European Alternatives • Hacker News Board

Re: European Alternatives

#21

Post by GlacierFox » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:56 PM UTC

breezykoi wrote: post #18

retired wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like it. No fake smiles, no tip required. They can be a bit grumpy but French food is amazing which makes up for it.

That's what I like in the US: the servers are so friendly... and yes, I know it’s all for the tip.

Well they're not friendly then are they? It's an act to get a tip - and if you don't you get chased down the street.

Re: European Alternatives

#22

Post by drnick1 » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:56 PM UTC

retired wrote: post #13

Is there a European alternative for this website?

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

Re: European Alternatives

#23

Post by s_dev » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC

tarkin2 wrote: post #12

jimnotgym wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Hetzner

No, I was looking for a French one. I'll persist with this for a while and then switch if things don't get better. Thanks

Scaleway is slick. It's like a European Digital Ocean.

Re: European Alternatives

#24

Post by pjmlp » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:57 PM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #11

pjmlp wrote: post #8

Categories missing: - Operating systems, for various kinds of workloads - Programming language toolchains - Hardware vendors

I don't see the issue with Operating systems or programming languages. There are FOSS alternatives and since they are run locally have no connection outside of the EU. Hardware vendors is a different issue

You are missing the big picture who develops them, pays the salaries of people in the trenches, implement LSPs, and whatever else around the ecosystems.

Example, Java, .NET, Go and co are FOSS, how long do you think they will keep on going without their overlords?

For complete alternatives we need to go back to the cold war days, where programming languages were driven by vendor neutral standards, and there were several to buy from.

As it is, it suffices to take the air out of existing FOSS options.

Even if you quickly point out to GCC and clang, one reason why they have dropped implementation velocity from existing ISO revisions is due to a few well known big corps focusing on their own offerings, while other vendors seldom upstream stuff as they focus on clang.

EDIT: As I missed this on the first comment, same applies to the big FOSS OS projects, most contributions to the major Linux distros, or the BSDs come from non European companies, there is naturally something like SuSE, but then we get into the whole who is allowed to contribute, security, backdoors and related stuff.

Re: European Alternatives

#25

Post by s_dev » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 3:59 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #22

retired wrote: post #13

Is there a European alternative for this website?

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

Ireland and Malta.

You would be shocked at how well certain nationalities like the Dutch and Swedes speak English.

Re: European Alternatives

#26

Post by bradyd » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:01 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #22

retired wrote: post #13

Is there a European alternative for this website?

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

The UK is still in Europe. They didn't move from the continent.

Re: European Alternatives

#27

Post by loehnsberg » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:02 PM UTC

Isn't it sad that we now have Russian, Chinese, American, European, etc alternatives? I mean I get it, Sept 11 paved the way for FISA orders and NSA overreach, Russia and China reverted back into dictatorship, but Europe is also at the edge. Shouldn't we rather fight that nationalistic power grab that just makes us all poorer and less free? And instead propagate global alternatives that are not subjected by some power-hungry state-/capital-sponsored overlord?

Re: European Alternatives

#28

Post by retired » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:02 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #22

retired wrote: post #13

Is there a European alternative for this website?

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

It has been around 300 million years since the UK drifted away from continental Europe but it is still very much part of it!

Re: European Alternatives

#29

Post by tene80i » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:03 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #22

retired wrote: post #13

Is there a European alternative for this website?

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

The UK did not leave Europe. Just the EU. But also English fluency is widespread, so it’s not a bad starting point.

Re: European Alternatives

#30

Post by dpassens » Fri, Jan 23, 2026, 4:05 PM UTC

drnick1 wrote: post #22

retired wrote: post #13

Is there a European alternative for this website?

The irony is that European alternatives are still in English, when no European country (since the departure of the U.K. from Europe) actually uses that language.

Except for Ireland.