This list is very impressive, but it is the wrong approach. We simply need an EU alternative to Google, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon etc.

The closer to a drop-in replacement the better. Tying all of these functional bits and pieces together to form a consistent whole is just not going to happen. You need to approach this on a per-company level.

So, who will step up to the plate and re-implement as much of Google as necessary to catch 80% of the functionality and their EU customers?

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yabones 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Isn't massive tech conglomerates locking people into their ecosystems how we got here in the first place? The quest to replace US with EU products is really just treating symptoms of the problems that tech has created in the past 2-3 decades.

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jacquesm 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Yes, but the cost-to-switch is more important right now than the details, the bigger fear I have is that if such an EU alternative is successful that the US incumbents will swoop in and buy it and then you're back to square 1. That has happened quite a few times already.

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atmosx 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And the EU governments will be advertising it.. already happened in Greece… few companies with strong core tech were bought by Microsoft and the gov was “so happy” for the “success story”.

Everybody and their mother is using Gmail anyway

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toomuchtodo 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Is there a mechanism the EU could use to inhibit acquisition by a non EU entity?

	▲	jacquesm 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		There is in France. They have a government investment arm that will invest relatively small amounts but with a string attached: a veto on any majority acquisition. This was used for instance to block the takeover of Dailymotion by Yahoo iirc. It's a double edged sword: it may help in some cases but it hurts the investment scene overall because an exit to the USA is what most EU investors dream about because their returns overall are pretty crappy. Fragmented markets are a lot harder for investors than uniform ones.
	▲	atmosx 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		It’s not a matter of mechanism. It’s a matter of mindset. Until today the mindset wasn’t there. Maybe this will change.

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mixmastamyk 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A few friends and I have thought similarly, although we focused on Apple first and the Google/Office suite second. We wrote our thoughts here: https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/ and the alternatives here: https://aol.codeberg.page/eci/status.html

I personally don't think it makes a lot of sense for consumers or small business to have to wrangle dozens of IT providers. How can we consolidate them?

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jacquesm 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Excellent question and great to see you thinking in the same direction.

Consolidation of various open source projects is underway with projects such as owncloud but it is still very fragile and hard to maintain.

I think a pledge never to be bought out and a way to restrict stock to EU UBOs would be one step in the right direction, then you'll need a massive amount of capital to pull this off. But maybe the climate is finally right to raise a proper amount of money for such an undertaking.

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mixmastamyk 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Hmm, I wouldn't say it would take a "massive" amount of capital. EU is rich enough and they don't pay developers as well, correct? Most of the building blocks already exist.

	▲	jacquesm 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yes, but integrating them seamlessly and securely is still a huge undertaking.

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petcat 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> EU alternative to Google, Microsoft, Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon

This is basically just saying "we need to start by replacing 5 of the richest and most powerful companies the world has ever seen".

I think the EU should start a little smaller so they might actually make some progress on digital sovereignty within the next century.

	▲	jacquesm 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You don't have to do all five at once, and a proper replacement based on the integration of a number of partial solutions should in principle be workable. What is required is the capital and the will to do it. If someone pulls this off they can count on my company as a subscriber and I think there are many more like me.