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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 94 declined, 23 accepted (117 total, 19.66% accepted)

Submission + - France announces move toward Linux (numerique.gouv.fr)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: Looks like 2026 may be the year of the Linux government desktop. We have announcement from multiple European countries and fderal states and now La France steps in. Budget minister David Amiel stressed:

We can no longer accept that our data, our infrastructure and our strategic decisions depend on solutions over which we have no control – neither the rules, nor the pricing, nor the developments, nor the risks. The transition is underway: our ministries, our operators and our industrial partners are now embarking on an unprecedented initiative to map our dependencies and strengthen our digital sovereignty.

Also the EUOS proof-of-concept project (not a project of the European Union, but it should be) rethinks how Linux would be deployed in the public sector.

Submission + - UFC-Que Choisir Takes Ubisoft to French Court Over The Crew Shutdown (reuters.com)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: When Ubisoft pulled the plug on The Crew’s servers without warning, players were left with a worthless game they’d already paid for. Now, consumer watchdog UFC-Que Choisir is fighting back, demanding gamers’ right to play regardless of publisher whims. Supported by the “Stop Killing Games” movement, this landmark case challenges unfair terms before the Créteil Judicial Court (Val-de-Marne near Paris), and aims to protect players from disappearing games.

Submission + - OnlyOffice CEO objects Euro-Office license changes (onlyoffice.com)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: Lev Bannov of OnlyOffice is concerned about the Euro-Office inclusion of Onlyoffice with trade marks removed: "We liked the AGPL v3 license because its 7th clause allows us to ensure that our code retains its original attributes, so that users are able to clearly identify the developers and the brand behind the program.". Euro-Office is a more comprehensive office productivity package of IONOS which aims to challenge Microsoft Office 365 and Google Workspaces offerings in Europe.

Submission + - Google Sounds Alarm Over Europe's Tech Sovereignty Package

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: Kent Walker, Alphabets Global Affairs VP and Chief Legal Officer, pushes against open source policies in the European Union. Mr. Walker is not a European citizen or resident.

The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness. According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.

Submission + - Consultation Without Continuity: Open Source and the Digital Networks Act (europa.eu)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: The recent European Commission’s call for evidence on open ecosystems, led by Leontina Sandu of the DIGIT department, attracted an impressive number of 1,658 contributions. Open Source developers demonstrated their creativity by developing tools to extract and analyse these contributions. Yet, the Commission’s handling of open source remains highly inconsistent. Strikingly, the recent Digital Networks Act (DNA) legislative proposal of the European Commission does not even acknowledge open source or the Open Internet Stack. How absurd is it in 2026 to talk about internet infrastructure without saying a single word about open source?

Submission + - European Open Digital Ecosystem Strategy (europa.eu)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: The European Commission is stepping up its efforts behind open-source software, rolling out a new open ecosystem strategy to support EU technological sovereignty, competitiveness and cybersecurity. Building on President von der Leyen’s political guidelines, the initiative will review the Commission’s 2020–2023 open-source approach and set out concrete actions to strengthen Europe’s open-source ecosystem across key areas such as cloud, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and industrial technologies. The strategy will be presented alongside the upcoming Cloud and AI Development Act, forming a broader policy package aimed at reducing strategic dependencies and boosting Europe’s digital resilience.

Submission + - European policymakers discuss digital independence (youtube.com)

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: As the new term of the European Commission begins, policymakers from various political groups (Agenda, Stream) convened yesterday in the European Parliament to discuss strategies for ensuring Europe's Digital Independence and addressing the challenges of technology lock-in. A key takeaway from the discussions was that relying solely on open-source contributors for the Eurostack is not enough—there's a pressing need for substantial public investment.

Submission + - EU asks the public about data privacy framework with the US

Submitted by Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: The European Commission asks for public input on their data privacy framework with the US. A French contributor spilled the milk:

The DPF doesn't protect any of us in the EU from NSA spying and Fisa 702 & Cloud Act legal requests from US Justice

.The agreements prior to the EU-US DPF were invalidated by the European Court for these reasons.

Wine

Submission + - Wine project frustration and forking (winehq.org)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "Wine attempts to implement the Windows API layer on Linux. There are some limitations and an important one is the missing DIB engine, bug 421. Chris Howe comprehends the dissatisfaction of core developers with the abitrary project governance:

Sorry to sound like a stuck record but the Wine website still lists "write a DIB engine" as a requirement, and every time someone does, the patches dissapear down a hole because they're "not right". Someone document what "would be right", or take "write a DIB engine" off the list. I'd love to have a go at documenting it myself, but I don't have the time to reverse engineer it from a few years' worth of rejected solutions.

The latest attempt of Massimo Del Fedel satisfied all requirements set previously for the long standing bug 421 and his optional engine seems to work fine by all Wine quality standards. He seems to be extraordinary stubborn and insusceptible to mobbing. Usually it is extremely frustrating for developers when the goal post is constantly moved. When is the right time that project members should fork when their chief maintainer does not respond anymore or pursues an adverse commercial agenda?"

Government

Submission + - Secret EU Open Source migration study surfaced (stefanoforenza.com)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "For 4 years MEP Marco Cappato tried to get access to the EU Council open source migration study because he is a member of a responsible IT oversight committee in the European Parliament. His repeated requests for access where finally answered by the Council with the alleged loss of the study. Now, the study finally was gathered and published on the internet. It is embarrassing! Upon request the Gartner Michael Silver claimed there were no mature public Linux installations in Europe "I have not spoken to any sizable deployments of Linux on the desktop and only one or two StarOffice deployments", gartner spread patent and TCO fud. Also the European Patent Office participated in the project although it is no EU institution."
The Almighty Buck

Submission + - No Russian Operating System (cnews.ru) 1

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "The project by 27 Russian parties to develop a National Operating System for Russia does not take off, yet. Ilya Ponomarev, the responsible technology committee chair in the Duma, received a negative response from the government. The government argues that the project and Open Standards would not impact the society and economy. Parliament members regret the slashback for Russia's digital independence. Ponomarev wants to find other interested partners in the Government now."
Patents

Submission + - European Open Source Software Strategy leaked (wikileaks.org)

Submitted by
Elektroschock
Elektroschock writes: "A working draft of the European Union Open Source Software Strategy was published by Wikileaks. According to Wikileaks meta information it was co-authored by Jonathan Zuck from the Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), a lobby hitman for Microsoft; The European Commission lets ACT and CompTIA participate in all working groups of the European Open Source Strategy which defines Europe's future open source approach. A blue editor questions the objectives: 'Regarding the "Europe Digital Independence" our [working] group thinks it is, in general, not an issue.' "European digital independence" is a phrase coined by EU-Commissioner V.Reding, that is what her European Software Strategy (ESS) was supposed to be about. She didn't reveal that lobbyists or vendors with vested interests would write the strategy for the Commission. The leaked document's language on patent licensing sounds a bit odd and controversial to me given the recent frontal patent assaults on the European automative business by Microsoft."

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How many Unix hacks does it take to change a light bulb? Let's see, can you use a shell script for that or does it need a C program?

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