EU OS: Europe tests a public Linux to phase out Microsoft

Europe wants its own Windows: a Linux for all public administration

The European Union could replace Windows with a proprietary operating system across its entire public administration, from companies to schools. It is called EU OS, relies on Linux, and its proof of concept is already underway. That is the headline circulating through media across Europe. The fine print is far less epic: what was published is a draft outlining the project's approach, and the signatory is not Brussels.

The text consists of a single landing page, circulated as if it were an official Commission plan. Some state bluntly: it is an author's draft, reproduced as news everywhere. And the detail that confuses the most technical observers: the chosen base is Fedora, an American distribution, when there were plenty of European candidates.

Should we create a European Excel or Word?

No. The dominant technical argument holds that the office software problem ceased to be so years ago: much of the work software are web applications running in the browser on Linux servers, and any distribution runs an identical browser to Windows without breaking a sweat. For the rest, the reference points to LibreOffice, the leading open-source suite.

The reasonable doubt is not the office suite, but the ecosystem. Departmental programs, old plugins, templates with macros, office printers, and digital signatures that only work on Windows. That is where a real migration gets stuck, not in copy and paste.

The cost mess: contracts, consultants, and flag-waving

Here appears the argument that weighs most heavily against the project and has nothing to do with technology. With Microsoft, says the more pragmatic criticism, you sign a framework agreement and it is closed: you know how much you pay and what you get. With a proprietary development, distributions, adaptations, support, and tenders enter the picture. That 'I want that red button green' equals more consulting and implementation, and no one guarantees who will support that modification in three years.

The other expressed antiestéticar is the usual one: that the project becomes a structure to place personnel and contract endlessly, regardless of whether the system ends up being used. The money is not made once; it is maintained every year. And regarding European funds for digital transformation, some openly ask where the return has gone.

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The precedent of regional Linux

Spain has already tried, on a smaller scale. There were proprietary distributions by autonomous community. They fell into oblivion one after another, with none achieving critical mass. Critics describe a recurring pattern: a tender, an awarded company, and, over time, a project that fades away.

From that experience remain two uncomfortable lessons. The first is that public software is sustained not by launch budget but by continuous maintenance. The second is that if you do not force hardware manufacturers to deliver decent drivers, the user eventually returns to what works for them.

Linux already rules servers; the desktop is another war

It is necessary to put things in perspective. Linux was born in Finland, meaning it is European in origin, although almost no one remembers this. World supercomputers use it practically one hundred percent. The servers supporting the internet, around 63%. Phones, the vast majority, run on Android, which relies on the same kernel. Everything critical already works there.

What is missing is the desktop of the average civil servant, and that terrain has been occupied by Windows for three decades. It is not a problem of technical capacity, but of inertia, contracts, and habits.

Where is EU OS right now

Nowhere. There is no official decision, no calendar, and no organization that has assumed the project. What exists is a group of volunteer developers who, according to the proposal itself, will only offer the work to the Commission when they demonstrate it is viable.

With this starting point, full migration will not arrive soon. If anything, it will begin with a pilot in a handful of machines and will be measured in years. The most honest prediction is the usual one: it will be announced with great fanfare, a considerable budget will be spent, and, unless someone assumes maintenance with a stable budget, the desktop will remain Microsoft's for the next decade.