The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness.
Just what I’d expect a monopoly to say.
Fuck you. Alphabet.
Google criticizes Europe's plan to adopt free software
Submitted 2 weeks ago by inari@piefed.zip to technology@lemmy.world
https://pplware.sapo.pt/google/google-critica-o-plano-da-europa-para-adotar-software-livre/
Comments
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
cideyav138@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Increased competition from open source alternatives harms competitiveness? By forcing them to compete and maybe actually innovate?
wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
They mean it would harm their competitiveness.
As in, “We’d be less competitive if you switch to a competitor” (in this case FOSS).
pkjqpg1h@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
end_stage_ligma@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’ve reached the point in my life where I find this more arousing than booba
Womble@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
But also:
Google is still up 100% from where it was may last year, even taking that drop into account.
Pholous@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Ohh, beautiful!
timestatic@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
“well yes you actually need to stay dependent on us to be competitive” -fucking ridiculous
Decq@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
When companies like Google, Microsoft, etc. are starting to squirm and whimper. You know you are on the right path. So I take this as a sign that the EU is heading in the right direction.
CardboardVictim@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
That’s my take as well
rageagainstmachines@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“Drug dealer criticizes drug user’s plan to quit.”
BoJackHorseman@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The British came to China with warships when the Chinese government wanted to ban Opium. So I wouldn’t expect anything else from these crapitalists.
Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
Crapitalists.
Excellent, thank you 😁!
Lembot_0006@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
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.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.)
Saucepain@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
bufalo1973@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
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.
BillyClark@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
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.
Of course Google hates open-source. They can’t compete with it.
Again, it’s all just 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.
grue@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
“Open source for me, but not for thee.”
That’s also why they bait-and-switched us with AOSP.
Lembot_0006@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
They can’t compete with it.
I meant “They can’t compete against it.” Interlanguage translation nuances :)
bufalo1973@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
It’s the “pull the ladder” mentality.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Okay, so:
I tried installing a program called “hardinfo”. My ZorinOS software store didn’t find it through flathub.
That’s fair. Fragmentation is a real thing on Linux, and it seems like Ultimate Systems didn’ put their software on Flathub.
So I googled it, found a .deb file, which my Zorin store loaded up to install.
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 go hunt and peck around the Internet for an install file. It’s an understandable mistake, but the blame from this point on lies squarely on you.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.
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.Lembot_0006@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
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.”
SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
Username checks out.
mr_satan@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
I don’t know how many times I had to deal with missing
VCRUNTIME140.dllorMSVCP140.dllor other crap on Windows. This is not a Linux exclusive problem.
Reading through the comment thread I can’t help but think that your whole situation is self imposed.Dependency problems are universal and there are tools to deal with it. It just seems that you’re refusing to use those tools (even Windows has
wingetnow instead of relying on every installer bundling / linking its dependencies).
Now, it’s fair to not want to deal with CLI, but your cited experience is an outlier. It is not normal to break your system with justapt update && apt upgrade -y. As a matter of factaptwill not upgrade if there are conflicting dependencies, you sort of have to force it to break your system.
There are wrappers that provide a GUI forapt(and evendpkg, which is usually invoked when double clicking a.debfile) so why not using them?In Windows dependency issues are often offloaded to the provider of the software, but they are still just as present. In Linux this problem was solved[^1] a different way — via package managers. I don’t want to be the “skill issue” guy, but refusing to use the platform intended tool to solve a problem is kind of a “skill issue”. At some point you are responsible for knowing how to use an OS, just as you are responsible for knowing how to drive a car if you want to drive a car.
[^1]: dependency hell is still an issue so take the word with a grain of salt.
daggermoon@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
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.
zbyte64@awful.systems 2 weeks ago
MoRe OpTiOnS iS bAd FoR cOmPeTiTiOn
thethunderwolf@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
competition is bad for competition 🤨
HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
- Shift over to open source.
- Invest 25–50% of what you currently pay for proprietary software into helping maintain and enhance open source software.
- Enjoy the economic benefits well maintained free software brings to every aspect of your digital infrastructure at no extra cost.
3abas@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Open source will innovate so much faster if properly funded, without the shackles of copyright and companies holding advancements secret and not releasing innovations on purpose as long as they hold on edge on “competition”. Competition is only important because of proprietary capitalism, remove capitalism and directly reward the workers and innovation happens for innovation’s sake.
Can’t wait for this to be proven in practice, and to be able to apply that more widely to society. Godspeed Europe
Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How can I compete, it isn’t like I can just look at your code and copy it into something better
hooferboof@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Phil salin wrote a hit peice on software patents, well said
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
For number 2, require that the people doing the open source work live and pay taxes in the EU. That way you’re keeping the money in the union, and you’re investing in local knowledge and skills.
As opposed to proprietary software where you’re basically handing dollars over to American companies (or to supposedly “Irish” companies that just so happen to be named almost identically to American companies, but somehow are magically based out of Ireland and don’t pay proper taxes anywhere).
0x0@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
For number 2, require that the people doing the open source work live and pay taxes in the EU.
I get what you’re saying but for larger projects that may not be viable.
Heck Mr Torvalds is an American living in the US (not that he’d need financial support) and not all muricans are dumbasses, just the majority.
schema@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Thanks for confirming we’re on the right track, google.
TheObviousSolution@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Funny considering how much of Google was built on open software.
arc99@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Exactly. Open source is fine when it suits them but not fine when it doesn’t.
pkjqpg1h@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
This is why GNU GPL is very importand.
Here the GNU GPL comes to the rescue. The programmer shows the boss that this proprietary software product would be copyright infringement, and the boss realizes that he has only two choices: release the new code as free software, or not at all. Almost always he lets the programmer do as he intended all along, and the code goes into the next release. ref
skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
To me it feels like there’s two Googles. The one that was run by Page and Brin was awesome, pretty much everyone in the industry wanted to work there.
Then they put someone else in charge to maximise shareholder revenue, and it went to shit soon after.
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
Public companies will always become so. They were only good because they were in the growth phase, the internet is not in the growth phase any longer, a few corporations control the gates to any industry, internet or what have you, and are squeezing everyone else.
Our wages go down every year in value as real inflation is higher than the cpi, while investors increase their margins at our expense. And we are too dumb to know it, trusting them, even now.
voodooattack@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
You guys don’t see what they’re scared shitless about? It’s the fear of an EU-based true open source Android fork/competitor.
Also when they say FOSS will not contribute to “economic growth”, they mean Alphabet’s. Greedy pigs.
A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
Also, Google criticizing others for using FOSS is the height of irony. But one that tracks very well with what they did to FOSS.
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
Wrong.
creating regulatory barriers would be harmful in a context of rapid technological advancement
Wrong.
Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms
What does he not understand about digital sovereignty?
According to Google, this change would represent a problem for users
No, for Google. Also, wrong.
that the market moves faster than legislation and warns that regulatory friction will only leave European consumers and businesses behind in what he calls
If that’s the price to avoid technofaschism…
Tl;dr: stop wanking, Walker.
HereIAm@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t know if he believes his own made up BS here, but these are some really idiotic statements. I’m glad the EU is taking steps to not use infrastructure created by a fascist government. At this point I don’t think there’s a reason to distinguish FANG (and their friends) from the government seeing how buddy buddy they all are with each other.
maturelemontree@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
This is like a “no shit Google doesn’t want this” which makes moving over to the Euro style even better. Everyone opposed to what huge tech corporations are doing (should be everyone) should see this as a sign that you should make the change.
skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Remember, whenever you see a patently weak argument like this from a trillion dollar corporation, they’re not saying it because they think anyone will believe it. They’re saying it to give the corrupt politicians in their pocket some way to pull a straight face when voting in the corporation’s favour.
hector@lemmy.today 2 weeks ago
We saw already tech paying off the US to bully europe into backing off of their previous demands and controls on tech. Europe has bad leadership, they backed off, and surrendered all last year to the US administration, there is no reason to think they won’t this time after google pays them off to do it again.
Europe is too busy trying to bring in the trojan horses of age checks and chatcontrol behind the gates to worry about protecting from tech, but rather to cooperate with tech to subjugate their citizens to secret social scores to determine winners and losers in life, with peter thiel and his ilk doing the deciding. The UK is already most of the way there, and the rest of europe is trying to follow, over and over and over. They only need to win once, the defenders of liberal democracy need to win every time.
Europe needs real leadership pushing popular reform. They will fall to fascists in league with the US that will fix their elections too on their current course of status quo mainstream politics with the far right as the only real reform option.
We give them reform, or nazis will, those are the only two choices, and the starmers and macrons of the world still don’t know it or don’t care.
xeekei@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Fuck you, Google.
TerdFerguson@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
The leopard of consequences is hungry for tech oligarch faces.
Eat, you majestic creature. And godspeed.
Smoogs@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not sure why anyone in EU or therefore canada should care what am American company opinion would be at this point. They said they were moving on. They did.
panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection
No, this is fundamentally impossible. The US has the Cloud Act. As long as that exists, this is a nonstarter.
The US can change their laws to not have a global wiretap and secret backdoor warrant program, then this would be possible.
4shtonButcher@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
We literally removed “don’t be evil” from our mission statement, but you can totally trust us, bro.
Google
abbiistabbii@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Car company complains that city is developing Metro system.
madjo@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Kiss my European ass, Google.
C1pher@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Google can fuck itself.
Ghostie@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Google criticizes
Fuck you and shut the fuck up. Google has zero right to say anything, let alone criticize anything.
Do no evil, remember? I remember.
Fuck you
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
More desperate pleas by Google. I just saw an article by some Google shill that made a case against self hosting. Next they’ll try to make it illegal.
aqua@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
really fun fuck you google
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
If nobody in Europe paid for Google products think of the economic benefit to Europe if all that saved cash was then spent by the people on European products and services.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
Not good for whose growth? Because it’ll be perfectly fine for eu. The fact that google is upset about this, should be all the tell you need to know you’re on the right path.
qevlarr@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“It’s afraid” still image from Starship Troopers
notso@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
Drug dealer critizes addict’s intention to get clean.
cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m not surprised that they are against it but very surprised that they so blatantly expose their reasoning. If you don’t buy my product, it’s not good for me, therefore it is not a good idea 🤷
pkjqpg1h@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
What happened to: “Google ❤️ open source”
Steve@communick.news 2 weeks ago
Is Google seriously arguing that the money these nations save can’t be added to their GDPs?
That what it sounds like. Or am I confused?
TheLastOfHisName@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
Google meant THEIR economic growth.
inari@piefed.zip 2 weeks ago
Don’t worry, Google is trying to confuse you
mumblerfish@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
To an enormous extent are todays data centers, cloud providers, and all the techology the whole world use today based on open source. Without linux, curl, ffmpeg, and so on nothing in todays high tech society would work. Google, as it is today, would not exist if it was for all the open source they leech of.
BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 2 weeks ago
Well Google contributes a lot to open source, but I get your point.
bobs_monkey@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Nah, I think they’re saying that their corporate offerings and jobs in a given country would not contribute to GDP, while failing to address that developers and engineers would still be necessary to implement these open source applications, though Google won’t get to siphon money out of those economies. It’s purposely convoluted, basically Google throwing a temper tantrum.
BananaTrifleViolin@piefed.world 2 weeks ago
Nah that’s it. Their logic is seemingly if you don’t give the money to Google it’s not contributing to economic growth.
merc@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Look, by certain ways of calculating GDP growth and trade, it’s probably true that if the money isn’t being spent on software licenses and so on, it means there’s less economic activity going on.
The whole point of open source / free software is that you’re not locked into someone’s proprietary software ecosystem. You don’t have to continue paying license fees. So, if the governments simply stop paying for software licenses, it’s probably true that their GDP will technically shrink. But, that assumes the money won’t be spent on something more useful.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are saying FOSS isnt companies, google’s value is tied to GDP in some EU countries. If they see less growth so does the GDP.
Yanks are whores who only think of money and kids.
Cherry@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
The last line needs a bender meme.
rezad@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
they meant google’s economic growth.
fizzle@quokk.au 2 weeks ago
No i think the comment is less direct than that.
For much of government, the underlying objective is to contribute to GDP. For example, funding healthcare means a healthier population who can be more productive.
So by saying “this policy won’t contribute to GDP” its a very general way to say this is not what’s best for your population.
At least I think thats what theyre saying.
As an aside, savings dont directly improve GDP, by definition.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Perhaps they understand economic growth the same way the orange rapist understands tariffs?
Korkki@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Killing parasitic and monopolistic gatekeepers and middlemen is very much contributing to any country’s economic growth.
Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
I think he’s arguing that not using the most advanced technologies (eg. what Google and Microsoft offer) would be detrimental to worker productivity in the EU.
Of course, in reality, if all those countries start investing in FOSS, they could easily replace the Office suit, SharePoint, the Power platform, etc. I know several programmers who’d gladly devote their time to FOSS full-time if they could. I’ve even met one who simply refuses to work to create anything proprietary.
UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
They are suggesting that going to open source solutions won’t result in new industry in their countries (i.e. that Google won’t be opening offices and data centers and such there).
It’s a pretty bogus statement anyways, but it’s not COMPLETELY senseless.
mech@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
When corporations or conservatives talk about “the economy”, simply replace it with “rich people’s bank accounts” and it makes sense again.
They are trying to gaslight you into still believing in the trickle-down-theory, against decades of evidence.
And all mainstream media as well as centrist parties (including the US Democrats) join in.