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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

The quite famous FOSS developer Poul-Henning Kamp (aka PHK) has posted his feedback to the EU regarding European Open Digital Ecosystems [version2.dk] and their call for evidence [europa.eu]. 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) [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Europe's Plan to Ditch US Tech Giants is Built on Open Source - and It's Gaining Steam [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Euro Techies Call for Sovereign Fund to Escape US Dependency [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Petition on EU Linux Operating System in Public Administrations [soylentnews.org]

Original Submission