EU OS: A Fedora-based distro 'for the public sector'
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I just looked into how easy it would be to install nvidia drivers on openSUSE and it's not as great as Fedora for comparison, that's one of the only 2 down sides I've found so far. The other downside is a personal preference one, for many it's an upside, and it would be an upside for anyone basing an entire distro on it, and that's how there's nothing fancy installed alongside openSUSE, it's not bloated. No starship prompt in the terminal, no proprietary codecs etc.
I like how openSUSE defaults to a lot of BTRFS subvolumes for almost each important root directory and comes preinstalled with snapper, that's very neat. And it's so nice to use YaST, what a treat. While Fedora does also have patterns, getting to use a graphical installer with YaST is so nice.
I'm glazing a lot for someone that doesn't daily run it, so maybe I should just switch one of these days, haha. Maybe when my Nobara installation dies.Yeah I have used opensuse for the past couple years (still do!) but while there is plenty to like, if I were to do a reinstall I would likely move back to Fedora.
Then again, I basically never use YaST, which I suppose is one of the main song points.
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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.
As much as I love what they're doing, tieing an OS to a specific region via name seems like the opposite of Open Source values..
Then again, I suppose it could just be forked into a more generalized version -
If the EU were concerned about the US jurisdiction of Linux projects it could pick:
- OpenSuSE (org based in Germany)
- Mint (org based in Ireland)
- Manjaro (org based in France/Germany, and based of Arch)
- Ubuntu (org based in UK)
However if they didn't care, then they could just use Fedora or other US based distros.
I think it would be a good idea for the EU to adopt linux officially, and maybe even have it's own distro, but I'm not sure this Fedora base makes sense. Ironically this may also be breaching EU trademarks as it's masquerading as an official project by calling itself EU OS.
I'd add:
Mageia (French)
Zorin OS (Ireland)
Ufficio Zero (Italy)
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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.
Meanwhile https://www.europarl.europa.eu/petitions/en/petition/content/0729%252F2024/html/Linux%2Bstatt%2BWindows just closed with 2474 Supporters
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I wonder how much work is entailed in transforming Fedora in to a distro that meets some definition of the word "Sovereign"
Personally I wouldn't want to make a project like this be dependent on the whims of a US defense contractor like RedHat/IBM, especially after what happened with CentOS.
But it's a good starting point. Better than inventing everything from the scratch.
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Shame that Brexit happened, otherwise they could go with Canonical's Ubuntu
I'm not sure if this is satire, because if yes, well played, if not, Fuck That.
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Why not use the existing Distros?
Most distros, not all, are based in, or run by, American legal entities.
Redhat, Rocky, Alma, Debian, etc - all legally American. This is a problem if the US requires sanctions against another country. All of those cannot legally supply products to Russia now, but in the future who's to say what other countries the US will sanction? People are only now starting to realise that sanctions can be applied to software too, and many countries are entirely reliant upon US Software. (Seriously, do a quick audit - 90% of our tech company's stack is US originated)
Alternatives: Suse (German) Ubuntu (UK, but based on Debian, so likely subject to supply chain restrictions).
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I just looked into how easy it would be to install nvidia drivers on openSUSE and it's not as great as Fedora for comparison, that's one of the only 2 down sides I've found so far. The other downside is a personal preference one, for many it's an upside, and it would be an upside for anyone basing an entire distro on it, and that's how there's nothing fancy installed alongside openSUSE, it's not bloated. No starship prompt in the terminal, no proprietary codecs etc.
I like how openSUSE defaults to a lot of BTRFS subvolumes for almost each important root directory and comes preinstalled with snapper, that's very neat. And it's so nice to use YaST, what a treat. While Fedora does also have patterns, getting to use a graphical installer with YaST is so nice.
I'm glazing a lot for someone that doesn't daily run it, so maybe I should just switch one of these days, haha. Maybe when my Nobara installation dies.My daily driver is an nvidia laptop with opensuse, takes like one afternoon to get everything ready with barely any former Linux experience.
Just use zypper (or yast) to add the proprietary nvidia repository (or nouveau) and install your drivers. Install everything else you need through zypper (or yast or flatpak). Familiarise yourself with keybinds, set new keybinds (not needed of course but its nice to know keybinds - if you're using KDE already they'll probably be the same anyway). Select KDE's dark "breeze for OpenSUSE" theme (or some other theme, but breeze for opensuse just is so polished). Configure other preferences (night light from sundown to sunrise, set up Firefox sync (if you use that), connect to onedrive or whichever cloud you're using, ... . Done. No need to wait
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If the EU were concerned about the US jurisdiction of Linux projects it could pick:
- OpenSuSE (org based in Germany)
- Mint (org based in Ireland)
- Manjaro (org based in France/Germany, and based of Arch)
- Ubuntu (org based in UK)
However if they didn't care, then they could just use Fedora or other US based distros.
I think it would be a good idea for the EU to adopt linux officially, and maybe even have it's own distro, but I'm not sure this Fedora base makes sense. Ironically this may also be breaching EU trademarks as it's masquerading as an official project by calling itself EU OS.
Mint and Ubuntu have Debian as an upstream, don't they?
Debian is a US legal entity, so if it was required to sanction countries, it feels that software built with it would likely be restricted.
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Shame that Brexit happened, otherwise they could go with Canonical's Ubuntu
Why restrict it to EU and not Europe?
Or better still, somehow make it universal and not subject to the whims of one political nutbar.
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I wonder how much work is entailed in transforming Fedora in to a distro that meets some definition of the word "Sovereign"
Personally I wouldn't want to make a project like this be dependent on the whims of a US defense contractor like RedHat/IBM, especially after what happened with CentOS.
I didn’t know red hat was working for the US government. Can you tell me in what way?
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As much as I love what they're doing, tieing an OS to a specific region via name seems like the opposite of Open Source values..
Then again, I suppose it could just be forked into a more generalized versionThis is specifically for the public sector. The fact that it is open source make it adaptable to different scenarios.
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As much as I love what they're doing, tieing an OS to a specific region via name seems like the opposite of Open Source values..
Then again, I suppose it could just be forked into a more generalized versionEurope isn't a region, it's a brand.
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alternative POV: it’s entirely FOSS so there’s little control that can be exerted from its use. it’s also entirely free, so use is extracting value without providing anything in return. by its use, you’re taking resources to maintain, host, etc and providing nothing in return
similar reason to why i don’t use ecosia with an ad blocker: by blocking ads you’re using their resources without giving back and thus you’re taking resources away from the charity
This is true, but then why not base it off Guix (the GNU distro)? ..I'm sure Fedora is full of binary blobs and not-so-free software.
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Most distros, not all, are based in, or run by, American legal entities.
Redhat, Rocky, Alma, Debian, etc - all legally American. This is a problem if the US requires sanctions against another country. All of those cannot legally supply products to Russia now, but in the future who's to say what other countries the US will sanction? People are only now starting to realise that sanctions can be applied to software too, and many countries are entirely reliant upon US Software. (Seriously, do a quick audit - 90% of our tech company's stack is US originated)
Alternatives: Suse (German) Ubuntu (UK, but based on Debian, so likely subject to supply chain restrictions).
Can't we just keep going with Ubuntu and fork it the moment the US wants to do anything funny
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Mint and Ubuntu have Debian as an upstream, don't they?
Debian is a US legal entity, so if it was required to sanction countries, it feels that software built with it would likely be restricted.
Debian is open source though. So unless they make it closed source we can keep using it.
Making it closed source would probably kill it and a fork would take its place.
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Well, I don't know about Valve being worried about community distro.
Did something change?
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Europe isn't a region, it's a brand.
Europe isn't a brand, it's a lifestyle.
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Scammers never let a good global crisis get in their way.
- Rebadge a distro and say it's fromm the EU
- .....????
- Profit!
- Collect a hefty donation from EU
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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.
Great sentiment I guess but I don't see any reason to believe this will amount to anything.
