Why Fedora? They're basically Red Hat in a trench coat. I'd go with a EU based distro like Suse.
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025
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Having seen SuSE destroy collaborators like OL, CNC and probably Turbo, I'm okay never even working with them as a customer. I intend to avoid them until death.
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I was wondering the same when I came across it a few hours ago and decided to look into it, apparently it’s because it was decided to use an atomic distribution as a base and Suses is apparently not considered stable enough by them. (I can not argue the validity of these statements given either way, that’s just what I found in one of their gitlab issues . if someone wants to look at it for themselves, searching for Fedora on the issue tracker should bring it up)
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Fedora Origin: USA
No, thanks. 🙅
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
I think the point is, you just don't support products from countries led by dictators. I wouldn't use an OS from North Korea, no matter how free it was. LOL
In my case, the US is worse than North Korea, because they threaten the existence of my country (Canada) on a daily basis.
And for the EU, they have as much reason to distance themselves from Americans than I do.
There are far too many alternatives from other countries to even entertain an American distro. My opinion, anyway.
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.
If they needed it, they could still add extra software and blobs to Guix, sourced by the EU... and I think doing that would allow it to carve itself a niche (a version of Guix with more compatibility would be interesting for many) rather than sticking a white label on Fedora and call it something else. I don't see a lot of value on this over just using Fedora directly, I'm not sure if it's true that Fedora & Red Hat do not benefit from this... wouldn't their support agents be able to just start providing support also to EU OS customers if they (both customers and support agents) want? Wouldn't it make it more interesting for private companies working closely with the government to choose Red Hat as a partner when it comes to enterprise Linux?
I guess we'll have to see how much they customize it, but in my experience with previous attempts, I'm expecting just a re-skin, just Fedora with different theme. At most, with some extra software preinstalled. I don't think that's a threat to Fedora or Red Hat, but rather an opportunity for expansion.
I'm sure Fedora is full of binary blobs and not-so-free software
fedora is staunchly opposed to non-free software in their default distro … that spat a few weeks ago with OBS was related to that AFAIK
unsure about like signed blobs for “security” services but i imagine they’d be very limited, and optional
rather than sticking a white label on Fedora and call it something else
but for what benefit? no matter what’s trying to be achieved, starting with a very full-featured, robust OS that’s widely used is going to serve you very well… not just technically (less work for the same outcome), but for human reasons
there are loads of guides out there for how to fix fedora issues, few for guix… loads of RPMs that are compatible with fedora, and i can only imagine fewer packages for guix
and then if you’re talking about server OSes - and actually workstations too - managing them with tools like ansible etc… fedora is going to have off the shelf solutions
just Fedora with different theme
well, the actual software and configuration i’d argue aren’t the important part - owning the infrastructure is the important part… package mirrors, distribution methods (eg a website), being able to veto or replace certain packages, and the branding (or regulation) that draws people to it… being able to roll out a security patch to every installation without a 3rd party okaying it, for example
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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?
I didn’t know red hat was working for the US government. Can you tell me in what way?
tldr: https://www.redhat.com/en/solutions/public-sector/dod
Various documents in (what wikipedia now calls) the "2010s global surveillance disclosures" showed that many components of NSA (and other Five Eyes partners) infrastructure is run on RedHat Enterprise Linux.
According to a 2008 study by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, private contractors make up 29% of the workforce in the United States Intelligence Community and cost the equivalent of 49% of their personnel budgets. RedHat is part of that industry.
It's often illuminating to search a company's job listings for words like "clearance". There are currently only eight listings for that query at RedHat but sometimes they have many more. Here (archive) is a current one. Here is another one archived last year.
Here is the text, in case the archive site loses it
Consulting Architect, TS/SCI + Polygraph Clearance Required (Fort Meade)
remote type Remote
locations Remote US MD
time type Full time
posted on Posted 30+ Days Ago
job requisition id R-038935
About The Job
Red Hat's Public Sector Consulting team is looking for a Consulting Architect with a solid background in Linux, container platforms, IT Automation, virtualization technologies and an active TS/SCI + Polygraph security clearance to join us remotely in Maryland. In this role, you will help Intelligence Community customers design and operate core infrastructure that can scale to the demands of the modern digital marketplace. You’ll work with customers in small teams to build, test, and iterate over innovative application prototypes attached to real business value. You’ll use a variety of modern application development practices, along with emerging technologies from open source communities to get it done. As a Consulting Architect, you will help us become the defining technology company of the 21st century built on open source principles. You’ll also help us to fulfill our vision by guiding the strategic success of our customers using Red Hat's solutions by building the industry's best team of open source developers and partnering with our customers to build the premium software systems of tomorrow.
This position requires frequent on-site work at Fort Meade and an active TS/SCI + Polygraph security clearance.
What You Will Do
- Deliver successful discovery, analysis, and design workshops for teams of technical and non-technical backgrounds that shape the customer use cases and architecture design decisions
- Scope delivery projects and guide customers through successful pilot and production deployments
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- Work with the open source community to engineer labs-based software solutions designed to further accelerate our customers' success at Labs
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What You Will Bring
- Active Top Secret w/ SCI security clearance + Polygraph
- Broad knowledge of Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux
- Broad and deep technical experience with virtualization, container, and cloud technologies
- Solid Linux system administration skills; Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)-level Linux skills or better; certifications are a plus but not required
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The following are considered a plus:
- Practical experience with Red Hat Satellite or similar systems-management technologies
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- Experience with datacenter automation tools and processes
- System administration or datacenter architecture experience
- Windows system administration
- Ruby, Python, or PowerShell programming experience
- Ability to study and learn quickly and put new topics into practice
- Passion for open source software
#LI-REMOTE #LI-AL2
The salary range for this position is $138,350.00 - $228,310.00. Actual offer will be based on your qualifications.
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But it's a good starting point. Better than inventing everything from the scratch.
I read the sovereign to mean something like an unified platform for EU institutions, that you can dev and train people on.
dependent on the whims of a US defense contractor like RedHat/IBM
A very good point.
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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
Great sentiment I guess but I don't see any reason to believe this will amount to anything.
Based on a US distro whose versions are supported for 1 year, and "built to the requirements for the EU public sector" (because the EU public sector has one coherent set of requirements and the dev knows them, even if he doesn't list them out).
This is most probably good-intentioned and it is admirable how the dev sprung into action, but it's naive at best.
I thought it was naive as well, but because they based it on a mayfly distro that has really great validation and reliability but it's gone in a fortnight.
Wither Almalinix or Cloudlinux or PCLinuxOS or Mandriva? Three of them have really solid support structures and at least one of them has amazing compatibility options with libraries for services.
There are options. A few of them could be better than fedora while fedora is still owned by redhat as redhat dies from suffocation -- hell, its all just fucking ancillary bull (Ansible) they sell now, as its metastatic cancer (Systemd) eats it alive.
EUbuntu?
They should call it EUROS.
European Union Redstar Operating System?
Fedora based actually
EUdora, since I don't think the mail client is still under development
Family Feudora
@SpiceDealer Sorry, what ? How can it be made in EU if it's a Fedora fork/derivative ?
I mean Fedora is open source but if they really wanted a european base, they could have gone with opensuse. AFAIK opensuse is the only fully european linux distro plus they use many of the same tech that redhat/fedora does.
Ultimately I think it doesn't matter too much since even the linux foundation is based in the US and large parts of what makes the linux desktop are maintained by non-EU companies (on top of all the major projects hosted by Github, Gitlab including most of Flathub). If its all open source, I think the risks are pretty low e.g. huawei was able to use Android despite all the restrictions.
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Is this made by European union I wonder
From the subheading on the ReadMe.
Community-led Proof-of-Concept for a free Operating System for the EU public sector 🇪🇺
So it's made by the EU in the sense that the maintainers are likely citizens of the EU, I guess.
Depending on who the group is ... it is good to first do a thorough check on who the group is ... it can just as likely be a group of scam artists that are riding on some nationalism band wagon happening around the world these days.
They could, and if I was an EU government entity, I would do my homework on what they were offering, even if they were acting 100% in good faith.
However, helping governments get away from the clutches of the likes of Apple and Microsoft seems like a noble goal, and if this idea spurs that change regardless of the adoption of this distro, I think it will have been a net positive.
If they are honest about what they are suggesting ... the first step would be to be explicitly clear about who THEY are and WHO they represent.
I really don't care that much about the technical side of things because I'm not that technically knowledgeable. However, I am more apt to trust the judgment or recommendations of prominent people in the industry (that are not corporately attached or controlled) ... I would also trust public institutions or journalists or academics with a track record of social advocacy and wanting to represent people instead of corporations or businesses. I would also trust politicians or political advocates that mostly represent people and public institutions.
I really don't put my faith in any one person no matter who they claim to be to just say they want to build something meaningful and give me no information on their background, who they worked for, who they represent or what kind of people or organizations they associate with. There have been far too many 'good natured' technocrats and technology people from the past decade or two who claim to say that they want to change the world for the better and then end up wanting to burn it all down for a profit.
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