this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2025
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153
GendBuntu: How France’s Military-Police switched 100,000+ PCs to Linux (piefed.social)
submitted 15 hours ago by Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social to c/technology@lemmy.world
12 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Thought I'd share a success story.

France’s National Gendarmerie (military police) rolled out GendBuntu, their own custom Linux OS

  • Around 35,000 desktops/laptops deployed by December 2011, and today 97% of 103,000+ PCs run GendBuntu
  • They started by replacing Office, IE & Outlook in 2005, then moved to Ubuntu in 2008, achieving a 40% reduction in total cost of ownership
  • The switch slashed annual license and maintenance costs by millions of euros (~€2 M per year and ~€50 M total) .

The switch away from big Tech to Open Source alternatives might not be easy, but it's been successfully done before.

top 12 comments
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[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 62 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

I use Arch de Triomphe, BTW.

[–] Trebuchet@europe.pub 6 points 12 hours ago

Magnificent.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 31 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (2 children)

It could have been gendar'Mint, gend'ARM64, or gend'Arch,BTW.

But they chose that awkward sounding abomination.

Oh well, it's the year of the Linux desktop, I'll forgive them.

For now.

[–] lnxtx@feddit.nl 16 points 14 hours ago

Gendoo

[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

"GendBuntu" is an atrocious name, and it doesn't sound good in French either (perhaps even worse). I don't know why they insisted on referencing Ubuntu in the name. GendarmOS would have been fine, or GendarmeSE to be more correct.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

gendarme from "gens d’armes" to "gens d'ubuntu" (people of ubuntu) which, pronounced quickly would become "gendbuntu" is ok for an os name for gendarmerie

if only they went with arch to call their os "gensdarc" to play with the name Jeanne-d'Arc 🤭

[–] anachrohack@lemmy.world 14 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Is anyone else unable to click the link?

Edit: oh there is no link. I was expecting a source

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

There aren't really news articles about it that I could find, only info in Wiki.

So I thought I'd share so more people are aware of it

[–] anachrohack@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

No it's fine the post title just sounded like a news article haha

[–] einlander@lemmy.world 12 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu

https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/french-gendarmerie-nationaleubuntulibrecon2014bilbao/43013966

[–] ckmnstr@lemmy.world 10 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

This has become one of the major incentives of the scheme for staff; transferring to GendBuntu from a proprietary system means the staff member receives a new computer with a widescreen monitor.

Smart! What I wouldn't do for new equipment...