The class was ordered as part of a construction program directed at strengthening the fleet's cruiser force.

Linois was completed in 1895 and joined the Mediterranean Squadron the next year, serving as part of the cruiser force of the main French battle fleet.

The ship was involved in a show of force meant to intimidate the Ottoman Empire in 1902 during a period of tension with France.

The plan called for a total of seventy cruisers for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire.

The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers.

[12] The unit remained largely unchanged in 1900, apart from the reduction in the number of protected cruisers to five, including Linois.

[15] On 30 October, Linois joined elements of the Mediterranean Squadron to conduct what were purported to be tests with wireless telegraphy, but was in fact a show of force in the Aegean Sea to intimidate the Ottoman Empire.

[17] During the 1902 fleet maneuvers, which began on 7 July, the Northern Squadron attempted to force a passage through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The cruisers of the Mediterranean Squadron, including Linois, conducted patrols from their base at Mers El Kébir to observe their entrance and signal the rest of the fleet.

[19][20][21] In March 1905, in late March, she and the cruiser Du Chayla were present in Tangier during a visit by the German armored cruiser Friedrich Carl and the passenger steamer SS Hamburg, carrying German Kaiser Wilhelm II.