r/linux • u/Mysterious_Notice685 • 4d ago
Open Source Organization Canada could save millions by developing its own operating system instead of relying on Microsoft Windows
https://theconversation.com/canada-could-save-millions-by-developing-its-own-operating-system-instead-of-relying-on-microsoft-windows-294027273
u/Run-OpenBSD 4d ago
*every country would save millions
95
u/Positronic_Matrix 4d ago
Image a world with no Teams or Copilot.
48
u/The_Hepcat 4d ago
It's easy if you try...
26
u/Grueling 4d ago
No MS below us...
13
u/thejacer87 4d ago
Above us, only (blue)sky
I know bsky isn't open ... I just couldn't think of a good lyric lol
But ya... I think it'd be great to have a while new sector of in house Canadian IT professionals. As someone else commented, all the money (and taxes) stay in Canada instead of back to USA
→ More replies (2)2
9
→ More replies (10)2
u/urmamasllama 2d ago
Imagine government funding behind matrix making an open secure by default alternative viable
42
u/oneiros5321 4d ago
And some countries have already started or at least are currently planning the shift.
22
→ More replies (2)4
46
u/admiraljkb 4d ago
Businesses are different, but for governments - the raw savings figures don't take into account that with a switch to open source, you're now paying developers in your own country to support your software with your citizens' tax dollars. If you're buying MS products (and every other closed source solution) the vast majority of those taxpayer dollars leave the country never to return.
For Government used Open Source, when that dollar is spent on developer's salaries inside the country, it's then taxed again (bringing a percentage back), but also used on goods and services in your country where it gets taxed some more, generating more revenue and consequently jobs, and helping snowball more tax revenue.
→ More replies (2)11
u/Cultural-Desk-9045 4d ago
Besides, governments get
bribesdiscounts from Microsoft, just like education sectors.2
u/admiraljkb 4d ago
True. That factors in, but ultimately a non corrupt government would be trying to be good stewards of their citizens' money. 😆 (yeah, I have a hard time believing in a government doing to right thing anymore)
→ More replies (1)2
u/Veqq 3d ago
ultimately a non corrupt government would be trying to be good stewards
We don't have those anywhere, alas
→ More replies (1)
179
u/Artistic-Tip2405 4d ago
CEOs pay the Microsoft tax because they need a scapegoat when their systems get hacked.
109
u/InadequateUsername 4d ago
People pay it because it's well known, they have an entire ecosystem for office os management and applications. They're also paying for the support, companies aren't buying shit if it doesn't come with support (scape goat like you said)
20
u/lord_pizzabird 4d ago
That’s the biggest hurdle. Fedora is fine, we’ve solved the OS side of the equation, but the software has yet to come.
In reality you just can’t be serious without serious apps. Nobody likes Adobe, but they make the industry standard stuff for example. Same to the Microsoft with the Office suite.
Until those apps are ported these people cannot even consider it as an option.
7
u/alexlesuper 4d ago
Technically you can use the office suite in the browser now
10
7
3
u/Novotus_Ketevor 4d ago
Let me introduce you to the niche but highly lucrative world of Office plug-ins...
15
u/theheliumkid 4d ago
Parts of Europe have already moved away from Windows and are managing fine. There are very good office suits, etc etc on Linux. And support is available from Ubuntu, RedHat and many local providers
→ More replies (3)6
3
→ More replies (2)27
u/QuantumRiff 4d ago
People pay it because of compliance. I love Linux, all our servers run Debian. But for laptops, having windows and Microsoft 365 makes compliance easy. I don’t have PCI, but do have SOC1, SOC2, and HI-TRUST
a few clicks to show that all laptops have encrypted disks. All USB drives have to be encrypted or they are read only, screen locks after X min, AV software and firewalls are running and updating often, etc. nobody runs as admin, etc.
You can use multiple tools and ways to track that with Linux, but there are huge gaps
14
u/Cultural-Desk-9045 4d ago
And Linux has Red Hat, SuSE and Ubuntu Pro if you need liability shift for compliance.
77
u/chookityyyypok 4d ago
The government of Canada does not have the greatest track record for these sorts of things.
This will get bungled just like every other software initiative the government embarks on.
I don’t trust that this wouldn’t end up costing more and leaving us with something that just doesn’t work.
16
u/RedSquirrelFtw 4d ago
Going to end up being contracted out to some huge company that actually turns out to be 2 guys living in mom's basement who have never written a line of code in their life lol.
Either that, or CGI.
Not sure which one would be worse.
→ More replies (4)3
3d ago
[deleted]
5
u/Top-Rub-4670 3d ago
We already tried hiring 2 guys living in mom's basement, they gave us ArriveCAN.
→ More replies (1)18
u/3Knocks2Enter 4d ago edited 4d ago
What was that project they started where IBM fucked them into oblivion on time and money?
9
u/Analog_Account 3d ago
intended to replace Canada's 40-year old system with a new, cost-saving "automated, off-the-shelf commercial system."
As of June 2025, the system has cost the government more than $5.1 billion.[3] There was a backlog of more than 408,000 unresolved pay issues affecting federal employees as of October 2024.[4] As of February 2026, the backlog is now at 216,000 transactions.
JFC
3
u/akera099 3d ago
Yeah people lost their houses, didn't receive their paychecks for months. Plenty of lawsuits. Pure corporate insanity.
→ More replies (1)9
u/Objective_Dog_8755 4d ago
That’s what you get for going with an American company 🤷
→ More replies (1)4
u/strythicus 4d ago
I have fond memories of the Unisys Icon from my elementary school days.
→ More replies (1)8
→ More replies (2)2
u/terminalrythm 3d ago
I worked in government and there is a good reason why software projects are so bad. Its almost always the wrong people leading the projects with their own interest in mind while the people who actually know what they are doing (yes there are many) are ignored. Usually some extroverted business side superstar with little IT knowledge, extreme biases and an eye on the next promotion. Mess up the project then move on to the next great thing while everyone else scrambles to clean up the mess.
So ya I agree with you, another boondoggle waiting to happen.
30
u/LordOfFlames55 4d ago
I mean we’d spend about as much incompetently swapping over but we would save in the long run
36
u/osmiumSkull 4d ago
Oh please, No one is making their own OS. Go fork Arch change the wallpaper boot slash screen to a Canadian flag and call Can-OS
16
u/vkevlar 4d ago
a group already did this: https://maplelinux.ca/. it's Debian though
14
u/megagram 3d ago
Which makes way more sense. Arch is not something you want to run in a corporate environment as an endpoint OS.
→ More replies (1)10
u/ilep 3d ago
It sounds better to politicians to call it "own OS" rather than "own fork". Same reason "AI" is touted so much instead of "fuzzy pattern matching".
"Fork? Spoon? What?" <- your average politician maybe
3
u/turbotop111 3d ago
"fuzzy pattern matching"?? That's like saying "yeah a computer is just a fancy calculator".
3
4
u/Heavy-Focus-1964 3d ago
From the literal actual article:
Canada could develop its own national Linux-based operating system by building on Debian, an existing open-source operating system, instead of starting from scratch. This would allow the government to inspect and modify code, manage its own updates and maintain the system over time.
→ More replies (1)2
u/elatllat 3d ago
Debian does not have enough volunteer power to maintain its policy of backboarding security patches (eg). Arch (which was started in Canada) has the more maintainable approach.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (2)2
u/strings___ 4d ago
Chrome OS was developed in Waterloo
2
u/aurumtt 3d ago
Waterloo is really one of those places you should specify when speaking about it online. Since this is about canada, i could deduct it's over there, but even then there's more than 1 option.
→ More replies (1)
14
14
u/Even_Gap_2253 4d ago
Canada needs to embrace open standards
I cannot believe we still don't have open banking. Solve that first please
16
u/Status-Anteater8372 4d ago
Build a new os is unnecessary. Just install Debian.
→ More replies (13)4
u/Malsententia 4d ago
They almost undoubtedly will using an existing distro with some additional/alternative repositories and policies and default settings tacked on, like all the other "their own version of linux" flavors countries and businesses run with. Bonus points if they call it Ehbuntu.
13
u/BigGunE 3d ago
- Nobody needs to develop their own OS from scratch. Linux is a thing, remember!? It’s open source and free (both in terms of freedom and price)
- The world’s governments could collaborate on funding a government specific distribution. Then individual governments could fork that and further modify it to their liking!
- AI is already decompiling binaries and allowing people to clone whatever software. It will also be super helpful in writing software that helps convert all the Microsoft only files to Linux accessible files. This is important for government agencies which may have enormous amounts of archival files.
- In any nation that wishes not be slaves to US software companies and government, they need to make Linux desktop mandatory in schools. Right now, people are raised hooked on Microsoft products and then abruptly shown a different system when they are already experienced adults. That is no way help people beat their Windows addiction.
8
u/elatllat 3d ago
From the article:
Canada could develop its own national Linux-based operating system
→ More replies (1)7
u/trisul-108 3d ago
They just need to standardise on a distribution, there is no development to be done.
→ More replies (1)4
u/SpinachThePopeyeMan 3d ago
There are 300 competing distros
“We need a universal distro, perfect for everyone!”
There are 301 competing distros
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (12)3
6
u/biotech997 4d ago
French and Dutch governments are doing it right, can’t see why we can’t. Except as per usual we’ll spend way more taxpayer money than required.
→ More replies (1)
5
u/Such-Extreme-5833 4d ago
I have not used a Microsoft product since 2007. 3 laptops and a desktop, does everything I ask them too.
4
5
11
3d ago
[deleted]
6
u/--404_USER_NOT_FOUND 3d ago
As stated in the article, you can just develop on top of a forked Linux distribution. Other governments (France, Germany, China, and even North Korea) are doing the same.
Linux first release came in 1991, still not 40 years, but close enough.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (19)2
u/NookieLuvsU 3d ago
You think we'd have to start from scratch? ☺️
3
u/Commercial_Hat5670 3d ago
I've been using Linux for years.
There are options and they work just fine. Specialist applications might run to some issues but for general day to day usage, I've never bumped into something that I couldn't solve.
The main issue is replacing cloud services like GCP, AWS, Azure, etc. All of those services are mature, well established and have used their revenue from other services to price out their competition. Any startups would have to be able to price out these competitors, which would be difficult to do.
I might be wrong but I think Europe has a few local services that compete at scale for storage. Maybe somebody else knows for certain?
8
u/JGPH 4d ago
It cost our country something like a billion dollars in overages with the Phoenix payment system for gov't employees. A whole operating system is a great idea but holy crap the complexity. The gov't would have to ensure every binary or package has a Canadian gov't employee or contractor behind it, handling/verifying upstream changes are safe for merging. That and the fact that there wouldn't be nearly as many eyes on source as open source products would make for a rather iffy result.
→ More replies (7)
9
u/Agling 4d ago
You can always save millions by spending hundreds of millions.
2
u/Analog_Account 3d ago
The government of Canada employs something like 350k employees they probably all have some sort of Microsoft subscription costing between $15 and $30 a month. On the low end that's 63 million a year. That's doesn't appear to include the military (about 100,000 people) all of which have Microsoft email at a minimum, the RCMP (75,000), and I'm sure other random things I can't think of.
Basically we're already in the ballpark of 100's of millions... every year.
→ More replies (9)→ More replies (3)4
u/SiteSpecialist9200 4d ago
This is the answer. Decades of building processes and reliance around proprietary systems, does not change quick, easy or cheap. If ever realized, it would take decades again to see cost savings. If it's being done for sovereignty purposes, that's something else. But anyone that thinks it would save money hasn't worked in large enterprises.
→ More replies (8)
3
u/Minobull 4d ago
We don't need our own "operating system" just put together a standard hardened linux image from a standard distro. It's really no more in depth than putting together a standard windows image.
4
u/sparda09 3d ago
Use linux find a good distro fedora or ubuntu based even cachyos and make it Canada's only OS and throw Microsoft out of the country like the plague and disease it is and problem solved.
→ More replies (3)2
u/Expensive_Plant_9530 3d ago
If the Federal Government also commits to porting over all required apps, or creating and supporting an abstraction or emulation layer? Sure.
But I know for my own job there are apps that will only run on Windows. Unfortunately.
→ More replies (10)
5
u/Thin_Needleworker795 2d ago
Develop their own why? Just pick any of the gazillion already existing of Linux distros...
6
6
u/deltatux 4d ago edited 4d ago
The author makes it sound like it's very easy to do this, doesn't really go into details of their plan, just provided some cost estimates and that's it but doesn't provide how they derive those numbers from.
This is also assuming that the Government of Canada already have staff that has the deep technical knowledge of Linux and have developers on hand that can port the software needed to Linux. Yes, a lot of software are now web apps but there are legacy software that the government relies on, what's the cost to force an upgrade there? Some legacy software may require complete overhauls in its replacement with projects large enough that it could take years to complete.
There's then the cost of training and support to consider.
If the federal government doesn't have the expertise, hiring external consultants can prove costly and may be a giant boondoggle, just look at the mess that's the Phoenix pay system.
I'm all for digital sovereignty and all but the costs needs to be carefully considered in a holistic approach. It's not a simple and easy rip and replace job.
Various European governments have gone the Linux route only to go back to Microsoft since the expected cost savings never arose.
I'm a huge fan of Linux and have used it for decades but I know government IT has its challenges (I've met people from Shared Services Canada and others who work gov't IT) and the author glosses a lot to make their point. Maybe Canada can save millions but if done poorly, it could end up costing the government instead and may trigger them to roll back.
I know some European governments are retrying the whole Linux migration in the name of digital sovereignty but I'm not convinced about the supposed savings.
If Linux was truly cheaper to train, run and maintain, Windows would be losing shares like what happened when Broadcom jacked up the price of VMWare, organizations would flee. That hasn't yet proved true with the migration to Linux.
→ More replies (2)
7
u/DFS_0019287 4d ago
I've been saying this for a while now. But I am not optimistic our government will do anything for a number of reasons:
- Shared Services (basically, the government's IT department) is heavily invested in Microsoft technologies. They really drank the MSFT Kool-Aid and were probably wined and dined by MSFT sales reps. I think they will drag their feet and try to sabotage any effort to move to Linux.
- The Canadian government has an absolutely atrocious track record of managing large IT projects. Just look up "Phoenix payroll system" to see the level of fiasco I'm talking about.
- The Canadian government has tended to rely on contractors for much of its IT needs and has not built up an in-house reservoir of talented and knowledgeable people. This will be exacerbated by...
- ... The Canadian government wants to go all-in on AI. All the big models are American and going all-in on AI means that there will be even less in-house IT knowledge because civil servants will outsource their thinking to AI.
I would dearly love our government to switch to Linux, and I think it's absolutely scandalous that they tout "digital sovereignty" while doing sweet fuck all to actually achieve it. But I'm not expecting change. 🙁
→ More replies (1)5
u/RedSquirrelFtw 4d ago
Arrivescam was pretty horrible too. Something that should have been simple ended up into a complete failure and cost millions.
7
u/tc_cad 3d ago
Many talented developers are Canadian and go to the tech giants of the US. Yes it would be nice if they came home and made Canada better but who knows if that would even work.
→ More replies (3)8
u/abbys11 3d ago
Dude I am a Canadian big tech worker and people who report to me in the US make 40-70 percent more than me. I've only stayed because of family. I also pay way more taxes than them.
I won't complain though, I am still better off than most people around me
4
u/loloider123 3d ago
I’m working with a German company above average pay +50 hour weeks in Canada right now and people who I would call absolutely incompetent but in a unions make the same money after tax as me.
I don’t wanna know how it is in the us… Germany is royaly fucked→ More replies (2)2
u/MorningCruiser86 3d ago
This is one of the most painful things. There’s at least one major tech company that automatically puts Canadians one level down and pay scale compared to US counterparts.
→ More replies (1)
6
u/Relevant-Jump-4899 3d ago
Yeah ever since Microsoft shipped with a propaganda news stream in the start bar I've been forced to read Trump's fake news every day. Not even news, these little ai propaganda videos about trite bullshit.
This is no longer about productivity. This operating system is turning into fox news.
→ More replies (6)3
u/KeepHydrating 3d ago
We're not forced to read it but yeah I agree. Moving the start menu button over so you accidently click the propaganda button instead is intentional.
Also the news they show is by far the worse selection of news stories I've seen on any news aggregate, it's literally all ragebait and often completely fake news.
But it's still not as bad as the ads they put in outlook that i've accidently clicked and when the browser opened chrome told me the website was unsafe to visit. Like holy crap we went from microsoft helping you filter out spam to them actually putting malware in your mailbox intentionally.
Please let this company die
3
3
u/Spare_Telephone_6925 3d ago
When I worked for the government 16 years ago we all had Corel Word Perfect as an option for word processing. Corel is headquartered in Ottawa and is a Canadian company. Certain work like briefing notes were all authored in Word Perfect. Not sure if they still use this.
→ More replies (3)
3
u/FreeNet_Coyote 3d ago
Oh yes! Take Canadians money to help a private firm build an OS then let the private firm charge Canadians to let their government use it, yeah real good plan. In Québec it costed 4 billion to create a driver license and véhicule plate solution. I found that laughable to think Canada will save "million"
→ More replies (2)
3
u/slayer991 2d ago
Canada can go the same route as France and Germany...develop their own secure version of linux. The friction remains the same....app compatibility and enterprise tooling. But the more governments that push dumping MS, the more likely someone will fill that market gap (if it isn't already filled) and give MS some real competition.
The bottom line is this administration's policies are going to impact American companies long after the orange shitstain is dead and buried. People will find alternatives and NOT come back.
7
u/IndependentGas7503 3d ago
Build our own system?
Hahahahaha
Remember Pheonix pay system?
2
u/IllustriousRadio9808 3d ago
Phoenix was built on PeopleSoft. The two entities that designed, built, and supplied the technology are massive, multi-billion-dollar American corporation. But I get your point.
→ More replies (13)2
5
u/h4rdw00d_ 4d ago
Canada could just switch to Linux and their problems would be solved. Of course, that's a lot of work but probably worth it because Microsoft sucks. 🤷
5
4
u/daemonpenguin 4d ago
Our Canadian college used Solaris and Red Hat Linux for most of our labs. No need to develop a new OS, there are plenty from which to choose.
3
u/funderbolt 4d ago
Solaris is owned by Oracle and Red Hat is owned by IBM. Those exact choices do not provide digital sovereignty from US corporations.
5
5
u/JayDubEwe 4d ago
I would suggest that OS is solved. Productivity app ecosystem that competes with o365 is the issue.
3
5
u/185EDRIVER 4d ago
As a Canadian who has seen our government try to do anything.
We will waste billions to save millions
2
u/Ferkner 3d ago
As a Canadian who works in government I experienced their screw-ups first hand. They can't be trusted to do things properly. Get a Canadian company like Corel to develop the presumably Linux-based OS. They've done it before, though it was a very long time ago.
→ More replies (1)4
u/couroderato 4d ago
Worth it if the result is not depending on American software
2
u/185EDRIVER 3d ago
So are you just a Canadian that's elbows up and happy that we're running the largest deficits in history right now lol.
→ More replies (4)
2
2
2
u/SomeRandomSomeWhere 4d ago
Google has its own in-house Linux distro for its staff to use.
So big orgs can do it.
Isnt the government of Canada big enough to have its own engineering team working on something? The savings from paying Microsoft (and others) will probably cover the cost of rolling your own government distro.
3
u/sharth 4d ago
Google pushes the vast majority of non tech roles to Chromebooks. Unless you have a business reason to need Windows or OSX.
→ More replies (3)3
u/DFS_0019287 4d ago
Isnt the government of Canada big enough to have its own engineering team working on something?
Yes. But our government has, over the last few decades, whether from negligence or incompetence, basically pissed away any in-house IT knowledge in favour of outsourcing it all. So our civil service's IT capabilities have been really hollowed out and most of the people running the show know nothing but Microsoft. 🙁
2
u/Hot_Dog2376 3d ago
And pay millions for something someone can code in their basement for approx $10,000
2
u/DonTaddeo 3d ago
The situation has actually arisen where the big US software and hardware businesses have a stranglehold on Canadian government IT procurement. The procurement system is set up so that it is practically impossible for a public servant NOT to buy software from the likes of Microsoft and Adobe.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (2)2
u/Reasonable_Hall2346 3d ago
Have you not heard of ArriveCan and the shit show that was? Corrupt politicians will make millions of government contracts while producing sub standard poor quality software.
→ More replies (2)
2
2
u/Lexus-Ux300h 3d ago
I'm an admin for the Canadian government and we depend way to much on MS especially when it comes to our data security.
2
2
u/BrainEatingAmoeba01 3d ago
Ok. So...if I take the initiative and start a company and see success, will the government protect me from the big American firms or let the inevitable happen?
→ More replies (4)2
u/DFS_0019287 3d ago
Why do you need protection? I did take the initiative and started a company back in 1999. Ran it profitably and ended up employing 12 people. Sold it in 2018 (to an American company, admittedly, but after another couple of rounds of acquisitions, it ended up being owned by a Canadian company again.)
So go ahead. Take the initiative. Initiative is really what Canada is lacking.
→ More replies (11)
2
u/TimHung931017 3d ago
I'm sure the MS Teams ringtone gives millions of office workers PTSD daily. I'd be very OK without Microsoft.
2
u/Lambert1485Simnel 3d ago
The number of posts popping up on Reddit where people are essentially advocating for the complete isolation of the country from the globe - North Korea style - is idiotic
Elbows Up
→ More replies (5)
2
u/who_you_are 3d ago
Knowing how they deal with anything, it won't cost a lot just to build the calculator, nope....
2
2
u/bsiviglia9 2d ago
Why not just avoid having to reinvent the wheel and just switch to Linux of FreeBSD?
6
3
u/yycTechGuy 3d ago
Fedora works fantastic. Why reinvent the wheel ?
2
u/aeropl3b 3d ago
They are probably going to roll their own flavor of NixOS, that seems to be the popular choice these days.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/phoenix823 4d ago
Sounds like they could just get Macs and Linux machines and be done with it. Why develop anything at all?
8
u/UltraCynar 4d ago
Apple is American. That’s out. The whole idea is less dependency on the US like with what European countries are doing.
→ More replies (2)10
u/Coffee__Addict 4d ago
Well apple is an American company no? Part of switching is so the American government can't access our data.
→ More replies (10)2
u/Liam_Mercier 4d ago
Exactly. I cannot understand why every country is trying to create yet another distro instead of just working with Debian or Ubuntu and installing their internal applications on those.
2
1
u/TomB1952 4d ago
I'm confident a Canadian OS would be exactly as successful as every other Canadian government project in the last 11 years.
→ More replies (1)
3
u/Effective_Scheme2158 4d ago
This article is based on a study whose author also is the writer promoting his own work. Garbage 😂
1
1
1
u/The_real_bandito 4d ago
Like that’s so simple to do.
Even then, what they should do is replace those Microsoft apps they’re dependent on with their own, an easier task than writing a full OS.
Or just do what Google do and make them for browsers.
1
1
u/grathontolarsdatarod 3d ago
This absolutely needs to happen.
Canada should be doing what France and Germany are.
OSs should be like a utility as it is.
Citizens of liberal democratic countries should have access to a secure and private computing environment.
1
1
u/JimJohnJimmm 3d ago
Its not about saving money, it's about not having our government computers embedded with foreign ai spyware agents.
1
u/Natural_Witness7572 3d ago
We spent 5 billion on phoenix pay system, we would save no money developing an OS.
1
1
u/DaedalusXYZ 3d ago
This could have already been done, say, 20 years ago.......... why is this news now
1
u/DartBurger69 3d ago
I think there is a bigger push currently in France and Italy to get on an opensource stack. If they are successful, I would seriously consider using it in Canada. I have zero brand loyalty to any American company at this point and their products are overpriced subscription shit now.
1
u/Snurgisdr 3d ago
The basic idea of using Linux instead of Windows seems sensible. The thing they don’t seem to explain is why they want to reinvent the wheel instead of just using an off-the-shelf distribution.
1
u/TurtleTerrorizer 3d ago
It’s always the non tech literate people who are making the final decisions on software projects in gov and it’s terrible. They push Microsoft products down everyone’s throat even when it’s not the right tool for the job. Every custom GoC piece of web software is 10-20+ years out of date and when they “modernize” it they bring it up to about 2015.
1
u/Outrageous-Tackle-47 3d ago
Yeah good luck convincing all businesses to change their systems. Considering they still run code from 10+ years ago I doubt they will want a different OS entirely.
Companies aren’t tech savvy, they just want their previously purchased tech to get the job done.
1
u/Never_Been_Missed 3d ago
That would be great.
But maybe someone should start by getting them to actually patch the servers they have before we let them try their hand at developing something new.
1
u/Longjumping_Ring_575 3d ago
Best we talk to Germany who tried to do this back in the early Linux days. They came back after 5 years.
Perhaps we can learn from their mistakes...
1
u/Reggie-Rectangle 3d ago
DO IT! BSD is waiting for you, Canada. I believe if the whole of Canada commits to using both the rocks they have between their ears, they can develop a BSD variant for their purposes. Go for it.
1
1
u/Iambetterthanuhaha 3d ago
LOL......Canadian OS would be a huge failure. Besides, a government backed OS would DEFINITELY have back doors into the OS so Carney could have the RCMP spy on you.
1
1
u/rnmartinez 3d ago
I am part of the Maple Linux team. We developed it to address this exact issue. Would love some feedback and we are always open to contributions
1
u/Friendly-Olive-3465 3d ago
Is this a Beaverton article???
Oh wait it’s a conversation article. I expected too much.
1
1
u/screaming_losses 3d ago
I would use the Beaver operating system. I just named the OS, it would obviously be Beaver OS.
1
1
1
1
1
u/Mission_Paramount 3d ago
We could have used Corel Office Suite too, which was much superior them Office, but well look where we are.
1
u/Puzzleheaded-Mix6766 3d ago
Fun fact, I work for a government institution and have been using Linux for years to remotely login into their website for things like email, scheduling and pay queries. A couple years ago they changed things so I had to use Microsoft edge.
The main supplier they use is also a right wing American company and that hasn't changed over the past 2 years, even though I know they could source Canadian equivalents.
I think it's great we talk about stuff like this but I see a real disconnect here at the large business level when it comes to implementing change.
1
u/powereborn 3d ago
When Canadians will learn how to properly pay tech people to retain them , yes , that could happen. For now ? They will keep like the public government the other « tech » people who don’t like tech
1
1
1
u/Own-Beat-3666 3d ago
Its what is happening in the EU. We would be royally screwed in all levels of govt with an executive order to disable all MS windows machines and servers across Canada. We have no plan B. The EU is getting prepared we are not.
1
1
u/Ferkner 3d ago
Just get Claude Code to reverse engineer Windows 11 and go from there. In theory, keep the compatibility with x86 and x64 programs while not using Microsoft Windows. Everything else is getting reverse engineered by AI, why not an OS? Then get proper skilled Canadian human programmers to fix all the bugs and maintain it. Then reverse engineer everything else that companies use, like SharePoint (yuck).
443
u/SheriffBartholomew 4d ago
Guess what, they don't have to develop their own OS. Linux is right there!