>I think it began with Pompidou's minister of culture, Jacques (or was it Jack) Lang, IIRC. The Academy has a body which issues regular recommendations on how to translate new terms that appear. I know of ordinateur - computer, logiciel - software, octet - byte, but there's probably more. I wish some of francophones here would chime in.
I have seen "octet" used for byte, in the CCNA (Cisco networking) courses. Well, I saw it in Spanish, but I assume it was translated from English. The word "octet" is used in the curriculum mainly in the context of IP addresses. In other cases, "byte" is used.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)