@stoy While their mandate 'Buy American' goes back to 1950 with the Defense Procurement Act. For European companies to qualify they demand production be at least 50% based in the US and often a full transfer of IP.
@dieTasse Well, as you say un Germany: you cannot live from air and love alone, can you?
Let alone offer support, keep servers and development going, do marketing to get the word out etc. And relying on donations or kickstarters alone is perilous and exactly the reason why so many promising open source projects failed.
The only other option to get money is Angel VCs and there are preciously little of them to go around. And their involvement sparks distrust immediately. So...
@Ooops Hmm... I cannot confirm where you see that (if we're talking about Pocketbook), I checked the Dutch, German and Swiss = International websites of them and don't see that claim anywhere?
Only their eNotes (InkPad X Pro, InkPad Eo and the Color note) run Android.
All their 'normal' eReaders run a custom Linux based os. That's 12 devices.
And yes, many companies really suck at marketing, because they don't really understand their target audiences and live in a bubble.
@Ooops Pocketbook offers devices with a custom OS (Linux based AFAIK) like the Era that I use and some are Android based. Tolino I always thought to be a completely autonomous development but I never really looked into that.
@Attacker94 The problem I have with Matrix is that so many rooms I used to be in are now overrun with spam much of it in the gore and NSFW category. Which is a huge downer for me. Or you need to join or set up a private server.
I love the general idea though. Especially the bridging part.
@paper_moon I fixed that by going back to DVD and Bluray. Cheap on fleamarkets, same resolution or higher, very compatible and I actually own my content. And extremely compatible, easily shared with friends and family.
Nice side effect: no cash to big studios and I actually get to pick what to watch instead of letting an algorithm determine it for me. The intros and Extras are a nice touch as well.
@BussyGyatt Dating apps are not made to meet your match, only make it look like it. Look at the business model: their profits come from keeping you on the platform, not getting you hitched. So those platforms are screwed up seven ways to sunday. And it skews your view of 'what you can get' especially for women.
@erebion Netherlands has a lot of the same approach. Endless discussions. Now finally they seem to wake up but as soon as the media attention goes away I fear the need to change will go away with it. Here there is added urgency as the eID service that you need to do all kinds of things related to government called DigiD is about to be sold to the US too.
Incomprehensible how the Netherlands consequently fails to protect such strategic companies. All for profit, I guess...
@dieTasse There are of course local initiatives to help people with that, but they are - again for the average user - relatively hard to find. You have to be interested in the topic in the first place to figure all of that out. Most people don't care. They want a computer that runs and does what they need to do.
And what doesn't help is that 'Linux people' can be quite polarizing and judgmental.
@dieTasse What we need is Linux optimized devices like Tuxedo, Slimbook, Starlabs on shelves in stores with decent support. Thats what it boils down to. The average user barely understands the mainstream OS, so asking them to figure out making a bootstick, installing it properly (especially if they want dualboot) and then find their way mostly by themselves in the new OS is not one but two bridges too far. And that is assuming there aren't driver issues etc
@pantherina I wouldn't call it garbage exactly. Garbage is the Chinese made stuff that doesn't even work properly when new. BIC works. Every time. And quite a long while too. Are they single use? Yes. Some of it. But still preferable over the other stuff.
The world isn't black and white. If we must have single use, then I prefer BIC over the other options.
@EdgeInternational992@bossito The glasses were not for style by the way. He had / has bleeding in his left eye, which does look horrifying, but is rather harmless, but takes about two weeks to go away completely.
@Chemo Klarna despite being Swedish is actually a pretty shitty Company if you take a closer look. Exploitative and predatory practices are normal for them. Their biggest income? Not commissions from the companies they promote as you might assume, but from the people who can't pay back on time. And that is not by accident. They also are AI first. Not humans first.
@Dyskolos Wero is in it's infancy, pagience. You don't just roll out something like that for all of Europe overnight. But it will come. For 2026 it's supposed to replace iDeal in the Netherlands while right now only 1 or 2 Dutch banks support it and no webshops I know of.
@stoy While their mandate 'Buy American' goes back to 1950 with the Defense Procurement Act. For European companies to qualify they demand production be at least 50% based in the US and often a full transfer of IP.
Now they cry foul as we aim to do the same tells a lot about just how skewed that relationship is and basically has been for decades. Freeloaders my ass! Don't budge @EUCommission ! #us #uspol #europe #defense #buyeuropean #unplugtrump
@dieTasse Well, as you say un Germany: you cannot live from air and love alone, can you?
Let alone offer support, keep servers and development going, do marketing to get the word out etc. And relying on donations or kickstarters alone is perilous and exactly the reason why so many promising open source projects failed.
The only other option to get money is Angel VCs and there are preciously little of them to go around. And their involvement sparks distrust immediately. So...
@Ooops Hmm... I cannot confirm where you see that (if we're talking about Pocketbook), I checked the Dutch, German and Swiss = International websites of them and don't see that claim anywhere?
Only their eNotes (InkPad X Pro, InkPad Eo and the Color note) run Android.
All their 'normal' eReaders run a custom Linux based os. That's 12 devices.
And yes, many companies really suck at marketing, because they don't really understand their target audiences and live in a bubble.
@Ooops Pocketbook offers devices with a custom OS (Linux based AFAIK) like the Era that I use and some are Android based. Tolino I always thought to be a completely autonomous development but I never really looked into that.
@SrMono Maybe have a look at @delta ? Also decentralized, easy to set up, audited and looks a lot like WA.
@Attacker94 The problem I have with Matrix is that so many rooms I used to be in are now overrun with spam much of it in the gore and NSFW category. Which is a huge downer for me. Or you need to join or set up a private server.
I love the general idea though. Especially the bridging part.
@paper_moon I fixed that by going back to DVD and Bluray. Cheap on fleamarkets, same resolution or higher, very compatible and I actually own my content. And extremely compatible, easily shared with friends and family.
Nice side effect: no cash to big studios and I actually get to pick what to watch instead of letting an algorithm determine it for me. The intros and Extras are a nice touch as well.
@BussyGyatt Dating apps are not made to meet your match, only make it look like it. Look at the business model: their profits come from keeping you on the platform, not getting you hitched. So those platforms are screwed up seven ways to sunday. And it skews your view of 'what you can get' especially for women.
@erebion Netherlands has a lot of the same approach. Endless discussions. Now finally they seem to wake up but as soon as the media attention goes away I fear the need to change will go away with it. Here there is added urgency as the eID service that you need to do all kinds of things related to government called DigiD is about to be sold to the US too.
Incomprehensible how the Netherlands consequently fails to protect such strategic companies. All for profit, I guess...
@dieTasse There are of course local initiatives to help people with that, but they are - again for the average user - relatively hard to find. You have to be interested in the topic in the first place to figure all of that out. Most people don't care. They want a computer that runs and does what they need to do.
And what doesn't help is that 'Linux people' can be quite polarizing and judgmental.
@dieTasse What we need is Linux optimized devices like Tuxedo, Slimbook, Starlabs on shelves in stores with decent support. Thats what it boils down to. The average user barely understands the mainstream OS, so asking them to figure out making a bootstick, installing it properly (especially if they want dualboot) and then find their way mostly by themselves in the new OS is not one but two bridges too far. And that is assuming there aren't driver issues etc
@pantherina I wouldn't call it garbage exactly. Garbage is the Chinese made stuff that doesn't even work properly when new. BIC works. Every time. And quite a long while too. Are they single use? Yes. Some of it. But still preferable over the other stuff.
The world isn't black and white. If we must have single use, then I prefer BIC over the other options.
A matchstick is single use too by the way...
@pantherina At least not automatically. No, that is true...
@SrMono Ever only used #Microsoft #microslop for a very short time for gaming.
Have been running primarily on Linux since 2013 or 2014 and exclusively since 2018.
#bigtech free for my private devices and services since 2022
@bossito Something like this?
https://eu.bic.com/en-gb/lighters/bic-ez-reach
https://eu.bic.com/en-gb/lighters/bic-ez-load
@EdgeInternational992 @bossito The glasses were not for style by the way. He had / has bleeding in his left eye, which does look horrifying, but is rather harmless, but takes about two weeks to go away completely.
@kunegis @bossito Nope... matches from Sweden... ;-)
Although I find a pity that BIC isn't mentioned as well... Made in Europe too...
But I will admit the matches are more ecologically friendly.
@Chemo Klarna despite being Swedish is actually a pretty shitty Company if you take a closer look. Exploitative and predatory practices are normal for them. Their biggest income? Not commissions from the companies they promote as you might assume, but from the people who can't pay back on time. And that is not by accident. They also are AI first. Not humans first.
@Dyskolos Wero is in it's infancy, pagience. You don't just roll out something like that for all of Europe overnight. But it will come. For 2026 it's supposed to replace iDeal in the Netherlands while right now only 1 or 2 Dutch banks support it and no webshops I know of.
@ErenOnizuka Ehm... That is to make my post easier to find for users looking gor those topics and making it pop up in the feeds about those topics.