How are things going in the UK right now?

OK. I'm out of this conversation. Nothing can be a positive outcome of this conversation. So I admit: The European Union is working on the behalf of China, with a hidden authoritarian agenda who wants to make all EU citizens helpless peasants. All actions the EU are taking are not real. They just want to screw us up. I'm moving to the US. Maybe I'll be better off. (note: sarcasm)

Well collegues, I think we must see it as a positive evolution. We can have some doubts for sure, but there are things moving onto a more independent Europe and we cannot be against that idea. So let's stay positive and we'll see what direction things are going. Keep buying European !!!

That's what big tech companies do, they buy small and promissing companies they think that once can become a competitor and then.... destroy it. The young startups just take the money and can retire early.

You got the point.

IMO there should come an European law that forces computer manufactuers to offer customers the option between Windows or Linux. This is a way to make Linux more mainstream, but still leaving the final decission to the customer.

Yes, I have Voyager myself (little mouse icon) and I'm using it, but still I find it quite confusing for non-tech people. I try to explain. I'm a High School teacher in graphic design and crossmedia. I work mostly with teenagers between 14-18yo. They can work very well with the software, but don't try to explain the technology behind it. They don't wanna know or they don't care, as long as the software works and the program does what they want it to do. I also spend years educating adults to work with new technology. When I look at the Voyager interface, I see: Home, All, Local. I see lemmy.wtf; feddit.uk; feddit.org; lemmy.world, etc... Maybe people think that I'm just crazy and/or overreacting, but I can guarantee you that alot of people don't understand all the tech things behind it. Only 0.1% of the users of FB, Insta, TikTok, etc... have a clue (or are interested) in the tech behind the apps.

YES, indeed @Senor Mono You are right. That's what's making a good app... good :-) A simple stupid Graphic User Interface. The fact that we are here on Lemmy means (most likely) that we are some kind of "nerds", because Average Joe will not come here, unless he/she can use an app without hassle and is able to discover the Lemmy communities with even 10 brain cells (or less). I know, I'm making a parody of it, but in fact that's exactely why apps like Insta, FB, etc are so popular. To end with a "free version" of Trump's words... even the uneducated must be able to use it without tariff barriers, LOL. Conclusion to be plain and simple: In my opinion (feel free to disagree)...We need to rethink the GUI of Lemmy and everything will be fine.

I just learned that Eutelsat is also (still) working for Russian TV stations to stream/broadcast their programs. Do you think it's a good idea to work with an European company who has no moral compass and says it's OK with Putin?

WERO is coming all over Europe. Germany, France and Belgium are already connected and this year also in the Netherlands. It's happening but ofcourse.... much too slow for many of us :-) www.wero-wallet.eu If they realy want to be innovative they should use blockchain technology to make it happen.

IMO it's mind blowing to see how many Europeans are now discovering alternative EU or OpenSource solutions for IT services that were imbedded in our lives for so many years. Linux is booming, Proton.me is one of the biggest competitors for the Google eco-system, alternative browsers like Vivaldi are sky rocketing, Signal, BlueSky, Mastodon and Substack. I had never heard of that 1 year ago and now I have no more Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp. Also many... many european businesses are moving their cloud drives to EU cloud services. This is only the beginning.