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. ... The petitioner emphasizes the importance of using open-source alternatives to Microsoft 365, such as LibreOffice and Nextcloud
I love the idea of broader adoption of Free software in public serives.
But wouldn't it make more sense to fund something that already exists, rather than "actively developing and implementing" yet another Linux distro?
@neil I'm guessing this is an attempt at integrating it within the EU's weird funding structures where everything must be a public tender to be funded, and therefore creating a project is bureaucratically easier than trying to essentially take over an existing one.
I think this is also part of the reason that eg. FOSS funding was outsourced through organizations like NLNet?
@neil Though I should note that I'm not certain that there don't *exist* other funding methods for the EU, I have just heard claims from quite a few people dealing with EU stuff that this is the easiest way to get it through bureaucracy, so it's possible that it's more convenience than regulatory requirement
@neil (And yes this is a fucking awful model for funding the commons, but you can thank the neoliberals for that)