New research suggests 86% of European organizations believe open source is valuable for the future of their industry – but only 34% have a clear and visible open source strategy
The Linux Foundation’s latest report, Open source as Europe’s strategic advantage: trends, barriers, and priorities for the European open source community amid regulatory and geopolitical shifts, provides key insights into how European enterprises are using open source software (OSS), as well as the barriers towards further development of open source in the continent. Released in collaboration with Canonical, the report surveyed 316 enterprises and interviewed experts to give a clear picture of the state of open source in Europe.
This blog gives a breakdown of the key findings of the report, answering how European enterprises are using open source, what the biggest opportunities and challenges are, and how organizations can benefit most from OSS adoption.
Is open source popular in Europe?
Incorporating OSS into workflows and infrastructure has become increasingly common in organizations throughout Europe. The report indicates that 64% use OSS for their operating systems, 55% for cloud and container technologies, and 54% for web and application development.
[Figure 1]
The rationale behind the popularity of OSS is clear, as the report suggests: by using OSS, respondents reported that they benefited from higher productivity (63%), higher quality software (75%), reduced vendor lock-in (62%) and lower software ownership costs (58%). In addition, OSS was considered a gateway to greater transparency (49%), innovation (58%), and collaboration across organizational boundaries (48%). Overall, 56% of those surveyed consider that the benefits of OSS exceed – or greatly exceed – the costs.
[Figure 3]
Many organizations have adopted open source to improve their cost-effectiveness. For example, Nova, one of the leading telecommunications providers in Greece, adopted open source with Canonical. Nikolaos Dasyras, Senior Manager of Cloud Infrastructure & Services at Nova, emphasizes how Canonical’s straightforward planning and pricing has benefited Nova’s ability to control costs:
“From a capital expenditure (CAPEX) perspective, Canonical’s roadmap is fully iterable …. This makes it simple for us to estimate the time and cost needed when embarking on new projects. From an operational expenditure (OPEX) perspective, the support from Canonical is directly related to the footprint and number of servers – with no additional cost for management software, as Juju and MAAS are free and open source tools. Without licensing fees, we’re paying for real expertise that enriches our team, rather than paying for access.”
Learn more in the case study.
Why is open source development a priority in Europe?
55% consider open source alternatives a priority for European sovereignty
Beyond its numerous benefits, recent geopolitical turbulence has catalyzed the importance of OSS for business leaders and policymakers alike. Concerns have arisen about trade disputes and political changes causing a sudden and disruptive loss of services and technology, leading to widespread trends such as geopatriation. Open source offers a way of developing alternatives, reducing dependence on proprietary technologies and a small set of vendors. Awareness of this has led to investment and development of OSS being recognized as a critical element to achieving digital sovereignty.
Canonical has been at the forefront of enabling digital sovereignty through open source software. For instance, we have partnered with UNICC to build a sovereign cloud based on Canonical OpenStack, providing the UN with the data sovereignty they sought. Find out more in the announcement.
What are the most important opportunities developing in open source?
41% use OSS for AI and Machine Learning
In the light of DeepSeek’s release in January of 2025, open source AI in Europe – and public support for it – has blossomed. The report highlights this as the trigger for a growing interest in building European-based open source AI models. This trend links back to the growing interest in achieving digital sovereignty: 89% of respondents considered OSS the most important approach to sovereign AI.
[Figure 16]
Europe has an abundance of AI/ML talent and projects. Mistral AI is one of the leading examples. But there’s also rising public sector interest in AI Factories and similar initiatives, such as the Barcelona AI Factory and IT4LIA AI Factory.
Organizations like the European Space Agency are also making headway into the use of AI. The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), one of ESA’s premises in Germany, hosts the engineering teams that control spacecraft in orbit, manage the global tracking station network, and design and build the systems on the ground which support their missions in space. By 2030, ESA aims to significantly expand the number of satellites it currently launches. ESA relies on a number of AI-supported software tools during their missions. However, these tools require a platform on which to run.
ESA chose Canonical’s distributions of Kubeflow and Spark on top of Canonical Kubernetes, helping ESA to focus on optimizing their missions, rather than troubleshooting the supporting infrastructure. As Michael Hawkshaw, ESA Mission Operations Infrastructure IT Service Manager at ESOC put it, “we can sleep soundly knowing Canonical is supporting us and we won’t get a call at night telling us that something’s gone wrong.”
Find out the full story in the case study, or check out our webpages for more information about Canonical’s AI and ML solutions.
Whilst AI and ML pose significant opportunities in Europe, developing and adopting these technologies is not without challenges. Complex new legislation and regulations, like the AI act, are not broadly understood by organizations. Developing a formal OSS strategy, with robust security controls and a clear compliance roadmap is critical.
What are the key challenges faced by enterprises using OSS?
66% of organizations lack a formal open source strategy
Despite growing awareness of OSS benefits and adoption of OSS, over 50% of organizations contributed to OSS projects in either limited ways, did not contribute, or weren’t sure if they contributed. Of those who did engage significantly with OSS projects, by employing full-time contributions or maintainers, 81% saw high, or very high, value in their investment. Why, then, is contribution limited?
[Figure 14]
The report suggests that the barriers preventing OSS contribution include legal and licensing concerns (31%) and fear of leaking IP (24%). These issues are linked to a broad lack of maturity in OSS strategy: 66% of organizations lack a formal open source strategy, and 78% have not implemented an open source program office (OSPO).
[Figure 7]
OSPOs are internal teams that oversee an organization’s open source engagement. OSPOs help to ensure compliance and avoid legal risks, whilst optimizing the organization’s use of and contributions towards OSS projects. To find out more about OSPOs, as well as how to create and successfully run an OSPO in your own organization, read our guide.
The report suggests a concerning lack of understanding of how best to comply with cybersecurity regulations and standards. However, the introduction of new legislation like the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) will require organizations to develop roadmaps for compliance, especially if they commercialize products with digital elements. For a comprehensive breakdown of the CRA from our CISO, read our blog, or find a more concise overview on our webpage.
The state of open source in Europe
Europe’s open source community is flourishing, with enterprises incorporating open source across the technical stack and becoming increasingly aware of the benefits it provides. In particular, the opportunities to achieve digital sovereignty and establish European open source AI are drawing interest and attention.
However, receiving the full benefits of open source requires engagement and a structured approach to OSS within the organization. Similarly, understanding regulatory and legislative requirements, and achieving compliance can be challenging; however, working with trusted partners like Canonical, and establishing internal open source program offices can help organizations to overcome these barriers to success.
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