Dude, I use a lot of FOSS software including Linux as a daily driver. I know what you are talking about. But we're in BuyFromEU, so you shouldn't be surprised my opinions reflect that.

Personally, between supporting a Organic Maps and Here WeGo I prefer the option that will make Europe richer. Especially now that the fascists overseas have decided Europe should be up for grabs by Russia and we need to up our defense.

You can LARP "outside of capitalism" all you want but there's still a reality here that needs to be addressed.

Yeah, why help an EU company develop their free product, away from Google, when we can all just stay poor? Are they stupid?

And some people still complain that US tech companies keep getting petty fines in Europe.

We're the only ones trying to enforce even an anemic degree of antitrust, since the US just allows them to do whatever.

People are just stupid.

Source: am Portuguese. The veneration for Elongated Muskrat that exists here is insane.

That's an interesting approach. But yeah, it would need to be made law because companies wouldn't take on that work on their own.

Hopefully Salling can improve their methodology, I still think its pretty cool they're trying to promote responsible buying.

Yes, I understand. You're right. I wonder how they could do a 100% accurate tracking, considering how intertwinned todays world economy is. I think even the most European of brands manufacture stuff in China.

If the owner is european, doesn't that mean taxes are paid here?

I'm fairy sure the guy above said "use X" not use social media. X is a particularly shitty platform.

First of all, it's not pointless -- every little bit helps.

And I really want to emphasize this. People are having an "all or nothing" attitude about this when that's not even the point.

If we can replace 50, 40, even 30% of the US software we use daily with European alternatives, it's already a massive win for us. The difference then adds up to millions at scale at the end of the fiscal year.

I don't lose sleep over having to add "reddit" or "forum" at the end of my search query.

Do you know how SearXNG works? It literally pulls search results from whatever other SEs you define it should pull from. You just get to reap the perks of all engines, without having to deal with their antagonistic design.

Who pays for all of it in the end? The people who still want to use Google's service and feed their all-reaching tentacles. But that is their choice.

Yeah, that's the thing about Sear. You can customise it how you want and that's it. No need to let some corpo be in control of what and how you see your results.

Is that real, or a misinterpretation of the law?

I meant to say SearXNG. Still being maintained.

I've tried SearXNG and stayed there. And it costs me a whole 0€ per month. 10€/month for a search engine is insane.

Wasn't Google in the middle of an antitrust investigation?

Yeah, in the end I managed to make it work. Quite cool. I wanted to set it up in such a way that all EU SEs get a tick every time I search for something but sadly it seems Startpage is giving me issues.

It's one of those apps where you can't go by the reviews.

Basically they changed the interface quite a bit recently and so old customers got upset. But I use the app daily and they are seriously improving it to the point that I'm relying less and less on Google Maps. They keep adding more and more business details to the app.

If we were having this conversation a few months ago I would have said something different, so really the Improvements have been noticeable lately. I recommend that you give it a go for a couple of days at least and see how it serves you.

For my Americans across the pond, I ask earnestly:

What could Russia do today that would cement themselves as an unparalleled oligarchy where just a few people control everything with no regard for anybody else in their country, that the US isn't already doing?

Yep, this is the explanation. People are still trying to rationalize "why do this in months, its all gonna collapse!" not understanding that collapse is the actual point.