[carlosjobim]

Computing is the software and the hardware. So you're right, I feel that it is futile.

Well, you can use the old hardware which you've already got if you get cut off from foreign suppliers. But the same is true for software. It's even more true for software.

If the French government and other Europeans were serious about reducing or eliminating dependency on American cloud services, they should switch to older versions of MS Office and MS Windows be done with it. No need to retrain your workers, and a realistic and speedy way to implement it.

[microtonal]

they should switch to older versions of MS Office and MS Windows be done with it

That does not make any sense at all. These are full of known security vulnerabilities.

[samus]

There is one very serious issue with software: it needs updates for security issues that are uncovered. And it might be built requiring access to MS cloud services to work. To get rid of these problems is basically equivalent to adopting open source products.

[einr]

Unfortunately that’s an unacceptable security risk, especially for a government.