> Nothing you're saying seems to be based upon anything logical or sane

This stated goal of the EU is neither logical nor sane. And the smart people they need to actually build their homegrown versions of their view of a sovereign tech stack have probably told them that numerous times to no avail.

There simply is no infrastructure on this Earth in 2026 that can be leveraged to create an entirely free-from-US-components computing stack that is also modern. And it would be insane to even think that one could be built in the next few decades to the point where it would be competitive enough for real-world use.

And I mean that sincerely. Without meaningful competition, progress tends to slow, and everyone can agree current US tech companies could use some competition at the moment.

That being said, no country on this Earth can completely and absolutely decouple from US made goods and services while maintaining a modern computing and networking stack. China is struggling to do that at the moment, and they have the best potential opportunity to succeed.

The EU cannot produce a modern homegrown CPU that does not have US technology embedded in it. It cannot produce a modern OS that does not borrow from at least partially written US code. The networking gear it physically connects to is almost entirely US dependent, even the stuff made in China. The list goes on. Theory is one thing, but demonstrating your ability to do the above is another.

Sure, you can fork OSS and call it homegrown, but at the end of the day, you are guaranteed to be relying on at least something in your stack that is at least somewhat dependent on the US.

Welcome to the group, Mathies!

It is incredibly easy to jam a laser link. Just put up any obstruction in the path and leave it there.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki...

The problem with building your own private cloud for this is that every part of it will still use US components in some fashion. Hardware, OS, networking, everything has US sourced materials or software.

Even if you ran a bunch of RISC-V processors on custom motherboards and linked with Huawei networking gear, youâ(TM)re probably using an OS with code from GNU or BSD. The chips on that networking gear? Broadcom, something ARM based.

You simply cannot decouple yourself from US products completely in 2026. That is just the plain reality. So, what is the end game here, what does the EU consider sovereign enough?

As you said, Linux distros and Postgres both heavily rely on US code. Even Linus has been a US citizen for over a decade now.

Almost all modern hardware those clouds run on, from compute to storage to networking, also rely on US code.

When you think of actual, true, real alternatives that can be used today, every single one of them will have some sort of dependency on the US. Even the homegrown platforms in China, which are already lightyears ahead of EU offerings, remain heavily dependent on US tech. It is just a reality of the globalized market.

So at what level do you actually consider yourself completely sovereign in this realm? The reality is, the EU cannot be at this point in time. Realistically, even decades from now seems highly unlikely, even if they actually made a decent initiative at trying.

Those private clouds are still going to be running at least some US software. If the stated goal is overall EU sovereignty over their data, that is not going to happen anytime soon.

You kind of need actual viable alternatives if you want to migrate off something. And I do not see anything EU-centric that would stand as a replacement for Amazon, Google, IBM, Oracle or Microsoft at the moment.

Sounds like one of those half-baked AI deals that they announced one year ago - not serious at all, just enough to earmark some money for some companies linked to the politicians passing these directives.

Look, the VMWare debacle was one thing, but you should not aim to replace any already modern systems with IBM products in 2026.

If not for the obvious technological reasons, just look at how IBM has been run the last few years.

Who could have ever predicted this outcome?

Just like with their former dependency on Russian energy only a few years ago, Europe once again finds itself incapable or unwilling to mitigate risk in the same sector. Shocking.

Probably should buy some Apple stock

I am certain Microsoft sabotaged their own products way more than anything else with their CoPilot shenanigans.