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Comment The EU is waking up (Score 3, Insightful) 81

After decades of allowing the USA to shaft our IT industry we finally start looking inward at what remains of our tech industry because uncle Sam becomes a greedy, selfish megalomaniac and now google acts all butt-hurt?

There are loads of companies in the EU providing what Google, Microsoft, and Amazon could provide.

But, alas, these companies are based in the USA and so can only be considered untrustworthy (because of the CLOUD act, for example).

SuSE gmbh (German) provides an entire operating system; both for desktop and server, and they are able to provide SLA arrangements.
SoftMaker (German) provides a nice office package.
Proton (Swiss, soon to be German) provides a bunch of security related services, email, word processor, and a spreadsheet.
NextCloud (German) provides a nice cloud platform, including meeting place and office software.
ONLYOffice (Latvia) provides an office suite which has collaboration features.
Linux Mint (Ireland) is an excellent desktop operating system.
OVH (German) provides cloud infrastructure.

There are others, but these are the companies I can think of this quickly.

So, yes, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, worry as your reputation gets destroyed by the simple fact that you're US companies. All we need to happen is that all those EU governments and large companies wake up (and it's starting to happen) and start pouring money in these EU companies.

Comment LEGO already isn't what it used to be (Score 1) 30

When I was young, there were limited bricks, but the sky was the limit in what you could do with them.

These days I see more and more boxes with bricks in them which can only be used in one particular way.

Now this. They're milking a very good product and making it terrible.

LEGO used to be about creativity; about building whatever pops in your mind. Now, more and more sets can only be used to build exactly one thing... maybe two or three.

Comment What do they expect? (Score 2, Insightful) 112

That we'll simply allow the USA to shaft us with all of these companies which are basically monopolies?

- Microsoft (Windows)
- Apple (App Store)
- Google (advertising, Android, Chrome)
- Amazon (AWS)
- OpenAI (illegally vacuuming up paid content without permission)

These monopolies deserve to be hit with regulations and, upon non-compliance, be fined. There is exactly one EU company which is a monopoly (ASML), and even that company is facing competition. All the rest need to catch up to the USA companies. Now, the EU is not playing favorites for EU companies, it's just that most tech monopolies are in the USA.

The EU is doing what the USA should have done a loooooong time ago. And now the USA is complaining because its government was basically bought by those 5 companies and/or the billionaires owning them.

Comment Re:Focus on designing an OS ... (Score 3, Interesting) 103

Microsoft stopped caring about it's OS as an OS a loooooooooong time ago. Now it just looks at it as a means to squeeze as much money (either directly or indirectly) out of its users. Problem is, they can't immediately start charging people for the more obvious stuff - they need to put little things in there for which they can charge, such as... oh, say, access to your own data stored in the *cough* safety *cough* of the cloud. Those handy AI features, will of course eventually get integrated in *cough* helpful *cough* features in the cloud, which will, again, cost money.

Microsoft is dumping each and every single of its users om a ever so slightly, but oh, so slippery slope of dependence, data extraction, and subscription. It won't happen now, maybe not with Windows 12, but sooner or later it will come from Microsoft and every step on the way is meant to ease you right into it.

Comment AI bubble is going to burst (Score 1) 60

The companies aren't making that much money from their AI's, a company might be worth billions, while its revenue (not profit) might be no more than €20mln. This is going to implode as soon as the AI-fad is over.

AI is a useful tool and it has value, but right now the value of anything with AI in it is simply way too high due to it being hyped into the stratosphere. Anyone financial reads "AI" and stops thinking and starts seeing euro signs and starts investing without looking at the numbers of the company.

This is simply unsustainable. A lot of people will get burned sooner or later.

Comment Trump is an idiot (Score 3, Interesting) 55

Putting sanctions on Karim Khan instantly made everyone aware of their dependence on American companies. The USA proved that they're an unreliable business partner that'll do whatever the current president wants. It wasn't as if it was some low profile person. Whether Karim Khan was an asshole or not does not matter. The USA took revenge on him for daring to do what the USA doesn't like. Now the whole world knows. Anybody that matters is at this point looking to ditch Microsoft. Using Microsoft software is now much more a liability than it was previously. Microsoft was happy that most officials did not care. Now those same officials care.

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