Neshura

There should be case studies about the ineptitude of competing stores. A small handful aside who have found a niche and serve it well (itch.io and GOG come to mind) the other stores just dish out a store front that is under-cooked for what is there and lacking features beyond that and then are surprised when people prefer Steam.

For example I’m not aware of a Workshop style system in any other store, so any game that features community made content will be a better experience on Steam.

Sounds nice, ideally they’d just support drop in Wireguard configurations so you can use the VPN of your choice rather than being forced to use whatever Mozilla is offering.

Introducing: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/gg/art_10.html

Guarantees secret postal- and remote (original intent: radio) communications which applies to the internet ever since they thought they could make a quick buck by demanding radio broadcasting fees from youtubers, by which they placed the entire internet in the domain of radio laws.

Forget other EU countries and laws, the German constitution guarantees private postal and remote communications for every citizen. It’s also why Germany has historically never (that I know of) voted in favor of this bullshit: it violates the Briefgeheimnis (article 10 of the German constitution)

If they hadn’t rejected it the federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe would have sacked every single proposal on how to implement it, a process our current coalition is very familiar with from multiple attempts at trying to push preemptive collection of unencrypted data. They knew it wouldn’t pass here anyway and likely just waited on an opportune time to profit off the inevitable denial. Although I’ll give them that: some parts of the coalition were rather eager to meet the judges in Karlsruhe again anyway so it wasn’t a 100% guaranteed rejection either.

I’m just using AI to get me the damn standard library function I want to use but can’t remember. Way faster than clicking through a couple links of a search result for it.

This isn’t going to affect Intel usage in the near future.

True, it won’t significantly shift the downtrend Intel is experiencing but it’s one more reason why that downtrend exists. Corporations are already switching over to AMD’s EPYC for their server platforms and Intel is as entrenched as ever in the Laptop side of corporate business (which runs Windows anyway)

Companies generally buy whatever is cheap and available

Not quite true, they buy what makes them the most money for the cheapest price and due to that context Intel has been on the way out for a while now.

Dell, HP, etc rarely offer AMD as an option.

While there are a lot more systems available with an Intel chip saying they rarely offer AMD is stretching it a bit. Dell has listing for 51 Intel and 12 AMD laptop options, HP ~190 Intel and ~90 AMD, there is an imbalance there but if you are a corporate customer looking for something you will find an AMD alternative there. And in the server space Intel has been/is being gradually reduced to the second choice option with AMD EPYC being chosen for the premium products.

And this is just ancillary Linux drivers, not a major make or break component.

Might be ancillary to you and me but to a corporation this is a piece of liability they now would take on when buying new Intel CPUs for servers. Not by a lot but likely by enough to upsell them to the product using AMD instead.

Realistically lt will lead to enterprises using AMD instead, Windows just simply isn’t even an option for many enterprise uses (mainly server applications)

1-3 have technically been happening but not with nearly enough urgency. I don’t think you realize the potential fallout should Trump hold Microsoft hostage, the cost for my proposed points would look like pennies in comparison, besides the cost is only high because years of warning signs have been repeatedly ignored.

And I call EU leadership weak because they are, I am more than familiar with the proven incompetence/corruption of Ursual von der Leyen, she got “parked” in the EU parliament because she kept fucking up too much in government. She has on at least 3 separate occasions “accidentally” deleted potentially incriminating messages in deals suspected of corruption. And while I don’t know much about the rest but I don’t need to, when you go into negotiations for tariffs and walk out with promised investment payments, something that wasn’t even on the table before the negotiations started, that is weakness.

Raw materials are less of a concern than finished products, so long as there is an alternate source switching suppliers is comparatively child’s play compared to unbricking a weapons system because the manufacturer shut you out.

I’ll put this as politely as possible: putting words into someone else’s mouth really does not convey “I do discussions well” at all, that aside:

Forcing Microsoft to just switch countries is no solution at all, the only solution is to build something here and then use it here. Free from US influence. That means no AWS, no Microsoft, no Google involvement. I’m not talking about forcing industry to switch, if they want to be dependent on foreign companies let them but there is no reason for government agencies to be at the mercy of another country.

These general rules should be followed:

• All hardware must be within the EU, run by an EU-based company (the highest parent company must also be EU-based), in today’s world this is essentially critical infrastructure
• The Software chain is as follows (lowest to highest priority): hostile nations (China, Russia) - possibly hostile nations (USA) - neutral nations (Africa, most of SEA) - friendly nations (Switzerland, Norway) - EU countries
• Prevent too many soups for too few chefs, EU wide projects are to be prioritized over nation wide ones. Duplicating work is inefficient and not something that can be allowed given the current situation.

Under consideration of these the following steps should happen:
1 - migration away from Windows, most office computers can be switched almost immediately, regular office use is well supported in the Linux ecosystem
2 - immediate migration away from Windows exclusive, US based specialized Software (for example Photoshop) for Software with existing and applicable alternatives
3 - reduction of computers with Windows exclusive, US based Software where Step 2 is not possible via use on Virtual Machines, access via remote connection
4 - Collaboration with EU based companies to replace any Software from Step 3 (long term target)

Obviously what’s mentioned takes time but not doing anything isn’t improving the situation either and as shown by Finland increasing their Linux share from 5% at the start of the year to 20% in July Step 1 should be achievable relatively quickly, which would at least ensure governments remain operational in the, currently unlikely, case of full US hostilities.

As for the military concern: just build more factories, we’ve got most of the know-how we need already, just not enough production of it. There are systems we don’t produce in Europe but nothing too critical, US systems in those categories can be replaced within ~5 years I recon.

Nah the pendulum is swinging too far into the other direction, especially since there is no betterment in sight. Intel royally shat the bed ever since Zen released and we are now at a point where their lack of a real answer to that is starting to enable the same monopolistic behaviour Intel displayed in AMD

It’s Ursula so the correct answer is she’ll try her best at 1-3 but fail so spectacularly she does his bidding anyway. I’m still unsure whether the woman is corrupt to the core or just incompetent beyond belief.

Also of note is that the dirtier factories here are still sparkling clean compared to those elsewhere so by removing this tax for exports the overall energy bill for heavy industry should see an improvement as more is sourced from relatively cleaner European factories

I never mentioned embargoing them, you can trade but the “deal” we currently have more closely resembles tributary payments rather than a trade agreement. There is absolutely no reason for one sided investment guarantees in a tariff deal.

For the good of the EU is to get some autonomy back into key industries, if things turn any more south in the US any weapon system from there might turn into very expensive scrap metal. That is a significant issue of national security, imagine trying to defend your country and a third country can just up and disable your weapons systems. Absolute nightmare fuel.

The same goes with digital infrastructure, Trump could order Microsoft to shut down the entire EU tomorrow and there is no contingency in place for that. The EU’s dependence on the USA was unhealthy when the relationship was amicable and we are far removed from that at this point. This is not some case where 2 democratic systems have a polite disagreement, the USA is actively turning into a fascist dictatorship and we are significantly dependent on that country. This is not good no matter how you look at it and should have caused a massive shift in policy. It somehow didn’t as of yet.

The word you are looking for is isolationist, you can be independent and still be globalist.

Blatant corruption, party politics and a decoupling of the politicians from reality to an absurd degree

Edit: no offense taken btw, our politics are a shit show

Yes that is definitely the problem, let’s ignore the structural issues that cause industry to be less competitive or the widening gap between manager and worker compensation, surely those lazy fucks are just not working enough /s

Signing up to buy American weapons and fossils isn’t exact what I’d describe as “good long term strategy”. I’d rather suffer medium to strong economic pain now than have Europe be dependent on the US for the rest of my life. EU citizens are very willing to suffer the economic pain if it means we get to be independent from the US, public opinion has been shifting in that direction for a while even before Trump’s first term, has accelerated with his first term and exploded after his tariff theatrics started.

Nobody wants the EU to retaliate over the tariffs but neither do people want the EU bending the knee and kissing his ring, there is an option where we have a tariff deal without mandatory investments into the US. Paying what boils down to tribute isn’t exactly what the people think an independent EU should look like.

It’s very clear though that a major driving force behind this absolute farce of a deal was the German CDU, our chancellor even congratulated on the deal before he noticed the extremely negative public sentiment against this deal. I worry that our current coalition has their heads stuck up too far in the clouds to fix or address any of the issues we currently have and act in the best long term interest of Germany and Europe, bowing down to Trump might be the “better” solution short term but it makes absolutely no sense for the long term. Especially with the tacked on military package, that’s just an incredibly obvious trap they fell for.

In typical fashion they’re trying to put a bandaid on a rotten limb. By trying to delay the inevitable crisis they are ensuring it will hit us worse.

Isn’t part/most of this that Europe simply exported the carbon-intensive stuff abroad?

Partially true however it is also worth pointing out that industry in the EU produces significantly fewer emissions than the same industries outside the EU. The costs that come with that are largely why industry is outsourcing elsewhere, there is no coordinated effort by some shadow council to export the carbon-intensive industries abroad, just not fully thought out economic policy (producing in the EU causes costs for emissions, importing doesn’t/is easier to fudge, the incentive created by this imbalance is easy to see).