East Bay. His writing has appeared in Techopedia, TMCnet, The Motley Fool blog network, and HTG's sister publication MUO, among others. Windows is still the most popular desktop wos.While Linux may be obscure on the desktop, there are some prominent users already adopting it. Governments around the world are doing it to be independent or sometimes cut off from Western software. Here are some of the governments building their digital infrastructure around Linux. France bids adieu to Microsoft The country (and the rest of Europe) seeks "digital sovereignty" Credit: David J. Buck / How-To Geek When you think of France, the first thing that comes to mind might be the tricolor flag or the Eiffel Tower, but the country also has an impressive history in tech. The country is famous for Airbus planes and TGV trains, but France was also an early adopter of Linux on the desktop in government. The Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs, or DINUM, the French acronym for the agency that defines the country's digital strategy, announced in April 2026 that it would transition its own workstations from Windows to Linux, as well as encouraging other ministries to draw up their own plans for a migration. The effort is part of a pan-European effort toward "digital sovereignty." European countries are finding that they want to depend less on foreign, and particularly American, IT infrastructure. Microsoft Teams and Zoom are also being replaced by Visio, a French-developed alternative. The national police force, or Gendarmerie, already has a lot of experience with Linux and open-source software. Starting in 2004, they began a migration away from Microsoft. First, they migrated from Microsoft Office to what was then called OpenOffice, then to LibreOffice, and then they moved to their own custom version of Ubuntu called GendBuntu. Approximately 97% of the agency's computers run it, one of the largest desktop Linux deployments in the region. Linux in Germany Germany tries to overcome the past with open-source software Germany has also been at the forefrotn of Linux adoption in Europe. The country has unusually strong privacy laws due to the history of authoritarianism in Nazi Germany and East Germany. It probably also helps that a major Linux distribution, SUSE, was founded in the country. The highest-profile Linux deployment might be the city of Munich. Like in France, the city wanted to save money upgrading machines that ran Windows to the latest version. The city created a custom distro, LiMuX, based on Ubuntu. Similar to the Gendarmerie, they eased into the transition by introducing staffers to OpenOffice and then LibreOffice, followed by a full transition to LiMux. Munich would start to backtrack on that pledge in the late 2010s due to some apparent compatibility issues, moving back to Windows but keeping LibreOffice. Other German states are moving to pick up the slack. Credit: Jorge Aguilar / How-To Geek The state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern announced that it was moving from Microsoft Sharepoint to the open-source Nextcloud. The reason, similar to France, is that the state wants to embrace digital sovereignty. Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital, is launching its own digital soverignty project. Open-source software is a key approach in Europe. Linux was developed by a Finnish person, Linus Torvalds, although he has long since moved to the US and become a naturalized US citizen. Open-source code means anyone can study it and see how it works. This gives it a transparency that's ideal for these projects. Linux in Russia Cut off from Windows due to the Ukraine war, Russia seeks alternatives Some Linux deployments don't have noble goals. Russia has also deployed Linux desktops, particularly Astra Linux, a customized version of Debian. The main reason that Russia has deployed Astra Linux on government and military desktops is to avoid Microsoft, which is based in the US. Russia's need for Linux is more acute than in EU countries. Microsoft and other Western companies pulled out of Russia when it invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the country was scrambling for something that it could run on its computers. Both paid and free versions are available, and the former seems to be the most used in professional cases. As with Ubuntu and SuSE, Astra Linux is backed by a commercial company. In this case, it's Rubitech. While the Russia-Ukraine war likely intensified the deployment of Astra Linux, there had been plans to phase out Windows in the country for a long time before. It's likely that Russia sees Microsoft's overwhelming desktop market share as a possible threat to its own digital sovereignty. Linux in China China builds sofware self-sufficiency after Windows 10 Similar to the Russian situation, Linux is more accepted on the desktop in China. This is likely due to the awkwardness of having an American OS becoem so widely used on the desktop. That would be Microsoft Windows, developed in the US. While there aren't any outright hostilities, there does seem to be obvious tension between the two countries. Kylin OS is one of the premier desktop distros in the country. Kylin started as a FreeBSD-based system before a version using Ubuntu was developed starting in the 2010s. Kylin was founded by the National University of Defense Technology. As with Astra Linux, the government is moving to replace Windows with Kylin. The catalyst wasn't a war or economic sanctions, but the end of support for Windows 10. While China has had a customized version for use on government computers, the government is encouraging agencies to switch to Kylin UnionTech, another home-grown version based on Deepin and its slick desktop environment. Building self-sufficiency through Linux Either by choice or by sanction, a number of governments around the world want to reduce their reliance on American tech, particularly Windows. Linux will give them the tools to do that through its collaborative development and open-source code.