Ubuntu in a local government work environment: practical feedback from France

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Hello everyone,

I wanted to share a practical experience using Ubuntu in a local government work environment in France.

Ubuntu is often seen as a system mainly used by enthusiasts, developers, or for personal computing.
But in my daily experience, I have been testing how far it can fit into a real professional environment within a public administration setting.

My goal is not to make a theoretical point, but to share a concrete field experience.

In my case, Ubuntu has been used for everyday professional tasks such as:

  • web-based business applications

  • Microsoft 365 access through the browser

  • Outlook Web

  • SharePoint Online

  • Teams as a Progressive Web App

  • Webex natively on Linux

  • multi-screen workstation usage

  • secure printing

  • scanning to email

  • daily document handling and office work

What is interesting is that, for a large part of these common tasks, Ubuntu works in a stable, fluid and credible way.
This does not mean that every situation is perfect or that every proprietary workflow immediately becomes Linux-friendly, but it shows that many real-world professional needs can already be met under Ubuntu.

From my perspective, this opens an important discussion: in some public sector environments, modernization does not necessarily have to mean replacing all hardware or relying entirely on a single desktop ecosystem.
There may also be room for another approach: keeping capable machines in service longer, using Ubuntu locally, and continuing to rely on web and cloud platforms when needed.

I am sharing this here because I believe Ubuntu deserves to be considered not only as a personal or technical OS, but also as a serious option in broader workplace discussions, including in public administration.

I would be glad to hear from others who have tested Ubuntu in similar professional environments, especially in government, administration, education or structured office settings.

Ubuntu workstation used in a real local government office setup, including multi-screen usage and web-based professional tools.

Example of a successful document workflow under Ubuntu: PDF opened locally, sent to secure FollowMe printing, then printed successfully.

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Ubuntu workstation used in a real local government office setup, including multi-screen usage and web-based professional tools.

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Example of a successful document workflow under Ubuntu: PDF opened locally, sent to secure FollowMe printing, then printed successfully.

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Ubuntu 26.04, so far appears to be an outstanding choice for government and corporate use in my honest opinion. Web apps solve many former obstacles for Linux adaption. Up to 10 years of support with Ubuntu Pro could save a lot of money! Ubuntu 26.04 has a strong focus on security too. Software sovereignty is important these days as well. I enjoyed reading your experiences very much!

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So you are pretty much still locked in by Microsoft. While it is at least some approximation of progress, I don’t see how it solves the problem of the outrageous licensing costs the public sector is being crushed under. You see, Windows was never the primary product of Microsoft, it was but the vehicle to sell MS Office. While I am not a French citizen, the problem is pretty much the same in the whole EU and the world over: tax money being burnt for questionable value. There are only so many ways to produce a printable document, yet somehow governments keep paying for each and every iteration of MS Word, or Office for that matter, while the actual workforce uses but the bare minimum that is virtually unchanged since Word 1.0.

Your government has just shifted money from MS’s left pocket to the right one.. SaaS (the 2nd “S” stands for disservice) is way more expensive in the long run than running some native Office suite, even MS Office, so MS will be all the happier despite not being able to charge for Windows licenses.

When I was still a student of a Computer Science adjacent* subject at university, we had a visit from some very nice people of one Sun Microsystems, which had recently acquired Star Division and was essentially giving away their product Star Office for free. And we had a nice chat with them. The reason for Sun’s generosity was their rather principled stance that “office” software is necessary infrastructure, not much unlike an OS, and there is no real innovation on which to compete. Plus, Sun was primarily a hardware vendor, and what’s the point of selling computers, at a rather pretty penny mind you, that then can’t do anything of value unless you throw some more money at them?

Long story short, Sun went bust and was acquired by Oracle, which still hurts, but Star Office lives on as LibreOffice. That’s all the infrastructure any office, be it government or otherwise, will ever need.

If you want to read a real success story that’s also a sad one, research LiMux (Munich’s own Ubuntu). That’s the only English article I could find at short notice. It’s sad, because it was sabotaged by Microsoft, in cahoots with the new mayor, which “incidentally” was about to open their new HQ in Munich and pulled the “job magnet” card, so all of a sudden there were these weird (non-)problems and “lots of complaints”, when, in fact, it was a huge success and on track, ahead of schedule even, to break the MS lock-in once and for all. Maybe there is still some Know-How that can be salvaged from that.

* Electrical Engineering, specialized on Technical Computer Science, i.e. the hardware side of CS

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Merci pour votre réponse, très intéressante.
Je comprends tout à fait votre point sur la dépendance persistante à Microsoft, ainsi que sur la question du coût à long terme du SaaS.

Dans mon message, mon intention n’était pas de présenter une transition complète déjà aboutie, mais plutôt de partager un retour d’expérience concret : montrer qu’Ubuntu peut déjà fonctionner de manière crédible dans un environnement professionnel réel, même lorsqu’une partie de l’écosystème reste encore fondée sur des outils Microsoft accessibles via le web.

Je suis d’accord sur le fait que la réflexion peut aller plus loin, notamment sur la suite bureautique, la souveraineté logicielle et la réduction de la dépendance aux solutions propriétaires.
Mais à ce stade, je voulais surtout montrer qu’il existe déjà une première marche réaliste et praticable.

Merci aussi pour la référence à LiMux, qui reste un cas très intéressant à étudier.

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Merci beaucoup pour votre message.
Je partage votre analyse : les applications web changent clairement la donne pour l’adoption d’Ubuntu dans les environnements professionnels.
La durée de support, la sécurité et la question de la souveraineté logicielle en font, à mon sens, une option de plus en plus crédible pour les administrations et les entreprises.
Merci encore pour votre lecture attentive de mon retour d’expérience.

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Sorry, I don’t speak French. Would you mind translating?

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Google Translate does a superb job.

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Let’s clarify that right now.

Ubuntu Discourse is open to all languages that our Moderation Team is comfortable with.
Including English, French, and many more.

There is NO requirement to post in English. Nor to remain in any one language.
Also, this platform does not currently offer automatic translation (sorry, it’s on the Wishlist).

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