Google criticizes Europe's plan to adopt free software
4mon 3d ago by piefed.zip/u/inari in technology from pplware.sapo.pt
Google has criticized the European Union’s intentions to achieve digital sovereignty through open-source software. The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness. According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer, warned of a competitive paradox that Europe is facing. According to the Financial Times, he said that creating regulatory barriers would be harmful in a context of rapid technological advancement. His remarks came just days after the European Commission concluded a public consultation assessing the transition to open-source software.
Google’s chief legal officer clarified that he is not opposed to digital sovereignty, but recommended making use of the “best technologies in the world.” Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection. Local management or servers located in Europe to store information are among the options.
The EU is preparing a technological sovereignty package aimed at eliminating dependence on third-party software, such as Google’s. After reviewing proposals, it concluded that reliance on external suppliers for critical infrastructure entails economic risks and creates vulnerabilities. The strategy focuses not only on regulation but also on adopting open-source software to achieve digital sovereignty.
According to Google, this change would represent a problem for users. Walker argues that the market moves faster than legislation and warns that regulatory friction will only leave European consumers and businesses behind in what he calls “the most competitive technological transition we have ever seen.” As it did with the DMA and other laws, Google is playing on fear. Kent Walker suggested that this initiative would stifle innovation and deny people access to the “best digital tools.”
The promotion of open-source software aims to break dependence on foreign suppliers, especially during a period of instability caused by the Trump administration. The European Union has highlighted the risks of continuing under this system and proposes that public institutions should have full control over their own technology.
According to a study on the impact of open-source software, the European Commission found that it contributes between €65 billion and €95 billion annually to the European Union’s GDP. The executive body estimates that a 10% increase in contributions to open-source software would generate an additional €100 billion in growth for the bloc’s economy.
According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
Is Google seriously arguing that the money these nations save can't be added to their GDPs?
That's what it sounds like. Or am I confused?
Google meant THEIR economic growth.
Don't worry, Google is trying to confuse you
To an enormous extent are todays data centers, cloud providers, and all the techology the whole world use today based on open source. Without linux, curl, ffmpeg, and so on nothing in todays high tech society would work. Google, as it is today, would not exist if it was for all the open source they leech of.
Well Google contributes a lot to open source, but I get your point.
They mostly do that because they want control and maybe slowly reach their tentacles into projects. Like Chromium and Android are in theory open source, but in practice both are locked down by google and used for their business and mass data harvesting and advertising empire.
Chrome comes from Safari that comes from KHTML, the original KDE web browser. No open source means no Chrome.
Nah, I think they're saying that their corporate offerings and jobs in a given country would not contribute to GDP, while failing to address that developers and engineers would still be necessary to implement these open source applications, though Google won't get to siphon money out of those economies. It's purposely convoluted, basically Google throwing a temper tantrum.
Nah that's it. Their logic is seemingly if you don't give the money to Google it's not contributing to economic growth.
Two economists are walking down the street and pass by a pile of dog shit. One of them (a sadist) turns to the other and says "I'll pay you $1000 if you eat that dog shit".
The other performs an internal utility calculation and eats the dog shit.
Continuing their walk, the second economist sees another pile of dog shit and makes the same offer to the first. The first economist also agrees, and eats the dog shit. They walk on.
After a while the second economist says to the first "I can't help thinking we're worse off than when we started this walk. We both have the same amount of money we started with, but we both had to eat shit."
The first economist replies "Worse off?! We've just engaged in 2000 dollars worth of trade!".
Look, by certain ways of calculating GDP growth and trade, it's probably true that if the money isn't being spent on software licenses and so on, it means there's less economic activity going on.
The whole point of open source / free software is that you're not locked into someone's proprietary software ecosystem. You don't have to continue paying license fees. So, if the governments simply stop paying for software licenses, it's probably true that their GDP will technically shrink. But, that assumes the money won't be spent on something more useful.
They are saying FOSS isnt companies, google's value is tied to GDP in some EU countries. If they see less growth so does the GDP.
Yanks are whores who only think of money and kids.
The last line needs a bender meme.
they meant google's economic growth.
‘Open source means we make no money’
No i think the comment is less direct than that.
For much of government, the underlying objective is to contribute to GDP. For example, funding healthcare means a healthier population who can be more productive.
So by saying "this policy won't contribute to GDP" its a very general way to say this is not what's best for your population.
At least I think thats what theyre saying.
As an aside, savings dont directly improve GDP, by definition.
Perhaps they understand economic growth the same way the orange rapist understands tariffs?
Killing parasitic and monopolistic gatekeepers and middlemen is very much contributing to any country's economic growth.
When corporations or conservatives talk about "the economy", simply replace it with "rich people's bank accounts" and it makes sense again.
They are trying to gaslight you into still believing in the trickle-down-theory, against decades of evidence.
And all mainstream media as well as centrist parties (including the US Democrats) join in.
They are suggesting that going to open source solutions won't result in new industry in their countries (i.e. that Google won't be opening offices and data centers and such there).
It's a pretty bogus statement anyways, but it's not COMPLETELY senseless.
I think he's arguing that not using the most advanced technologies (eg. what Google and Microsoft offer) would be detrimental to worker productivity in the EU.
Of course, in reality, if all those countries start investing in FOSS, they could easily replace the Office suit, SharePoint, the Power platform, etc. I know several programmers who'd gladly devote their time to FOSS full-time if they could. I've even met one who simply refuses to work to create anything proprietary.
The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness.
Just what I'd expect a monopoly to say.
Fuck you. Alphabet.
Increased competition from open source alternatives harms competitiveness? By forcing them to compete and maybe actually innovate?
They mean it would harm their competitiveness.
As in, "We'd be less competitive if you switch to a competitor" (in this case FOSS).
I've reached the point in my life where I find this more arousing than booba
But not vagne?
But also:
Google is still up 100% from where it was may last year, even taking that drop into account.
Ohh, beautiful!
Maybe we should short the shit out of these arseholes as they go down.
"well yes you actually need to stay dependent on us to be competitive" -fucking ridiculous
When companies like Google, Microsoft, etc. are starting to squirm and whimper. You know you are on the right path. So I take this as a sign that the EU is heading in the right direction.
That's my take as well
"Drug dealer criticizes drug user's plan to quit."
Crapitalists.
Excellent, thank you 😁!
Of course Google hates open-source. They can't compete with it. Same shit with Microsoft: people are just afraid of trying Linux, but those who do, rarely look back at Windows.
If I could get all my games to work on Linux, I'd nuke my dual-boot in a second. But I'm 99% linux at least.
(And yeah, I've tried the compatibility tools.)
Out of interest, when's the last time you tried? So many games now seem to have Linux compatibility because of Valve's push for the Steam Deck (and Machine). I'm in the same boat as you though, still haven't taken the plunge.
The last barrier, anti-cheats.
*the companies that refuse to use Linux compatible anti-cheats
or make their anti-cheats linux compatible :)
The kinda sad part is that a lot of people say "just don't play those games then", I play Valorant and PUBG with friends and I can't force them to find us something else to play just because I want to switch to Linux.
which is basically spyware anyway. I prefer to not play those games entirely.
I blew away my Windows install in favour of Fedora about a year ago. There are only two games in my entire library that don’t work - Call of Duty and Battlefield, both of them because of anti-cheat fuckery. The other 300+ that I’ve tried playing have just worked. Zero tinkering required.
Times have really changed. The life hack you should know is to use ProtonPlus to install Proton-GE which is a customised version that has a bunch of fixes for different games. You just set Steam to use this one over Valve’s default version for all games and you’re pretty much done. They’ve integrated tweaks and fixes for thousands of games, on a per-game basis, so if you’re using this build of Proton then you have nothing else to do. No fiddling, no command line monkeying, just launch and play, same as Windows.
It’s honestly very impressive these days.
Maybe the answer is having a PC only for those games. As a console. Like some people bought the N64 just to play Zelda and nothing else.
Walks silently past in Switch OLED and BotW
It seems I'm older😁
Probably not, I just started this Zelda thing very late.
For a ball park idea, I was about 8 when the first Ataris hit the scene
Then you are a little older than me 🤷 But not much.
I never worked for Google, so I can't say for sure, but I have this weird suspicion that they use a shitload of open source software, and I'm not just talking about their Android OS or Chromebooks, but for their most core businesses.
It wouldn't be odd to think that Google might not exist except for their being able to use the open-source software that people had made before they founded their company.
The alternative is that they were complete idiots who paid for all sorts of retail software.
Of course Google hates open-source. They can’t compete with it.
Again, it's just my supposition, but I'd bet that they can't compete without it, either.
For any major tech company, apart from ones that are absolutely dedicated to proprietary software starting from firmware up through the OS and on to applications, like Microsoft and Apple, it's going to be deeply hypocritical to hate open-source.
I have this weird suspicion that they use a shitload of open source software, and I’m not just talking about their Android OS or Chromebooks, but for their most core businesses.
"Open source for me, but not for thee."
That's also why they bait-and-switched us with AOSP.
It's the "pull the ladder" mentality.
They can’t compete with it.
I meant "They can’t compete against it." Interlanguage translation nuances :)
You were using the phrase correctly. "They can't compete with it," is the standard way of saying what you intended to say.
I was playing off of the normal meaning of your statement to make a turn of phrase. In other words, I am intentionally using weird phrasing, and placing it next to your normal phrasing for humor and impact.
Now don't you come here and be intellectual, you... Intellectual!
The problem with linux is the rough edges. It's SLOWLY getting better.
2026 linux I find to be BARELY usable as a daily driver.
2006 linux was just trash.
In both cases, power users may have a different experience.
I tried installing a program called "hardinfo". My ZorinOS software store didn't find it through flathub.
So I googled it, found a .deb file, which my Zorin store loaded up to install.
Then I hit install, and it spits out a message like "Software was not installed. Requires these three dependancies, which will not be installed".
Didn't tell me why they didn't install. Just said "Hardinfo needs these programs. Good luck figuring it out asshole!"
Ok, it may not have said it in those EXACT words....but you get the idea.
That being said, I recently booted up my old Windows 7 machine, and.....I have no idea if the OS was always this slow, or if it's gotten slower due to being SO out of date. It felt sluggish. And it theoretically SHOULD be faster. I have 16GB of ram now instead of 8GB. And it's running off of SSD instead of a 5400rpm HDD. Theoretically it should have a huge speed boost.
Maybe I'm just used to a lighter OS after using it for this many years.
Okay, so:
I tried installing a program called "hardinfo". My ZorinOS software store didn't find it through flathub.
That's fair. Repo fragmentation is a real thing on Linux, and it seems like Ultimate Systems didn't put their software on Flathub.
So I googled it, found a .deb file, which my Zorin store loaded up to install.
So instead of just using apt – like every introductory tutorial to Ubuntu and its derivatives leads off with – you chose to do it (effectively) the Windows way that you're familiar with where you hunt and peck around the Internet for an install file. It's an understandable mistake (that I think most Windows expats make at some point), but the blame from this point on lies squarely on you.
Then I hit install, and it spits out a message like "Software was not installed. Requires these three dependancies, which will not be installed". Didn't tell me why they didn't install. Just said "Hardinfo needs these programs. Good luck figuring it out asshole.
You didn't have the dependencies, and it told you which ones to install. Why does it need to tell you why it needs them? Nice to have, I guess, but if it's mandatory, it's mandatory. No amount of explanation is going to get you around the fact that this software will not function without them. Dependencies aren't a Linux thing; they're a reality of modern programming. And I imagine apt would've automatically resolved this and asked you to also install the deps.
So instead of just using apt – like every introductory tutorial to Ubuntu and its derivatives leads off with – you chose to do it (effectively) the Windows way that you’re familiar with where you hunt and peck around the Internet for an install file.
Because in 20+ years of off and on using linux, I've never once gotten apt to install anything. I have however fucked up my whole system by doing sudo apt update/sudo apt upgrade.
I avoid terminal like the plauge.
You didn’t have the dependencies, and it told you which ones to install. Why does it need to tell you why it needs them?
I didn't say I want to know why it needs them. I'm upset it tells me that it tells me it needs them, and then says "they won't be installed", but won't tell me WHY they won't be installed. If the program needs those dependancies, just install them. Instead it juat says "we know you need the dependancies, but we're not going to do that".
Because in 20+ years of off and on using linux, I’ve never once gotten apt to install anything. I have however fucked up my whole system by doing sudo apt update/sudo apt upgrade.
Sorry but that's really not typical, you must have been doing something out of the ordinary or been very unlucky.
I didn’t say I want to know why it needs them. I’m upset it tells me that it tells me it needs them, and then says “they won’t be installed”, but won’t tell me WHY they won’t be installed. If the program needs those dependancies, just install them. Instead it juat says “we know you need the dependancies, but we’re not going to do that”.
It's the package manager that handles dependencies, not the program you're trying to install. Random programs shouldn't be able to just install things on your computer. Did you try installing the dependencies?
Did you try installing the dependencies?
I have zero clue how to do that. I don't even know what file extention they would be, or where I would get them, or what step 1 would be to installing them.
They would also be .deb files. If you wanted to install package A.deb that depended on B.deb and C.deb, with C.deb itself depending on D.deb and E.deb, you would work down the dependency tree to figure that out, obtaining the .deb file for each package as you went (presumably manually downloading from each project website itself, since we're doing this in hard mode), then run dpkg install E.deb, dpkg install D.deb, dpkg install C.deb, dpkg install B.deb, and finally dpkg install A.deb in that order. You also have to make sure each of those packages is the correct version compatible with the others, BTW.
This is what apt is designed to do for you, automatically. This is why you use it instead of dpkg.
(Side note: I sure would love to find out how to control syntax highlighting in Lemmy inline code markup.)
sudo apt update/sudo apt upgrade
It is actually very easy to break your install by doing this if you have made a habit of installing random .deb files from around the internet
APT can't update things that are not in the repository and .deb files typically only work for a specific version of the OS (which is to say, they will probably work when you install them but break when you update).
You should in general never install a .deb file directly. Sometimes it might be necessary in order to install a program that the developer doesn't support, but that lack of support should be a flashing warning light that the package will probably break something in the future.
There are ways to purge your system of orphaned .deb installs, and I suggest doing that before large upgrades
I wasn't necessarily suggesting apt in the CLI; just the APT repository generally, which ZorinOS' built-in package manager has access to. If sudo apt install hardinfo will find it, I have to imagine the GUI frontend will. Granted I don't use Ubuntu or its derivatives because Ubuntu is terrible, so I can't say for sure, but this sure doesn't seem like their fault.
I didn't try to use sudo apt install hardinfo, but the software store will find things from flatpack, snap, a few others.
It did not find hardinfo.
"I didn't use the main standard way of installing software, and am complaining because all the weird alternative ways I did try didn't work."
I understand that you claim apt has never worked for you, but, frankly, I don't believe you.
Just FYI, the entire point of using apt instead of working with dpkg (the utility used to install .deb files) directly is that apt handles the dependency resolution. You deliberately used the lower-level tool instead of the higher-level one and then complained that it didn't do the higher-level things.
Do dependencies work somehow differently under Windows? If a win program lacks some library it would say just the same: "I need an additional library. Install it."
In Windows, every program is usually packaged with all of its dependencies (except really basic ones that are part of the OS, or very common extra ones like the Java or .NET libraries). They don't get installed separately; you just get a fuckton of extra copies, of various assorted versions, because every program you install has its own.
Good luck with the redistributables who are not allowed to be put in distribution packages, but must be installed from m$.
Why they are not part of the base OS is a mystery for me, it's so stupid it must be some ulterior reason.
In windows, any decent program will say "this program needs these dependancies. Would you like to install them?" And I hit yes.
In linux it says "This program won't install because it needs these dependancies first. We won't help you install them. You figure it out."
In Linux, the package manager will ask you if you want to install the dependencies. You don't have to install them manually unless you're compiling the program from source.
Well....it didn't. It told me hardinfo would need 3 dependancies. Then said it wasn't going to install them.
It listed the 3 dependancies it needed, but said they will not be installed.
Username checks out.
I don't know how many times I had to deal with missing VCRUNTIME140.dll or MSVCP140.dll or other crap on Windows. This is not a Linux exclusive problem.
Reading through the comment thread I can't help but think that your whole situation is self imposed.
Dependency problems are universal and there are tools to deal with it. It just seems that you're refusing to use those tools (even Windows has winget now instead of relying on every installer bundling / linking its dependencies).
Now, it's fair to not want to deal with CLI, but your cited experience is an outlier. It is not normal to break your system with just apt update && apt upgrade -y. As a matter of fact apt will not upgrade if there are conflicting dependencies, you sort of have to force it to break your system.
There are wrappers that provide a GUI for apt (and even dpkg, which is usually invoked when double clicking a .deb file) so why not using them?
In Windows dependency issues are often offloaded to the provider of the software, but they are still just as present. In Linux this problem was solved[^1] a different way — via package managers. I don't want to be the "skill issue" guy, but refusing to use the platform intended tool to solve a problem is kind of a "skill issue". At some point you are responsible for knowing how to use an OS, just as you are responsible for knowing how to drive a car if you want to drive a car.
[^1]: dependency hell is still an issue so take the word with a grain of salt.
This is a Zorin/Ubuntu issue. I installed it from the AUR on my Arch system and it just worked. Don't buy into the memes. Arch isn't any harder. It's just different.
Yeah... don't recommend arch to a person that refuses understand the workflow on linux, please.
It doesn't work exactly as on Windows, well, fuck you.
I have enough trouble supporting my AUR packages due to people on derivative distributions. I don't have time to deal with self-entitled assholes.
I've read that just installing arch is a whole ordeal in itself.
You're talking to a guy who won't touch terminal because on 6 different occasions I've bricked a whole hard drive just by using sudo apt update/ sudo apt upgrade incorrectly.
And you expect me to understand ARCH???
Are you high?
Arch has an install script built in. If you want a gui installer then CachyOS and endeavourOS is Arch with the same gui installer Zorin has. I promise it's not difficult if you installed and used Zorin.
- Shift over to open source.
- Invest 25--50% of what you currently pay for proprietary software into helping maintain and enhance open source software.
- Enjoy the economic benefits well maintained free software brings to every aspect of your digital infrastructure at no extra cost.
Open source will innovate so much faster if properly funded, without the shackles of copyright and companies holding advancements secret and not releasing innovations on purpose as long as they hold on edge on "competition". Competition is only important because of proprietary capitalism, remove capitalism and directly reward the workers and innovation happens for innovation's sake.
Can't wait for this to be proven in practice, and to be able to apply that more widely to society. Godspeed Europe
How can I compete, it isn't like I can just look at your code and copy it into something better
Exactly, copyright and priority technology means everyone that wants to innovate must first reinvent the wheel and waste enormous energy doing work that's already been done.
Look at Google photos, since they killed Picasa and exclusively offered it as a proprietary SAAS, they completely stopped innovating for over a decade. Look at immich in comparison, it's already a better offering and it has only been released as stable for less than a year.
Phil salin wrote a hit peice on software patents, well said
For number 2, require that the people doing the open source work live and pay taxes in the EU. That way you're keeping the money in the union, and you're investing in local knowledge and skills.
As opposed to proprietary software where you're basically handing dollars over to American companies (or to supposedly "Irish" companies that just so happen to be named almost identically to American companies, but somehow are magically based out of Ireland and don't pay proper taxes anywhere).
For number 2, require that the people doing the open source work live and pay taxes in the EU.
I get what you're saying but for larger projects that may not be viable.
Heck Mr Torvalds is an American living in the US (not that he'd need financial support) and not all muricans are dumbasses, just the majority.
So, don't fund the larger projects. Fund the smaller ones, they're the ones that probably need support anyhow.
Besides, I would bet that if you asked Mr. Torvalds, he'd have a list of kernel contributors who live in the EU and would love to be paid for their work.
MoRe OpTiOnS iS bAd FoR cOmPeTiTiOn
competition is bad for competition
checks out
translation: having more competitors harms our chance of winning against them
Thanks for confirming we're on the right track, google.
You guys don’t see what they’re scared shitless about? It’s the fear of an EU-based true open source Android fork/competitor.
Also when they say FOSS will not contribute to “economic growth”, they mean Alphabet’s. Greedy pigs.
Oh yeah. They’re shit scared.
Their bottom line is about to collapse out from under them due to their sheer stupidity.
Oh no, they're just genuinely concerned European companies won't be able to be competitive and to put them out of business! Bless them.
Like, which idiot would even entertain the idea that google has our best interest in mind.
Also, Google criticizing others for using FOSS is the height of irony. But one that tracks very well with what they did to FOSS.
Funny considering how much of Google was built on open software.
Exactly. Open source is fine when it suits them but not fine when it doesn't.
To me it feels like there’s two Googles. The one that was run by Page and Brin was awesome, pretty much everyone in the industry wanted to work there.
Then they put someone else in charge to maximise shareholder revenue, and it went to shit soon after.
Public companies will always become so. They were only good because they were in the growth phase, the internet is not in the growth phase any longer, a few corporations control the gates to any industry, internet or what have you, and are squeezing everyone else.
Our wages go down every year in value as real inflation is higher than the cpi, while investors increase their margins at our expense. And we are too dumb to know it, trusting them, even now.
the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
Wrong.
creating regulatory barriers would be harmful in a context of rapid technological advancement
Wrong.
Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms
What does he not understand about digital sovereignty?
According to Google, this change would represent a problem for users
No, for Google. Also, wrong.
that the market moves faster than legislation and warns, that regulatory friction will only leave European consumers and businesses behind in what he calls “the most competitive technological transition we have ever seen.”
If that's the price to avoid technofaschism... And, again, wrong.
Tl;dr: stop wanking, Walker.
I don't know if he believes his own made up BS here, but these are some really idiotic statements. I'm glad the EU is taking steps to not use infrastructure created by a fascist government. At this point I don't think there's a reason to distinguish FANG (and their friends) from the government seeing how buddy buddy they all are with each other.
This is like a "no shit Google doesn't want this" which makes moving over to the Euro style even better. Everyone opposed to what huge tech corporations are doing (should be everyone) should see this as a sign that you should make the change.
He doesn’t.
They lie and thieve.
Remember, whenever you see a patently weak argument like this from a trillion dollar corporation, they’re not saying it because they think anyone will believe it. They’re saying it to give the corrupt politicians in their pocket some way to pull a straight face when voting in the corporation’s favour.
We saw already tech paying off the US to bully europe into backing off of their previous demands and controls on tech. Europe has bad leadership, they backed off, and surrendered all last year to the US administration, there is no reason to think they won't this time after google pays them off to do it again.
Europe is too busy trying to bring in the trojan horses of age checks and chatcontrol behind the gates to worry about protecting from tech, but rather to cooperate with tech to subjugate their citizens to secret social scores to determine winners and losers in life, with peter thiel and his ilk doing the deciding. The UK is already most of the way there, and the rest of europe is trying to follow, over and over and over. They only need to win once, the defenders of liberal democracy need to win every time.
Europe needs real leadership pushing popular reform. They will fall to fascists in league with the US that will fix their elections too on their current course of status quo mainstream politics with the far right as the only real reform option.
We give them reform, or nazis will, those are the only two choices, and the starmers and macrons of the world still don't know it or don't care.
Fuck you, Google.
The leopard of consequences is hungry for tech oligarch faces.
Eat, you majestic creature. And godspeed.
Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection
No, this is fundamentally impossible. The US has the Cloud Act. As long as that exists, this is a nonstarter.
The US can change their laws to not have a global wiretap and secret backdoor warrant program, then this would be possible.
The US can change their laws to not have a global wiretap and secret backdoor warrant program, then this would be possible.
Even if they did, they can change them right back whenever they want and the thing with data is that, once it's out there somewhere, there's no way of knowing for sure it hasn't been copied and archived.
Not just from recent events but from the Snowden Revelations and the decades of 4-eyes operations even before that, we're well beyond the point of it being possible to trust US-based and US-registered companies with the data of Europeans, and ditto for those of any other of what are now the 7-eyes countries.
All these craptastic US tech companies originally started on internationally developed free and open source software. They hoover up capital and talent then abuse their market power. Fuck them all.
They all run on Linux - Torvalds is a Swedish speaking Finn. Greg KH who maintains stable is German. So many libraries and core system contributions by Germans like Drepper and Poettering. Youtube ran on mysql for years from Finnish Widenius. Google built a lot of stuff with Python - from Dutch Guido van Rossum and c++ from Danish Stroustrup. All of the video and audio sites rely heavily on ffmpeg, orginally from French Fabrice Bellard. Lots of them also using virtualisation stuff which includes qemu, also from Bellard. So much comp sci research from Europe and UK. Chrome and Safari originated with KDE (German) code. Europe did all the heavy lifting while the US took all the profits. I'm not even European but every country has the same experience. They have no idea how they are viewed.
I'd like to see Google try and run their company without open source. The operating system, programming language, databases, language libraries, network stack, etc. is such a long list of crucial things. Google is being totally nonsensical to suggest open source doesn't drive a large part of today's economy.
they have no idea how they’re viewed
No, they don’t.
I'm not sure why anyone in EU, bloc or therefore canada should even care what an American company opinion would be at this point. They said they were moving on. They did.
We literally removed "don't be evil" from our mission statement, but you can totally trust us, bro.
Kiss my European ass, Google.
Car company complains that city is developing Metro system.
Google criticizes
Fuck you and shut the fuck up. Google has zero right to say anything, let alone criticize anything.
Do no evil, remember? I remember.
Fuck you
Plus the irony of criticizing others for utilizing FOSS.
Google can fuck itself.
It's worth saying again: Google can fuck itself.
And I generally like Google's products. But they make plenty of money off of my data to say: Fuck Google.
If nobody in Europe paid for Google products think of the economic benefit to Europe if all that saved cash was then spent by the people on European products and services.
The last one I am actively paying for is YouTube premium. I don’t think there is a good alternative yet..
Either the alternative has critical features missing
Or they are not loud enough to have people crosspost to it
Youtube + UBlock Origin is a good alternative to paying Google money every month.
Using channel URLs as RSS feeds + yt-dlp means i don't even visit the site (when i do uBlock Origin does wonders on Firefox).
There is a difference between video content and the software delivering that content.
The content is unlikely to go open source.
European landlords getting ready to hoover up that spare money. 🤑
I feel you’re trying to oppose the decision and your arguments against it are all valid for the current system 😂.
What landlords are you talking about?
All of them. They're parasites.
And I'm not opposed to ditching US tech, quite the opposite, but let's not pretend it ends with a load of spare money for Europe because trickle up economics is real and it just ends in our own billionaires having it all, who'll just invest it all in US tech stocks anyway...
More desperate pleas by Google. I just saw an article by some Google shill that made a case against self hosting. Next they'll try to make it illegal.
"It's afraid" still image from Starship Troopers
if late stage capitalism could be represented by just one picture, its truly this brain bug.
really fun fuck you google
I'm not surprised that they are against it but very surprised that they so blatantly expose their reasoning. If you don't buy my product, it's not good for me, therefore it is not a good idea 🤷
I think all these tech billionaires have lost the capacity to think like reasoning adults. If they ever had it to begin with...
Their whole worldview is "What's best for me?" They have so much power, they think anything that's not good for them should be scorned by everyone.
Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection. Local management or servers located in Europe to store information are among the options.
As long as they’re a US company US law can force them to hand over data. No matter where the servers are located.
It already happened when the French government gave private health data to Microsoft. The same government is now furiously backpedaling. I'm sure they still got their bribes.
Not good for whose growth? Because it'll be perfectly fine for eu. The fact that google is upset about this, should be all the tell you need to know you're on the right path.
They love appropriating it, not when people use it to kick their evil asses to the curb
I think it's buried the same place they put the do no evil slogan. No body no crime as they say.
Sacrificed on the profit altar, it would seem.
Aaahh it hurts our business…. please don’t…. we can’t collect data now aaahhhh…. open source = communism = economic losss aahhhhhh…. why are you being anti competitive grrrrrrrr….
bro plz…bro…cries
Tough shit, you supported the MAGA movement and Europe, thankfully, reacted accordingly. Simply put, the good folks in the EU lost faith in the USA.
The good folks in the USA have lost faith in the USA. Alas, the bad folks remain in power. heh
Drug dealer critizises addict's intention to get clean.
How DARE they try to ELIMINATE our Services after ALL the MONEY we Poured in Donald Trump's POCKETS!
I don't think google is the right source talking competitiveness on this matter..
Oh no! Big evil company doesn't like Europe is realizing they need alternatives? Shocker!
Eat shit Google
And die Google!
It means we're doing something right.
This is sign that Google is worried that a market of 500 million people could decide to move away from the US tech giants. Very worried, judging by this flimsy fear-driven argument. Good.
I hope Europe plays hard ball to over leverage the tech companies, then rips the rug out from under them. Tech companies will amplify even the smallest portions of American frustration, projecting it as a larger problem for the public than it actually is… but I for one will support Europe in playing dirty. Glad, even.
Too bad the genius, job creators couldn’t have possibly foreseen this outcome before giving financial and algorithmic support to a malicious, compromised, demented, fool. But I guess they can always retreat to their doomsday bunkers while the rest of us deal with the (hopefully not literal) fallout.
[deleted]
It probably refers to advances in AI-driven surveillance on behalf of the US Government.
🖕🏻
Alarm Systems Bad For Business, Burglar Claims
The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness.
Google's competitiveness only.
To be honest it’s a meaningless statement outside what you’ve said.
YSK that this is a) ragebait farming you for ad revenue and b) disinformation.
In the FT article referenced, there is no mention of open source.
Neither on his LI, which has a free access link to the FT article: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kent-walker-5963bb198_google-warns-eu-against-erecting-walls-activity-7428100995995398144-I9Ac
I’m going to throw that accusation of disinformation right back at you. He’s careful not to use the words “open source” verbatim, but it’s very clear what he’s talking about.
Every detail of the article is a fair summary of what he said, and you’re trying to pettifog over a string match.
Is that clickfarm your moneymaker? jfc
If we’re playing “everyone who disagrees with me must be a shill”, how much is your agency billing Google to simp for them on social media?
/s
I don't need an incentive to be truthful. I don't know why someone should misrepresent readily checkable facts.
Google and their big tech buddies made their choice by supporting Trump's regime. I know actions have consequences is a concept that doesn't apply in the US, but elsewhere it does. Deal with it.
The irony is that Google uses FOSS software in a huge way since its founding.
Free and Open Source Software for me, but not for thee, Europe.
Fuck Google's hypocrisy. And fuck Google/Alphabet.
This is good. It means that the efforts are working and Google is getting nervous. Let them get nervous and let’s give them a lot more to be nervous about.
Ooooo, someone's getting worried!
Was about to comment: it's afraid!
Google telling the EU that the EU needs Google feels a lot like Cops investigating themselves and finding that they did nothing wrong.
"Buy my shovel! Don't buy that other guys shovel!" Ah, capitalism, you crazy old whore.
What innovation, Google? Like threatening all Android devs?
Google IS innovating! What other company do you know that is able to kill off their products as fast as Google!? Truly innovative!
Fuck Google
Fuck Alphabet, forever
What a preposterous argument google is making. Yes it stifles innovation having open source software and not licensing it from the soul-less mega corporation with the US government willing to break kneecaps for it (if they pay up,) that we know helps the US steal information, and themselves steals every big of information they can get their grasping hands on, both legally and illegally.
Yes Europe wouldn't have the best tools, if they weren't beholden to a mega corporation that could use the out of control drunk with power US to back up their market interests! Talk about an incredible argument. We will see, I bet europe caves to US pressure, as they did all last year, and just goes along with tech plans to bring the trojan horses of chatcontrol and age checks inside the walls of liberal democracies, to ultimately make secret social scores to determine every part of how a person is treated from business to government. Those decisions made by the worst people in the world like Palantir in cooperation with politicians.
As to keeping data in europe so the us couldn't access it, ha. What were you born yesterday? Google is beholden to the US that can make or break them in a thousand million ways. They will find a way, (they already have,) to grab all the data, stored in europe or whereever. You know it, same way we knew before snowden the feds were grabbing everything they could get their grasping hands on.
Because who is going to stop them?
I hope that Europe offers a grant to developers who make open-source software. Stuff like Matrix, Fluxer, Lemmy, and so on. Making the development of such software into a paying job will accelerate the OSS scene and give Europe more viable options.
lol. lmao, even.
Google is secretly panicking cause they lost an entire nation bloc. That's gotta hurt the pocket book somewhere.
Open Source software is in many cases better than commercial software. Consider Linux / Windows.
I second that. I was initially skeptical about switching to Linux Mint, but every game in my Steam library works perfectly the same as on Windows.
Valve has moved mountains to push gaming to the point where it's enjoyable in linux (except for kernel-level anticheat).
Canonical has been a driving force in dispelling the urban myth that linux is command-line only.
Other areas might not be so easy: AutoCAD is still king and GIMP never gained traction over Photoshop (Blender, on the other hand, won awards).
Microslop keeps shooting itself in the foot requiring TPM-only devices to run Windows 11.
TL;DR: YMMV, but it's looking good.
Guys, what you need to do to be competetive, to foster competition... is keep using all our products and services.
Setting up a fund to get new people involved, to get some more money to existing software devs who work on comparable products and servicrs that could be expanded and improved?
No no no, thats uh, that's anti-competetive, is what that is.
Mhm.
Yep.
Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection.
Simultaneously, those same companies are actively lobbying the EU to dismantle those protections.
could stifle innovation
What is there to innovate? It’s just email and cloud storage. It’s not like these governments use Google’s latest AI tools. Google hasn’t done shit to innovate Gmail and Google Drive in the last 15 years. And Google’s Trojan horse called Chrome has actually stifled the internet. Google now has way too much power over browser standards and thus how the web should work.
The only thing corporations like Google "innovate" on is wealth extraction.
They are well aware that US companies placing servers in the EU does nothing for "data sovereignty", they are bound by the Cloud Act so anything the US government demands takes precedence over the GDPR / EU regulations (which are therefore legally impossible to comply with).
bad for competition? If people want FOSS software, well go make a good product then!
Google has forgotten how to do competition.
Fuck Google!
Absolutely brilliant, the company that will be affected the most together with Microslop says its not a good idea to stop paying them
Carthaginians furious Rome stopped paying them and instead invests in a fleet of their own.
Thanks you for your concerns, Google. Now, fuck you.
If Europe cares about climate change they will force carriers to open source their firmware. Why should a phone be allowed to be non-updateable?
because how else will we protect the children if not with lockdd down phones with built in surveillance?
but I hope you are right.
The government should just pay some money to maintainers instead of giving it to corpos. That way everyone wins, instead of just google because the code is in the hand of the public. Also google, please just like, politely, fuck off. We know you guys want in on this, even if we need an out. Everyone knows your worries aren't for public interest but for your own pockets. FOSS actually supports a much more competitive landscape by not locking in users and allowing people to build on each others ideas instead of creating monopolies.
It’s like there are three major political forces in the market: USA, China, Open Source. If we leave the dominant place for another IT world hurt competition? How exactly?
"could harm competitiveness"
Wouldn't it be funny if they took the pool of cash they were dedicating to google, but it in half then distributed the remained to the open source initiatives they were switching to?
I think it would increase competitiveness as well.
Google will actually have to innovate if they want to have people buy their products rather than just being the default one and only choice.
Oh no, anyways
Yes of course it would hurt Google's economic growth. That's one of the good points. Why pay for new features that nobody wants to support a company everybody hates. Better to go FOSS and make the world a better and safer place, and also save your taxpayers a lot of money.
The Europe that can say NO.
This is also the same Europe telling down Microsoft not to force Internet Explorer upon its users.
Don't forget the Europe that told apple to fuck off with their own charger bullshit.
I remember when every single phone had their own charger. It was not fun.
Shit's straight out of the onion. The jokes write themselves
I criticise Emma Stone's plan not to sleep with me.
Let’s create open source even harder
Christ , they're just outright pretending the US isn't a batshit rogue state that needs to be decoupled
Google trying to scare Europe into giving them money and power back in their region 😥 Stfu and let Europe get their individuality and contribute to open source projects which will help Americans like me much more than any amount of money given to Google.
I actually giggled at this.
I did not Google at this
Google’s chief legal officer clarified that he is not opposed to digital sovereignty, but recommended making use of the “best technologies in the world.”
goog chief legal just being an edgelord while undermining some small things like uhhh... goog being under beck and call of an orange baby.
he didn't really define what's "best technologies" are -- in the world.
we can say COBOL is still alive because it is the "best technology" at what it can do.
It seems to me that his advice is sound, and that the eu is following it. Google is just not the best technologies in the world, and hadn't been for a long while.
According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
It would be more accurate to call it artificial economic growth.
But, these fuckheads would get laughed out of town if they told the truth.
The only economic growth they are referring to is Google's economic growth.
Google Butthurt
I did. Not advisable at work 😞
Holy hell
Yes, that came up in the results also 😉
Get fucked, corporate shitpiles.
I would rather use a tin-can radio than fascist tech. Fuck you, Google. Reap what you sow. You helped American Nazis get in power and you help them stay in power. You deserve to disappear with them when Trump and his vile losers go to jail.
they are obssesed with growth and staying ultrarich instead of what it is best for everyone.
Google literally supports a bunch of open source projects. Wtf are they saying?
In a lot of cases (like Mozilla), they supported these efforts to legally maintain their monopoly over digital services.
Google is an ad company, they are using their size and influence to redesign the rules of the internet to ensure their presence can't be bypassed or controlled by the end user.
They want all internet traffic to go through them.
Burn Google (or Alphabet to start with) to the ground.
So they supported open source just enough to say there is competition and their products are the most popular because they are superior and not because of our anti competitive behavior? And they supported mozilla at one point? Too bad mozilla is going to hell now too I might have to switch.
Do you have any good reading on this? I would be interested in learning the details of google supporting open source as a foil to accusations they are an illegal monopoly/trust and whatever else.
The EU currently has stronger Anti-Trust laws than the North American countries so most a lot of what is public comes from their courts.
This wiki is a good start.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antitrust_cases_against_Google_by_the_European_Union
The case with Mozilla is the most obvious in terms of funding direct competition to maintain the semblance of competition with Chrome. Google really dislike adblockers so they've been throwing their weight around with Mozilla and the HTML5 protocols (as best I understand it) to prevent people from using adblockers in the future.
One of the first instances that I can recall was when Google acquired Youtube. There were critics who worried about the lack of competition in video hosting. Google assured legislators that things were fine because they still had Google Video at the time. Controlling those two allowed them to dominate the video hosting space. Google video was eventually phased out, with hosting being diverted to Youtube.
IIRC Google were also throwing their weight around when it came to buying up portions of the wireless spectrum in the US. Again, to prevent other, smaller organizations from gaining a foothold in the mobile industry (they made deals with providers who carried their phones, iirc.
These are mostly off the top of my head from watching their practices over the last 20 years or so there may be corrections to all of this.
Sorry for not having more direct sources for you but I will continue looking for some and will update when I get a chance.
Edit: Another open-source example is Google's investment in 'Accelerated Mobile Pages' - this is what I was referring too when I said google wants Webtraffic directed through them.
Kent Walker suggested that this initiative would stifle innovation and deny people access to the “best digital tools.”
Perhaps in specific scientific or engineering situations the "best digital tools" may be needed, but isn't that just a tiny fraction of the European userbase? How many office workers need bleeding edge tools to make a quarterly report or send an email?
Plus, the whole point in shifting towards open source platforms (besides tech sovereignty) is boosting the development of open source software.
There's already open source scientific software. If it's not as feature rich as a proprietary one that costs thousands a year for one license, then all the more reason to encourage more contributions.
Oh no! Not the innovation! That is the only thing that matters to humanity, and we haven't got enough innovations already. When will Spoons 2.0 ever come out at this rate? I can barely taste my soup!
Thing is, what is 'best' depends on the criteria you apply. If one of them is "allows US govt snooping" or "allows US govt to cut you off whenever" then none of Google's stuff is 'the best'.
How can anyone choosing something else than your product hurt competitiveness? Suck it Google and go back to "overseas" reich.
Dear Google: we wouldn't have to do this if you weren't such a shit company.
Oh, you weren't aware that you're a shit company? You legitimately believe you're a positive force for the world? Well that's your own damn fault.
"Wolf criticizes sheep for running away"
Obviously the ultimate goal is to free themselves from dependance on the US and the Trump admin has shown that this need has become crucial. Establish a non-profit organization with the mandate to maintain, respond to user needs and keep secure the software for the public. This would allow developers to work full time on it and keep it supported for decades. The EU and the org's board can meet every year to discuss what direction they want to go with it.
Boycott Google, check out the degoogle communities
all my homies hate google
"It'll hurt our bottom line and make us less competitive" said google. "Aren't you afraid of missing out?"
FUCK OFF.
Grow a pair and take it up with the shit gibbon in the whitehouse.
Unfortunately, they will, then we'll all have to hear the news of some incoherent new anti-France rant.
Economic growth cited by google is goole's revenues. Also, there is no faster tech advance than in open source.
Lol, what competition? If anything this'll increase it, since suddenly, there's room for others.
I think that the monopoly can't talk about competitiveness after 1 year and a half they announced some anti-competitive moves they wanted to do;
Also, i find quite funny that google extensively uses open source projects and do the bare minimum to help those projects
"why haven't you thought of our bottom line?!?"
Ah yes, 'best technologies in the world' like the software giving Google and the USA full access to all our data?
And googles transformation is complete marking the end to an idyllic era that has been barely hanging on.
In other news: fire is hot, water makes things wet, and things that taste good make us happy.
Buddy, she's breaking up with you. Accept it.
Google 😂
Lol
it stated that the creation of regulatory barriers would be harmful in a context of rapid technological advancement.
"RaPiD tEcHnOlOgIcAl AdVaNcEmEnT", we all know what that is.
Who will think of the shareholders? /s
Wait, nobody in their marketing or pr departments told them this would make them look like massive whinebabies?
Also EU govts might get crippled by losing out on all that tax revenue. /s
Keep going, I'm almost there...
Is Google literally crying cause they won't get people data and money? Looks like begging.
I'm more surprised this isn't Microsoft lol
Google knows it's place is slowly fading away the more people realize how much harm they do.
Nice economy you have there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.
Can't wait for the CIA to mingle more blatantly obvious in our affairs...
They have decades of experience in South America.
There is still a need for administration so set ever up and maintain the infrastructure. So there is going to be competition, juts google is going to be out of the loop.
Ya, let's support competition by sourcing from a monopoly...
Oh yes, bring it on!!
google can get bent
So it must be good thing then?
European administration offices don't need the best technologies in the world, they just need a freakin office program they can trust...
Huh, I wonder how this economic growth compares to Google's multiple mass layoffs over the past few years...
Well since Google didn’t slam Europe, it’s not that big of a deal. /lh
While im very happy about this just like everyone else, I think it will be a struggle to get rid of the Microslop stuff. A lot of organizations would simply cease to exist if Microslop office and their Windows admin stuff would be gone right now.
I don’t see how that’s true. It’s a little bit of a change to go to open source. Might need a day of training for a small percentage of particularly slow-minded staff members. Definitely nowhere near “organization is no longer viable” territory.
They have no messaging, no email, no calenders, no file storage, no operating system. While the transition is definitely possible, in an abrupt event you only have maybe emergency coordinations
I’m not clear on what your point is then. Your initial “it will be a struggle to get rid of” pivoted to “abrupt event”.
If you’re trying to make the case that we should all move off MS as soon as possible in order to avoid the damage of an abrupt event then yeah I’m in complete agreement.
suggested that this initiative would stifle innovation and deny people access to the “best digital tools.”
While I read this section, my google-home powered radio stopped for no reason (just like it does often these days). I opened my home assistant control pannel and launched it again from there.
I'm looking forward to the day I finish my transition to 100% home assistant!
Kent Wanker.
Google really really cares about us Europeans! ...........
Anyway, bye Google...
Não estava nada à espera de ver um artigo da Pplware nesta comunidade
I would be worried if the contrary happens...
According to the Financial Times
Original article paywalled. Shame because I really wanted to hear how they were going to explain:
The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness
Oh no!
Anyway...
Yeah, declawing hurts huh
They're so wise!
FCK Fascist-Alphabet
Who ever wrote that headline was a sucker
Lol Google can eat my poo.