DigitalSovereignty/EU
Digital Sovereignty for the EU
openSUSE supports the European Union’s vision of digital sovereignty while continuing to serve a global open source community.
Our goal is to ensure that openSUSE remains transparent, independent, and trustworthy, operating in alignment with European values while welcoming contributors and users from every part of the world.
The openSUSE community meets regularly at the annual openSUSE Conference, most often held in Nuremberg, Germany, and previously also in Prague, Czechia, and other European cities. These gatherings strengthen collaboration, transparency, and community decision-making.
Contributors and users can also connect with community members in person through SUSE’s offices across Europe, where openSUSE often hosts local meetups, workshops, and Hackweek activities.
This physical presence reinforces the project’s European roots while remaining open to participants worldwide.
Background and Context
The European Union defines digital sovereignty as the ability to independently develop, manage, and protect digital technologies, data, and infrastructure. This concept promotes:
- Openness and interoperability
- Data protection and privacy
- Security and resilience
- Reduced dependency on non-European providers
Key EU initiatives in this area include:
openSUSE, with its European origin and open governance, is well-positioned to contribute to these goals.
European Foundation
openSUSE has strong European roots. SUSE, the project’s founding sponsor, was established in Germany in 1992.
Much of openSUSE’s infrastructure and community leadership are based in the EU, which naturally aligns the project with GDPR, open collaboration, and public trust principles.
At the same time, openSUSE remains a global project, with mirrors, contributors, and users distributed worldwide. This combination provides both stability under EU legal frameworks and inclusivity for the broader international open source ecosystem.
Hosting and Data Residency
openSUSE infrastructure is distributed across several hosting providers and community-maintained servers. The following table summarizes where key services are currently hosted.
This is a draft processed from openSUSE:Heroes dns config. Namely zones/opensuse_org/base.js, and zones/opensuse_org/cname.js.
| Service | Description | Location | EU Jurisdiction | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| build.opensuse.org | Open Build Service (OBS) | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | Core infrastructure |
| src.opensuse.org | Gitea | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| download.opensuse.org | Mirror redirector | 🇨🇿 PRG2 / 🌍 Global mirrors | Partial | Redirector EU-based; mirrors worldwide |
| wiki.opensuse.org | MediaWiki | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | Served via proxy-prg2 |
| forums.opensuse.org | Discourse forums | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| lists.opensuse.org | Mailing lists | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| chat.opensuse.org | Matrix homeserver | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | Served via proxy-prg2 |
| paste.opensuse.org | Pastebin | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| get.opensuse.org | Download landing page | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| code.opensuse.org | Pagure | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| bugzilla.opensuse.org | Bug tracker | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | |
| openqa.opensuse.org | openQA testing | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | Partial | Some assets may use global CDN |
| proxy-ipx1.opensuse.org | Proxy instance | 🇩🇪 Nuremberg (NorthC) | ✅ | |
| static.opensuse.org | Static assets | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | Served via proxy-prg2 |
| planet.opensuse.org | Planet feed aggregator | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | Partial | Images from feed sources may load globally |
| news.opensuse.org | WordPress news | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | No CDN |
| software.opensuse.org | Search + download | 🇨🇿 PRG2 / 🌍 Global mirrors | Partial | Frontend in EU; backend mirrors worldwide |
| metrics.opensuse.org | 🇨🇿 PRG2 | ✅ | Grafana instance. Collects download telemetry from download-o-o. | |
| MirrorCache (US) | 🇺🇸 United States (Salt Lake City) | ❌ | MirorCache services are not used any more. | |
| MirrorCache (Brazil) | 🇧🇷 Brazil | ❌ | MirorCache services are not used any more. | |
| MirrorCache (Japan) | 🇯🇵 Japan | ❌ | MirorCache services are not used any more. | |
| MirrorCache (Australia) | 🇦🇺 Australia | ❌ | MirorCache services are not used any more. AU is confirmed to be shut down. | |
| cdn.opensuse.org | Fastly CDN | 🌍 Global CDN | ❌ | We're using worldwide operating edge network. Our agreements are with Fastly US entity 🇺🇸. Fastly cannot influence the hosted content as all data is signed by SUSE/openSUSE. |
| github.com/openSUSE | GitHub | 🇺🇸 USA | ❌ |
- PRG2 refers to SUSE-operated hosting space inside the CE Colo datacenter in Prague, but infrastructure is SUSE-managed.
Alignment with EU Digital Principles
openSUSE’s practices naturally align with the EU’s principles of digital responsibility and openness. The project supports:
- Openness and interoperability – open standards and open formats are core to openSUSE’s mission.
- Data protection and privacy – infrastructure hosted under GDPR-compliant jurisdictions.
- Transparency and accountability – open governance, public code, and community-driven decision-making.
- Sustainability and independence – long-term availability of open, auditable tools and distributions.
Who in Europe uses openSUSE
See our public reference of who uses openSUSE in Europe.
References
- Czech Cyberladies chose openSUSE Leap 16 as the platform for their installation workshop because of its ease of installation and strong European heritage.
- Czech SUSE office (SUSE Linux s.r.o.) is a proud sponsor of Czech National Open Source Program Office and a signer of Brno Open Source Declaration which was crucial part of the story of the Czech National OSPO.
See Also
TODO list
- Working with the SUSE Legal and Digital Sovereignty teams to clarify raised issues with being US-centric in openSUSE:License and Terms of Site. Email sent on 21st Nov 2025.