@Techaltar if it raises prices, then I fear, that the answer is no.

@Techaltar The EU should promote that all US states that don’t align with the dictator’s policies secede from the US of A and become independent.

@Techaltar We might need it for the wave of nazis that will feel even stronger now the US backs them 

@Techaltar no #Europe will continue to buy #US #iphone made in #China X-D

@Techaltar too late.

@Techaltar we have to. but also, like, lol, :lolsob:

@Techaltar I wish, too but ...

@Techaltar Habits are hard to change, but the news won't get any better in the near future. That and EU regulation combined could actually lead to lasting change. It's also a big business opportunity for European countries, often overlooked. I'm optimistic!

@Techaltar for @apell, I work on the EU Open Source Awards project, one of the efforts we work on to raise awareness for the strategic importance of Open Source for digital sovereignty. I’d like to invite you to the gala, could we get in touch?

@Techaltar You know the answer, don't you? Any effort will be crippled by inefficiency or 'muh, centralisation'.

@Techaltar Is this referring to a specific event or the general zeitgeist?

@Techaltar
(Sadly, more likely)

@Techaltar Not only technology, I started making changes in my life 1 year ago. I don't buy any products made in the US or from US companies, except things that get out of my hands (Windows on the computer, Google Services and paying with a VISA or MasterCard). My browser is Vivaldi, my search engine is Qwant, my antivirus is Bitfender, my AI chat is Mistral, my email is Tutamail, my cloud is Internxt and much more! Let's do it together and show that Europe does not depend on the US 

@Techaltar Probably too many people willing to assist usa

@Techaltar not with our current crop of "leaders", just roll over and offer the throat up...

@Techaltar no, Windows everywhere, and M365

@Techaltar I'm sorry, but did you ask the trump administration to post this????

@Techaltar would you mind if I post a screenshot of this message on my WhatsApp status?

@Techaltar Of course no.
The majority of the EU politicians have been trained by the US in the "Young Leaders" program.
I'd be extremely surprised anyone of them has enough spine to resist to US pressure.

@Techaltar Unlikely as they incentivise things

@Techaltar as a citizen of the USA i hope you do! The monopolies are toppling the world.

@Techaltar Vast amounts of state information in my country is stored on Microsoft azure and Oracle databases. These US corporations who profit from very suspect practices, plus their software is also really shit. I really hope EU countries like mine migrate from these rubbish companies to superior European based ones ASAP.

@Techaltar @cstross European politicians might talk about sovereign cloud, but as long as they have the hots for Palantir, and EU startups get VC money from a16z & co, we’ll stay at the mercy of this adversarial regime.

@Techaltar @GossiTheDog thoughts and prayers?

@Techaltar @GossiTheDog I believe VW had to shut down recently because they lacked something trivial like transistors and diodes. Never mind complex semiconductors or software. We‘re screwed.

@Techaltar @cstross we won’t.

@Techaltar I wish they'd thought about it 10 years ago.

@Techaltar @GossiTheDog The problem (IMO) with the EU is that there's not enough "Union" among members. I'm sure the original EU Commission set itself up to manage the member states so that agreements could be made, and dissent would be eliminated by rounds of debate y'know, like a democracy). This, however has been shown not to be the case and the wavering over sanctions and support for the war in Ukraine has shown the weakness in the system where member states' alleged vested interests and maybe secret alliances with the aggressor work against Union. So in the event of a "push" into Europe, there wouldn't be the strong bond to repel this, and really it's so obvious now that even the Orange Guy can see it, and he's watching the EU unintentionally dismantle itself. If you want further proof, ask about the European Army.

@Techaltar I'd hope, but I also doubt. There have been multiple happenings lately that should've been eye openers but weren't 🥲.

@Techaltar Depends on who you mean by "we". EU politicians won't suddenly understand the need for sovereign tech, they don't even understand the difference between a kernel and a browser. These people are so far removed from technological knowledge its actually impressive.

They will say some things that an LLM chatbot has told them to say, along the lines of "we need more open source", but then not fund any of the initiatives we have had to actually make that happen. They will also not consider what open source is, what the alternatives could be, and thus never realize that open source is just corporate venom to free software.

If any of them truly cared, they wouldn't have let it come this far to begin with.

@Techaltar approach in #russia " #china you want to 5G spy on us? Ok but only with our #encryption"

@Techaltar I tried to have that conversation with multiple executives here in belgium and it's a big no.