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The quite famous FOSS developer Poul-Henning Kamp (aka PHK) has posted his feedback to the EU regarding European Open Digital Ecosystems [Intro in Danish, article in English] and their call for evidence. In it he brings their attention to open standards in points 2 and 3:
At the most fundamental level, the EU has three options:
1. Pick and bless a set of winners, consisting of:
a) Operating system, portable to any reasonable computer architecture.
b) Text-processing, suitable for tasks up to a book.
c) Spreadsheet
d) Email client.
e) Web Browser
f) Accounting software, suitable for small organizations.and fund organizations to maintain, develop and support the software for the future as open source, turning that software into infrastructure like water, power and electricity, free for all, individuals, startups and established companies alike, to use and benefit from.
2. Continuously develop/pick, bless and meticulously enforce open standards of interoperability, and then "let the competition loose".
3. Both. By providing a free baseline and de-facto reference implementations for the open standards, "the market" will be free to innovate, improve and compete, but cannot (re)create walled gardens.
Indeed, if the protocols and file formats are not publicly documented, freely available, and royalty-free, then what benefit would there be to implement them, FOSS or not?
There is an unreproducable javascript link on the EC page which goes to a relevant PDF document. It is labeled, "Call for evidence - Ares(2026)69111". It is worth checking before sending in feedback. Although English is the main language, the other official languages of EU member states can be used. The deadline for feedback is 03 February 2026.
Previously:
(2025) Why People Keep Flocking to Linux in 2025 (and It's Not Just to Escape Windows)
(2025) Europe's Plan to Ditch US Tech Giants is Built on Open Source - and It's Gaining Steam
(2025) Euro Techies Call for Sovereign Fund to Escape US Dependency
(2025) Petition on EU Linux Operating System in Public Administrations
(Score: 4, Informative) by Dr Spin on Wednesday January 14, @07:29AM
I think you have mis-understood the concept/proposal:
The idea is that the EU (ie a government covering the European continent all (significant) European Countries (each with a different language) - imagine all of North and South America) - yes,we do have one already - funds FOSS to create a distro which they all agree to use so as to ensure interoperability. And it is free to anyone who wants it, but with well funded professional maintenance and support for the specific requirements of all EC countries.
There is no reason for this to be based on any existing distro - although it could be.
After this decision has been taken, any PC manufacturer who does not support it sells no computers in Europe because European users are going to want at home what they use at work, and what they use at work has to be compatible with the government they pay tax to.
The entire thing is not for profit although the programmers get paid obviously.
Please NO AI because obviously there is no way to have any privacy/security in the face of AI. if you want AI on your machine, "do it yourself" ie YOU bear the risk which is unquantifiable and immense.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!