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.
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.
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.
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.
It’s the “pull the ladder” mentality.
“Open source for me, but not for thee.”
That’s also why they bait-and-switched us with AOSP.
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!
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.)
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.
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.
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.
Username checks out.
Okay, so:
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 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.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
aptwould’ve automatically resolved this and asked you to also install the deps.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.
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”.
I wasn’t necessarily suggesting
aptin the CLI; just the APT repository generally, which ZorinOS’ built-in package manager has access to. Ifsudo apt install hardinfowill 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
apthas never worked for you, but, frankly, I don’t believe you.Just FYI, the entire point of using
aptinstead of working withdpkg(the utility used to install.debfiles) directly is thatapthandles 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.Sorry but that’s really not typical, you must have been doing something out of the ordinary or been very unlucky.
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?
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
.debfiles. If you wanted to install packageA.debthat depended onB.debandC.deb, withC.debitself depending onD.debandE.deb, you would work down the dependency tree to figure that out, obtaining the.debfile for each package as you went (presumably manually downloading from each project website itself, since we’re doing this in hard mode), then rundpkg install E.deb,dpkg install D.deb,dpkg install C.deb,dpkg install B.deb, and finallydpkg install A.debin that order. You also have to make sure each of those packages is the correct version compatible with the others, BTW.This is what
aptis designed to do for you, automatically. This is why you use it instead ofdpkg.(Side note: I sure would love to find out how to control syntax highlighting in Lemmy inline code markup.)
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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.
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.
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.
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.