: Call for Evidence casts FOSS as a way to break US dependence

The European Commission has launched a fresh consultation into open source, setting out its ambitions for Europe’s developer communities to go beyond propping up US tech giants’ platforms.

In a “Call for Evidence” published this week, Brussels says the EU’s reliance on non-European technology suppliers (read: US tech giants) has become a strategic liability, limiting choice, weakening competitiveness, and creating supply chain risks across everything from cloud services to critical infrastructure. The consultation, which will run from January 6 to February 3, is an early move toward a formal strategy on “European Open Digital Ecosystems,” which would treat open source as core infrastructure rather than a nice-to-have.

According to the Commission, dependence on foreign vendors makes it harder for Europe to control its digital stack, potentially opening the door to security and resilience issues in sensitive sectors. Open source offers a way out of that bind by underpinning “a diverse portfolio of high-quality and secure digital solutions” that can act as viable alternatives to proprietary platforms, the EC said.

  • Nico198X@europe.pubEnglish
    1·
    8 days ago

    look at the success Steam has made prying power away from Microsoft by investing into Linux.

    Freedom is right there, just invest in it and we all benefit.

  • Andy@slrpnk.netEnglish
    1·
    9 days ago

    Thank fucking God that they’re finally waking up. This is long overdue.

  • FauxLiving@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    8 days ago

    This is absolutely massive for the FOSS community. A sovereign nation has resources that dwarf anything that the FOSS community has ever had access to.

    Now, they just need to repeal the anti-circumvention laws. That’ll cut the US tech sector deeply by allowing us to use the products that we pay for in the ways that we want.

  • smeg@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    9 days ago

    And in 10 years they’ll agree to a small website that suggests that maybe Europe might want to open a place to store source code that’s European hosted… In another five years.

    • manxu@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      You are not wrong. Methinks a lot of Europe’s lack of digital infrastructure is related to the mountains of red tape every person and company in the EU has to face. It’s really discouraging.

      • traceur201@piefed.socialEnglish
        1·
        8 days ago

        The reason for a lack of development is basically entirely economics. expensive to make, and difficult to make money on since the established players can already operate for cheap and even economically bully new players