zlacker

OSS software is also mostly owned by the US. This entire thing of 'replacing' American software with American software under a different commercial model is so silly.

>>anon29+(OP)
That's not true. For instance in the field of video pipelines ffmpeg is the standard, and was started by an European (French) person. Runs on Linux of course, that ..., and so forth. Do you really believe in Europe there is no the tech capability to recreate the tech stack? This is an extremely naive way to put it. US tech is much more developed because of money infusion even on companies that take 10/20 years to get productive. It was the right call, by the US, to put things in this way, but the European disadvantage is not for technical merits.

>>antire+j
And who is the largest contributor to ffmpeg? These sorts of things are so silly. By and large, open source software is worked on by companies who are paying contributors because the project provides them some value. Most of these are American companies, which means they exert control, whether you like it or not.

In the case of ffmpeg, about a decade ago, I worked at a company who made substantial contributions to it, and employed many significant contributors. You guys live in fantasy land.

Linux is also an American thing. The benevolent-dictator-for-life of Linux lives in Portland, OR. Intel (also in Portland mostly) is one of the largest contributors, along with AMD. We can go on and on. this is obviously going to be the case when the main CPU vendors are American.

>>anon29+C1
> which means they exert control, whether you like it or not.

I don't think you and I use the same definition of open source software. Controlling the upstream is absolutely not equivalent to controlling the software, nor is being a majority contributor. These things are very obvious to anyone that regularly works with FOSS in a professional capacity.

>>antire+j
> This is an extremely naive way to put it. US tech is much more developed because of money infusion even on companies that take 10/20 years to get productive.

Not sure if this is aimed at the immediate parent comment or mine, but I agree completely. US tech is developed due to the unique VC ecosystem, but in my opinion EU governments have lagged behind on setting up their own ecosystem (VC or otherwise) that would create equivalently sized and capable companies.

I also don't understand what the parent means by OSS being "owned" by the US. That ownership is not meaningful due to many/all of the licenses; and there are many meaningful EU OSS contributions.

>>anon29+(OP)
It doesn't matter whether OSS is American (in whatever sense) -- anything that is America-specific (e.g. server addresses) can be patched for a localized European version. The different commercial model does matter: American law does not apply (Cloud Act, National Security Letters, ...)

>>anon29+(OP)
The problem is not ownership. It's dev force. We're not bad here in europe, not bad at all.

>>anon29+(OP)
Could you elaborate? <https://nextcloud.com/blog/press_releases/digital-sovereignt...>

On a side and more general note: "Global Innovation Index 2025"

"Europe hosts 15 economies ranked among the global top 25, including six in the top 10. Switzerland (1st) retains the global lead, followed by Sweden (2nd), the United Kingdom (6th) and Finland (7th). Thirteen out of 39 European economies covered moved up the ranks, marking a notable increase from nine last year.

Notable movers include Ireland (18th), Belgium (21st) and Norway (20th), which breaks into the top 20.

Eastern European economies also show solid momentum. Lithuania (33rd) leads globally for unicorn valuation and digital innovation – with leading positions in app creation, ICT use and Knowledge-intensive employment.Europe is also home to dynamic innovation clusters, led by Germany with seven clusters and the United Kingdom with four, including Cambridge and Oxford. However, European innovation clusters trail the US in venture capital strength."

<https://www.wipo.int/pressroom/en/articles/2025/article_0009...>

>>Bengal+gq
The issue with these 'international'forums is that it's basically European countries tanking itself.

There's a meme going around online where it says "the world condemns..." On top and then a map of the globe with Europe and America highlighted.

Europe's issue is that it only considers itself.

Lithuania.. guys come on. And the Netherlands is not even in your list showing how ridiculous this entire thing is. As it goes most European lists of self congratulations are just moral rankings by their own standards

>>maelit+B3
[flagged]

>>anon29+5s1
Here is another index, produced by US organizations. Take a look at the overall rankings. "Come one". I'm not sure why such an index isn't produced annually: it seems surprising. Most US data and reports tend to focus primarily on the United States (and not including any other economy), which is a separate discussion.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Innovation_Index>

> Europe's issue is that it only considers itself.

That may be one perspective. A similar point could probably be made about the US in some contexts. Europe, after all, is not a single entity but a collection of individual countries.

Bonus: A last index, done by IMD World Competitiveness Ranking. It is not an "exclusively American produced" indicator, but it is independent of European institutions and relies on international data.

<https://www.imd.org/centers/wcc/world-competitiveness-center...>

ps: Netherlands is ranked 8 in the list (IDK why you asserted it was absent). Moreover it is well covered in the first link I provided.

>>anon29+5s1
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

Also, if you could cut down on the ideological battle stuff generally, that would be good. I'm not sure your account has quite been using HN primarily for that (https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...) but it's close enough that you should probably recalibrate.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

>>quadri+n2
It's not for lack of trying but once such a massive attractor exists repeating the process is not necessarily possible because any local success can be bought out and then you have to start from zero again. The EU would have to instigate some strong protectionist measures and that's not its style, though it may well become a necessity.