France and Germany unveil Docs, a homegrown alternative to Google Docs

[Alfonso Maruccia]

TL;DR: French and German governments recently announced Docs, a collaborative writing and information-sharing service designed for use on the cloud or offline. Positioned as a potential alternative to Google Docs, Outline, and similar tools, Docs emphasizes "simplicity" and security for EU professionals looking to move away from US-made products.

The Trump administration has set out to drastically reshape the relationship between the US and Europe. In response, Brussels is scrambling to adapt to this new reality, seeking new alliances with foreign powers and exploring alternative technology solutions. Nothing appears to be immune to this shift, not even traditional online tools for collaboration and document editing.

While its official introduction avoids overt political messaging, the project can certainly be seen as a political statement from two of Europe's largest powers.

Docs is a joint initiative by France's Interministerial Directorate for Digital Affairs and Germany's Center for Digital Sovereignty of Public Administration. Both organizations are committed to funding digital sovereignty projects, and they developed Docs as a collaboration tool for European agencies and businesses.

As an open-source project, Docs is readily available on GitHub, allowing anyone to download and test its code. The tool is built using Django Rest, Next.js, BlockNotes.js, and other open-source frameworks, and it can be deployed on cloud servers or used offline.

Currently in beta, Docs is accessible through France's ProConnect identity service, and a test environment is available for users to explore its features using login credentials provided by the developers on GitHub.

Docs aims to deliver an "uncompromising" and intuitive writing experience, according to its developers, featuring a minimalist interface where content takes precedence over layout. The platform includes all the essential collaboration features, such as real-time editing, keyboard shortcuts, offline mode, and media import. It also offers granular access controls, allowing users to securely share specific information with the right people.

Documents and projects can be exported in three different formats with customizable templates: PDF, Word, and OpenDoc. The tool also includes a built-in wiki feature to help teams organize knowledge and collaboration terminology. Upcoming features still in development include subpages, an advanced search function, and the ability to pin important documents.

Docs is released under the permissive MIT license, allowing both commercial and private use. While the project is primarily a public-sector initiative led by government organizations DINUM and ZenDiS, private entities are encouraged to use, contribute to, or even commercialize the open-source code available on GitHub.

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France and Germany unveil Docs, a homegrown alternative to Google Docs

 

[mgwerner]

When installing, if you select German, you are required to show your papers. If you select French, your computer is immediately taken over, the language changed to German, and the font to Gothic. You are then required to surrender your papers.

 

[NumberNine]

Brand new, freely available, promoted, supported, and sticking it to the man.

Software is so adorable at that age.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

When installing, if you select German, you are required to show your papers. If you select French, your computer is immediately taken over, the language changed to German, and the font to Gothic. You are then required to surrender your papers.

Gothic? Damn, I would very much prefer Augusta

 

[pnntmp]

In a push for digital independence, Europe debuts its own collaboration tool

That's probably just an interpretation of the author. What king of "digital independence" could this basic Notepad -like thing provide?

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Brand new, freely available, promoted, supported, and sticking it to the man.

Software is so adorable at that age.

Sticking it to the man Maybe you don't know who the man is, but it's actually the government! https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/the-man

Brand new = Few features
Freely available = Paid by taxes
Promoted = Propaganda/waste of taxpayer money
Supported = Paid by ongoing taxes

But yeah, it's not Google. How much do you want to bet that privacy will be worse than with Google?

 

[GABulldog]

Just what everyone needs, a word program created by a government that will put you in jail for words/speech they don't like.

 

[Axeia]

Brand new = Few features

True. But you gotta start somewhere. It's better to release early and iterate then get stuck in development forever trying to get feature complete and never bringing anything out.

Freely available = Paid by taxes

True, but Europe wanting to move away from the US tech strangle hold is the smart thing to do. Them making it publicly available instead of just trying to use it internally also means the product is usable by the people so sort of a public service with public money.

Promoted = Propaganda/waste of taxpayer money

Depends on how its done. If it's using paid bus stop, TV and radio ads etc it is a waste of money. If it's just shown on already existing government channels or sites like techspot that are happy to write an article to get some clicks - I've no complaints.

Supported = Paid by ongoing taxes

Again, if it helps Europe get more independent from the US that's a-okay.

But yeah, it's not Google. How much do you want to bet that privacy will be worse than with Google?

Let's see, government made (so no shareholders breathing down their necks demanding more and more profit). Source code freely available and can be run locally.
I'd say privacy is pretty much guaranteed and incomparable to Google.

Just what everyone needs, a word program created by a government that will put you in jail for words/speech they don't like.

Let me guess, saw something about the UK sending people to jail for posting some rather minor online? I agree that it is absolutely stupid.

But this is from France/Germany so that'd be completely unrelated to that. And it's opensource MIT licensed GitHub hosted code you can run locally if you want. So you could actually review it to see if it does that. Even without looking I can guarantee you that it doesn't.

---

It is somewhat disappointing how politically loaded Techspot is for a techsite.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

That's probably just an interpretation of the author. What king of "digital independence" could this basic Notepad -like thing provide?

This particular author lives in Europe, and is breathing a very real disengagement from everything made in the US on a daily basis. Maybe American folks don't think too much about it, but many of us are well aware of the fact that we are going through a pivotal moment in history. And that the US and Europe will likely become almost two entirely different entities in the not-so-distant future...

 

[toooooot]

Could not even come up with a different name, huh?

 

[toooooot]

This particular author lives in Europe, and is breathing a very real disengagement from everything made in the US on a daily basis. Maybe American folks don't think too much about it, but many of us are well aware of the fact that we are going through a pivotal moment in history. And that the US and Europe will likely become almost two entirely different entities in the not-so-distant future...

Someone was steering the bus there with a lot of determination, though. It did not happen randomly.
When you start to break tries, trust between different groups in a society, the outcomes will follow. And as usually, people want to look for answers in the last few years when you would have to go further.
There is a very big need for unity in our society. And it cannot come from people pushing for more division and almost open hate. For once, I am glad that hwood is no longer seen as a moral compass and political guide. Thise people screwed up their image pretty bad during covid and keep doing it.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

[The Trump administration has set out to drastically reshape the relationship between the US and Europe. In response, Brussels is scrambling to adapt to this new reality, seeking new alliances with foreign powers and exploring alternative technology solutions. Nothing appears to be immune to this shift, not even traditional online tools for collaboration and document editing.

Brussels did not create this in response to Trump.

First, the idea that a joint task force of two governments could create new software in a few months is laughable. They probably spent that long deciding who should be on the oversight committees and what their titles should be.

Second, this is actually an EU response to the general domination of the tech sector by a few US companies. A not unreasonable thing idea given the situation and governments desire to keep it's secrets from its enemies (and citizens). Think about the risk of government employees using Google docs and you will see their point. But it has been happening for years. This doc sharing software outcome is recent but it's beginning were far before US presidential elections.

You should try researching your topic for a few minutes before adding conclusions if you want your commentary to be less sophomoric.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

This particular author lives in Europe, and is breathing a very real disengagement from everything made in the US on a daily basis. Maybe American folks don't think too much about it, but many of us are well aware of the fact that we are going through a pivotal moment in history. And that the US and Europe will likely become almost two entirely different entities in the not-so-distant future...

Then stop using US products. It'd be great if most Europeans did because that would create more competition. (Although the new companies will likely come from outside of Europe given recent trends. Economics Explained on YT has some great videos on why different countries do well or poorly)

But stop using products that are bad (or the company making them is bad) not because your politician said their politician is bad. Because "historically" and "pivotally" bad are the things politicians say because, sadly, the masses eat it up.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

Then stop using US products. It'd be great if most Europeans did because that would create more competition. (Although the new companies will likely come from outside of Europe given recent trends. Economics Explained on YT has some great videos on why different countries do well or poorly)

But stop using products that are bad (or the company making them is bad) not because your politician said their politician is bad. Because "historically" and "pivotally" bad are the things politicians say because, sadly, the masses eat it up.

Ok. Give us back the Web, then. We invented it, we want it back :-S

 

[yannus]

Such a tyrannical government as France, asking you to identify with their own system of identification... I don't trust them at all, even less than google, imagine.

 

[dangh]

Then stop using US products.

nah, we don't. we use invented by Indian, made in China.
... apparently, same as you do

 

[pnntmp]

This particular author lives in Europe, and is breathing a very real disengagement from everything made in the US on a daily basis. Maybe American folks don't think too much about it, but many of us are well aware of the fact that we are going through a pivotal moment in history. And that the US and Europe will likely become almost two entirely different entities in the not-so-distant future...

You apparently have no idea whatsoever how the EU bureaucracy works.

There is a functioning prototype in early 2025. This means the whole thing started somewhere during the Obama presidency. Let's be generous and assume it was Obama's second term.

The notion that Notepad Heavy popped in response to the recent election is beyond absurd.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Ok. Give us back the Web, then. We invented it, we want it back :-S

1) You don't seem to know your history. A) Paul Baran was an American and B) ARPNET was established by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA).

2) You said you didn't want to use US products. I never said I didn't want to use European products. I couldn't give up my Scotch. Spotify and Volvo are good too. Feel free to act in accordance with your own words.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Let's see, government made (so no shareholders breathing down their necks demanding more and more profit). Source code freely available and can be run locally.
I'd say privacy is pretty much guaranteed and incomparable to Google.

No warrants needed and the government can freely read its citizens' documents... Meh I disagree! The benefit is we can download it ourselves. But it's not a significant collaboration tool that way.

 

[Axeia]

No warrants needed and the government can freely read its citizens' documents... Meh I disagree! The benefit is we can download it ourselves. But it's not a significant collaboration tool that way.

How is it not? Set up a server hosting it and you can provide it as a service to whoever your please. Local doesn't have to be just your PC local.
It could be your businesses local server for intranet use or you can set it up on a machine accessible over the internet.

I doubt the government is all that interested in what you have to document unless it's your tax evasion plan. If you set it up on your own server they can't. Commercial parties like Google however are very motivated to analyse everything to keep building that ad profile and/or train their AI.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

1) You don't seem to know your history. A) Paul Baran was an American and B) ARPNET was established by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA).

2) You said you didn't want to use US products. I never said I didn't want to use European products. I couldn't give up my Scotch. Spotify and Volvo are good too. Feel free to act in accordance with your own words.

And Tim Berners-Lee is British. ARPANET was a military infrastructure, and would be absolutely useless - and known by absolutely no one - without the tech inventions that came after that. From different parts of the world.

Food aside, I don't want to stop using some US products, either. I was just saying, hyperbolically, that some of the people living in the US (or maybe a lot of them, I cannot say) still have to understand how disruptive, and absolutely destructive, the new US administration has been so far. A nice little project like "Docs" could be tangential now, but could also become something much different in the future...

 

[TempleOrion]

Someone was steering the bus there with a lot of determination, though. It did not happen randomly.
When you start to break tries, trust between different groups in a society, the outcomes will follow. And as usually, people want to look for answers in the last few years when you would have to go further.
There is a very big need for unity in our society. And it cannot come from people pushing for more division and almost open hate. For once, I am glad that hwood is no longer seen as a moral compass and political guide. Thise people screwed up their image pretty bad during covid and keep doing it.

Yup rightrash steering their country over the cliff-edge. A joy to behold from safe distance as a dying demographic (incompetent white cis-males) launches a last gasp effort at relevance.

BTW You mean "Unity" as in under Ein Reich run by the Mango Mussolini with no criticism allowed. Watch as everyday he attacks any and all critics like a spoilt child The fascists that project all their insecurities against those that don't look and think like them talk about "hate"

You're going to be verrrry disappointed I'm afraid in the long run I'm afraid. It never works out well for the far right...

 

[AnilD]

Really cool to see Europe taking digital sovereignty seriously.The fact that Docs runs offline and is built on widely used frameworks makes it way more flexible than a lot of enterprise tools. Could be a solid option for orgs that care about privacy, especially in sectors like healthcare or government.

 

[Resonator]

Wow, they went all out in coming up with a name for this!