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Well, Linux does originate from Scandinavia (Linus Torvalds is Finland Swedish), and it's open source, so nothing stops us from building operating systems on to
by Svenskunganka 9y ago
Well, Linux does originate from Scandinavia (Linus Torvalds is Finland Swedish), and it's open source, so nothing stops us from building operating systems on top of Linux. But there are however a lot of good Linux-based operating systems out there already (open source, too), and the problem would rather be what comes pre-installed with the machine you buy. If Microsoft for example can't ensure the EU that Windows doesn't contain backdoors for the NSA for example, the EU could regulate the PC market to favor, say, Ubuntu over Windows pre-installed. But I really don't think it would be a good idea to do that.
I do however think that our government agencies and militaries should be forced to run Linux. They already have a problem of being too reliant on Windows for pretty much everything.
- cabalamat 9y ago> If Microsoft for example can't ensure the EU that Windows doesn't contain backdoors for the NSA for example What counts as ensurance? Simply MS saying "no backdoors" clearly isn't good enough. Open sourcing the whole OS, to make it harder to find backdoors, would help.
- Svenskunganka 9y agoYeah that's the tricky part. I don't think the EU could make Microsoft open source their Windows, but I guess something along the lines of Microsoft having to give access to their source code to a team of EU security researchers that audits and looks for backdoors would be a start. But even that isn't foolproof.