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.

  • sibachian@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    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.

  • 0x0@programming.dev
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    2 months ago

    Focus instead on enforcing standards’ compliance so i can open a .docx with any program and be usable anywhere.

    Then focus on enforcing FOSS software in public services but don’t bother with a “european linux distro”, that’s just a waste of resources. There are already a great deal of distros around. Considering geopolitics i’d go with SuSe or some other EU-based distro.

    • ShortN0te@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      Focus instead on enforcing standards’ compliance so i can open a .docx with any program and be usable anywhere.

      That’s an impossible task. Not even Microsoft manages that. Do not want to count how often i used libreOffice to repair or convert an older MSOffice file so it can be opend with modern Versions of MSOffice.

      Once there was a 500MB Excel Sheet with lime 500-1000 used Cells, opened and saved it to.a xlsx file using libreOffice and reduced it to a few MB while still being fully functional.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      OOXML is Microsoft’s proprietary format it itself doesn’t implement consistently.

      Either you meant OpenDocument or you meant that you want a magic wand.

      • 0x0@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        Yes MS intentionally implements it inconsistently and yes that’s why i meant whichever format is open.

  • mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    While I like the idea, it’ll be incredibly tough to overcome Microsofts lobbying, one just needs to look on the history of the LiMux project.

  • N0x0n@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    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.

  • Breadhax0r@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    I imagine this would work out to be something similar to redhat enterprise linux, but with the EU funding it’s development instead of the US

    • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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      2 months ago

      It’s not fucking over Microsoft, it’s prevent Microsoft from fucking us over. Microsoft is not the victim in this.

  • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    PSA: You can sign the petition even if you’re not a European national. I registered and signed as a Canadian myself and it accepted it

  • Mihies@programming.dev
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    2 months ago

    I’d really like to see this. However I don’t have high hopes when looking at the current state in Slovenia, where Microsoft is deeply rooted in all public and non public sectors, starting from schools. Most know only Windows and Word while they don’t distinguish between the two and schools system doesn’t give a shit about teaching anything about computers let alone non Microsoft. One of the reasons is, of course, teachers being computer illiterate or … know only Microsoft. And so on and so forth.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Especially in light of Microsoft CoPilot. You do not want obvious spyware on any computer.

  • repungnant_canary@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    To register on that website I need to agree to Privacy Policy:

    Please be aware that registered petitions are public documents. This means that your identity, the number given to the petition and the personal data contained therein: (1) may be disclosed to the recipients mentioned in the paragraph above; (2) may be mentioned in public meetings held by the Committee on Petitions, and thus webstreamed (which means that they may be watched by anyone through the European Parliament website); (3) may be mentioned in the plenary session, and thus be recorded in the minutes published in the Official journal; (4) may be made available on the internet website of the European Parliament.

    Do I understand it incorrectly or does it allow them to webstream my home address???

  • GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml
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    2 months ago

    Ain’t no way that’s getting accepted. It’s like asking to completely destroy and rebuild one of the EU countries.