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Understanding Public Sector Desktop Needs ​

Day 1 of the EU OS Hackathon in Paris provided a valuable forum for rich discussions with participating experts and members of key public organizations from across Europe. These exchanges illuminated the deep-seated needs and persistent challenges public administrations face regarding their desktop operating systems. The dialogue here echoes a wider, urgent conversation across the continent: how can public administrations reclaim their digital sovereignty and build more resilient, transparent, and cost-effective IT systems? Understanding the needs and constraints of these future users is paramount, as this will shape not only what EU OS builds, but critically, why and how it aims to serve its intended users.

Core Challenges: A Call for Sovereignty, Security, and Sense ​

Ours conversations underscored a clear set of priorities:

  1. Digital Sovereignty and Control: A dominant theme was the urgent need for public administrations to regain genuine control over their core digital infrastructure. The reliance on non-European, proprietary OS solutions raises concerns about data governance, vendor lock-in, imposed upgrade cycles, and the broader implications for independent decision-making. There's a strong desire for solutions that are transparent, auditable, and aligned with European values and regulatory frameworks.

  2. Robust Security and Manageable Compliance: Security is paramount, but it must be achievable and maintainable at scale. Administrations grapple with securing vast fleets of diverse machines, ensuring timely patching, preventing configuration drift, and meeting stringent compliance requirements. The complexity of current solutions can often be a barrier in itself.

  3. Scalable Manageability and Administrative Efficiency: IT departments in the public sector are often stretched. They require tools and methodologies that allow them to efficiently deploy, update, manage, and support thousands of desktops without an exponential increase in resources. Consistency across the fleet and the ability to enforce policies centrally are critical.

  4. Cost-Effectiveness and Sustainability: Public funds demand responsible spending. The escalating costs of proprietary licenses (aka "techflation") and the forced obsolescence of hardware due to OS end-of-life mandates are significant pain points. Solutions that extend hardware lifecycles and reduce direct software costs are highly sought after.

How EU OS Aims to Address These Needs ​

The EU OS project is architecting its Proof-of-Concept and further developments to directly address these core requirements:

  • A Foundation of Sovereignty: By building on a Free and Open Source Software (F/OSS) stack (Fedora Kinoite, KDE Plasma), EU OS inherently offers transparency and freedom from proprietary licensing. The goal is to provide an OS that public administrations can trust, understand, and adapt.

  • Security by Design: The choice of an immutable OS core is fundamental. This design drastically reduces the attack surface by preventing unauthorized changes and ensuring configuration consistency. Combined with atomic updates (and easy rollbacks), strong encryption (like the FIDO2-enabled full-disk encryption worked during the hackathon), and the potential for vetted application repositories (via Flatpak), EU OS aims for a proactively secure environment that simplifies compliance.

  • Streamlined Manageability: The concept of centrally built, bootable OS images (bootc model) and the exploration of fleet management tools (like #Foreman, despite its current adaptation challenges for desktops) are geared towards simplifying deployment and maintenance. The layered customization approach further allows for standardized yet tailored configurations, reducing administrative overhead.

  • Long-Term Value and Sustainability: Linux's ability to run efficiently on a wider range of hardware, including older machines, directly counters planned obsolescence. By eliminating OS licensing costs, EU OS also offers a more predictable and potentially lower total cost of ownership.

The discussions at the hackathon have been invaluable in confirming that the technical direction of EU OS aligns with the very real, pressing needs of European public administrations. It’s clear that the demand is not just for a different OS, but for a holistic, manageable, and sovereign desktop solution. The ongoing work on the EU OS PoC aims to demonstrate that such a solution is not only possible but within reach. To further refine our understanding and ensure EU OS truly meets the mark, we actively seek additional feedback on these needs and challenges from interested parties, particularly CIOs and system administrators within the public sector. You can contact us TODO CONTACT.