Petition Summary: The petitioner calls for the European Union to actively develop and implement a Linux-based operating system, termed ‘EU-Linux’, across public administrations in all EU Member States. This initiative aims to reduce dependency on Microsoft products, ensuring compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and promoting transparency, sustainability, and digital sovereignty within the EU. The petitioner emphasizes the importance of using open-source alternatives to Microsoft 365, such as LibreOffice and Nextcloud, and suggests the adoption of the E/OS mobile operating system for government devices. The petitioner also highlights the potential for job creation in the IT sector through this initiative.
I've said this a million times, but it's definitely about time we stop spending taxes on a rogue entity across the ocean who definitely does not have our best interests in mind. I'm not convinced it's even legal and I don't understand why the legal prospects have never been brought up about this fucking situation. R&D money should not go to a foreign corporation. In addition, I (and pretty much everyone else on the planet) already paid for microsofts products and services so my government can use it (against my will), so why the fuck do they get away with setting a public price at all? It should legally be free or the governments shouldn't need to pay for it in the first place, and it should legally be open source because it's publicly funded. There are just so many problems with the entire idea of our government using Windows, Office, and their services.
As long as the EU doesn't reinvent the wheel, why not? I mean if they are going to fork Linux and rewrite a EU-based linux OS, this would further divide the community and make issues and security a lot more wacky... Not sure this is a good idea.
Pretty sure they're talking about making a distro, not forking the Linux kernel. I don't see any reason why they would need to fork it anyway.
Well, what better way to embrace FOSS than dismissing the efforts of all the existing distro maintainers? Welcome to the community, guys. Good luck building your cathedral next to the bazaar!
How about they instead work together with the distros and create a way of certifying a distro as gov-ready?
Especially in light of Microsoft CoPilot. You do not want obvious spyware on any computer.
It's not fucking over Microsoft, it's prevent Microsoft from fucking us over. Microsoft is not the victim in this.
If they really expect the average white collar worker to learn Linux they probably should touch some grass
I work in a public administration. And 90% of our work is done on webapps anyway. There will be no difference if the os is windows or linux.
There is no learning curve. Where have you been over the past 7 or 8 years?
There's literally nothing to learn 💀. They will continue using same special app that their employer provides. They won't be able to fix any issues by themselves still because they werent able to fix these issues on windows either, so nothing is gonna change in this department.
Ain't no way that's getting accepted. It's like asking to completely destroy and rebuild one of the EU countries.
They're already putting out a petition so they're not wholly against the idea of an EU-Linux.
Also, this has been done before by other governments, like parts of the UK's and many Indian governments.
I think it'd be a big step, but a doable one and for the better.
Why do you compare it to destroying and rebuilding one of the EU countries, if I may ask?
Why do you compare it to destroying and rebuilding one of the EU countries, if I may ask?
Because destroying and rebuilding the digital infrastructure is very similar. It's extremely expensive and causes a lot of breakages in the process.
most software is web based and OS-agnostic so there is no destruction and rebuilding happening, and for everything else, FOSS is literally free. How is it expensive to switch from X with a monthly cost to X that is free? Even if things breaks initially, the cost would equalize and long-term be considerably reduced.
most software is web based and OS-agnostic so there is no destruction and rebuilding happening
I don't think EU backend and government job software is OS-agnostic.
and for everything else, FOSS is literally free
Yes but they need to switch and develop new utilities which is time and money.
Even if things breaks initially, the cost would equalize and long-term be considerably reduced.
That might be true depending on the maintenance costs of the new solutions.
