February 7, 2026
Baguettes vs Big Tech
France's homegrown open source online office suite
France launches a homegrown Google Docs rival—fans cheer, skeptics nitpick
TLDR: France launched La Suite, an open-source online office built by its government to keep collaboration tools in Europe. Comments split between cheering a “sovereign” alternative to Google/Microsoft, debating web vs desktop apps, and warning it’s insurance against US vendors changing prices or access.
France just rolled out “La Suite numérique,” a government-built, fully open-source online office and video-calling toolkit—and the comments section instantly turned into a sovereignty smackdown. One camp is hyped: as nar001 sums it up, it’s an “alternative/sovereign version of GSuite/Office 365,” finally giving Europe a home-field cloud. Others tie it to bigger moves like France ditching Zoom and Teams in the name of digital independence, pointing to headlines like this.
But the plot twist? A surprisingly spicy debate over form factor. ginko throws a wrench in the party with “What’s the value of it being online?” while web-first defenders argue browser apps are easier to deploy across sprawling government offices. Meanwhile, goodmythical drops the geopolitical hammer, warning this is insurance in case the US “might decide at any point spike the prices or stop offering licenses.”
There’s also some wholesome pride: jmclnx praises France’s underrated open-source scene and blames the language barrier for why English-speaking corners barely hear about it. And yes, the hack day cred helps—300 attendees, cross-Europe collab, and prize-winners from video room connectors to math in docs and tables and graphs show this isn’t vaporware. The memes? Think “Croissant Cloud,” “Clippy en Français,” and “Google Docs with a beret”—equal parts jokes and genuine curiosity.
Key Points
- •La Suite numérique is an open-source digital workspace for online collaboration and teamwork.
- •It is built by French government agencies DINUM and ANCT, with collaboration from the Netherlands and Germany.
- •Hack Days drew around 300 participants from 15+ countries and announced multiple project winners.
- •Winning projects include Visio Room Connector (1st), Docs x OpenProject Integration (2nd), Math in Docs (3rd), and Panographix: Tables and graphs in Docs (People’s Choice).
- •The codebase is MIT-licensed; contributors are invited to engage via email, Matrix, and the project website.