There are scenarios where Windows may be problematic. Sometimes drivers for odd equipment are not available in Linux, or only some Linux distros due to fragmentation and not maintained very well.
My personal kit is linux because it just works and I don't have time to faff around with windows when I'm not being paid. That doesn't work for enterprise though, and the difficulties of using windows are less important than the ease of enforcing policy.
Do Canonical offer a similar solution for identity management - sccm, active directory, intune, end-point-protection, all that sort of stuff? I'm no expert, I don't deal with that at work either, but I do know it's a major consideration.
This isn't the 90s. The problem with linux on the desktop in an enterprise isn't a lack of drivers or even software.
Having worked for several years on bespoke IT for a megacorp, I think this is massively underestimating the challenge. There are literally hundreds of engineers involved and this is in a very well-established context.
Building a reliable, secure and user-friendly platform is a seriously enormous undertaking. I am honestly kinda skeptical that it's feasible for a smaller European nation to do this at an acceptable cost.
It absolutely needs to be done though. But I have a feeling everyone is doomed to fail if they try to do things on a custom basis. I think it has to be centralised one way or another.
Whether that means growing firms like Canonical, or coming up with some EU-level public engineering institutions, I dunno. I guess the best would be a patchwork of several such solutions.
I just don't really see how any of this can be done quickly enough to free us from US tech within 10 years :/
My fear is that people just don't do it properly. Then we end up with governments that are running on nonfunctional or horribly insecure IT. I don't think this is really better than being constantly fucked by Microsoft and the US govt.
Source: worked in government contracting
Nearly all of state and local administration uses various 3rd party solutions which have bespoke Office add-ins and rely on close integration with the formats (and security models) on the Office suite -- and are likely shifting more heavily into Microsoft 365 specific features.
So it's not as simple as rolling out LibreOffice and calling it a day. Much less Linux.
And the reason for that is the problem. Too many schools use only Microsoft programs.
Also at least in Southern Europe, if kids use computers at the school at all, they tend to be desktop like deployments, and if families have to buy them, then Windows laptops get mostly acquired, as it is something actually usable, and in their budget.
Sure, schools cannot offer administration for the numerous IT related issues some systems might have. But that is a secondary problem.
Also, the same problem of dependence remains.