this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
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cross-posted from: https://feddit.org/post/4415864

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.

[Edit typo.]

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[–] halm@leminal.space 41 points 1 week ago (15 children)

Such odd choices here. Why should the EU make its own version of Linux when they could invest in existing project and kernel development? Given the recent sacking of Russian kernel developers, do we want further politicisation of Linux development?

the adoption of the E/OS mobile operating system for government devices

Just no. There are way better solutions than /e/, and suggesting device and OS lock-in like this doesn't exactly inspire trust. In my eyes, that idiosyncracy detracts from the generally positive suggestions of getting public administrations away from corporate platforms and OSes.

[–] thingsiplay@beehaw.org 23 points 1 week ago (13 children)

But then the government is dependent on this private company again. The idea of an own operating system distribution is, to have the control and not being dependent (as far as a company goes). So its not odd at all. In fact, I am shocked that most governments in the world don't have their own distribution. It just makes sense.

That also means a specific distribution to learn and count on across all governmental institution across all parts. They can integrate any feature, application and configure it for the EU in a government. Is there such a distribution that exists doing exactly that? Probably not. And creating a distribution does not mean they develop everything from scratch, so its not like impossible to workout.

If private companies like Steam can do it, then a government should be able too.

[–] millie@beehaw.org 6 points 1 week ago (7 children)

It also means the entirety of the EU's governments would be susceptible to the same vulnerabilities and bugs, and would share the same dependencies. Given recent issues with bad actors taking control of small but essential repos, this seems like a potentially dangerous security flaw.

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They are already interconnect at various points.
Schools are connected to university networks, university networks to loval government intranets and those are again probably at some point connected to the federal network.
I don't wanna guess where else they have connections to like the police or legislative network.

[–] millie@beehaw.org 2 points 1 week ago

There's a world of difference between interconnectedness and an enforced monoculture of dependencies on a wide range of insecure repos maintained by hobbyists.

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