this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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It's only a proof of concept at the moment and I don't know if it will see mass adoption but it's a step in the right direction to ending reliance on US-based Big Tech.

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[–] pupbiru@aussie.zone 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I'm sure Fedora is full of binary blobs and not-so-free software

fedora is staunchly opposed to non-free software in their default distro … that spat a few weeks ago with OBS was related to that AFAIK

unsure about like signed blobs for “security” services but i imagine they’d be very limited, and optional

rather than sticking a white label on Fedora and call it something else

but for what benefit? no matter what’s trying to be achieved, starting with a very full-featured, robust OS that’s widely used is going to serve you very well… not just technically (less work for the same outcome), but for human reasons

there are loads of guides out there for how to fix fedora issues, few for guix… loads of RPMs that are compatible with fedora, and i can only imagine fewer packages for guix

and then if you’re talking about server OSes - and actually workstations too - managing them with tools like ansible etc… fedora is going to have off the shelf solutions

just Fedora with different theme

well, the actual software and configuration i’d argue aren’t the important part - owning the infrastructure is the important part… package mirrors, distribution methods (eg a website), being able to veto or replace certain packages, and the branding (or regulation) that draws people to it… being able to roll out a security patch to every installation without a 3rd party okaying it, for example

[–] Ferk@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 minute ago

I don't think there are many distributions that are truly free. At least not in the eyes of the FSF. Most versions of the kernel are full of blobs and obfuscated code.

but for what benefit? [...] fedora is going to have off the shelf solutions

Yes, but that's my point: fedora is ALREADY full featured.. the work needed is trivial, to the point that directly using an installation of fedora by itself (along with ansible) wouldn't be very different from doing he same with EU OS... at that point you don't need EU OS, you just need Fedora.

well, the actual software and configuration i’d argue aren’t the important part - owning the infrastructure is the important part…

I repeat (the full sentence): "I guess we’ll have to see how much they customize it, but in my experience with previous attempts, I’m expecting just a re-skin, just Fedora with different theme"

Maybe you have a different experience with government-managed distros. But there have been some attempts at that in my (European) country that were definitely not much more than a reskinned "Ubuntu" from back in the day. Using Ubuntu infrastructure, Ubuntu repositories.. and the only little bit of infrastructure they added was an extra repo, not for mirroring, but for providing the few packages that were actually responsible for the theming, reskining and defaults.

Also you did not address the other point (which was the initial main point): do you really think that Fedora and Red Hat would not benefit from it?