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France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

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Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#41

Post by toomuchtodo »

baal80spam wrote: post #40
toomuchtodo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone is optimizing for total comp. Some are optimizing for better lives. It's not a wild concept considering how many people get pulled into startups, 90% of which fail, under the guide of "mission" and lower market comp. Do you pick a mostly assured better quality of life? Or an equity payout lottery ticket/fairy tale? Certainly, there is a minority of folks making wild comp at FAANG, but that is a privilege…

> Some are optimizing for better lives Of course. I just hope these people know that for example healthcare in Europe is by no means free.

My health insurance for a family of four in Spain is $2k/year. In the US, it was exceeding $25k/year with premiums, copays, deductibles, etc. While not free, it is accessible.

There was a time in my life we had to decide in the middle of the night if we could afford to take one of our children to the ER in the US when they were a newborn. I will never have that feeling in Europe, and that is priceless. Tax me more, I will happily contribute to a functioning governance system. I like taxes, with them I contribute to civilization. As an American, I am all in on Europe. It's not perfect, but the bar is in hell.

We Asked 300 People About Health Care Costs. The Numbers Are Shocking. - https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/opinion/health-insurance-... | https://archive.today/MnYz9 - January 22nd, 2026

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#42

Post by nasretdinov »

My hope is that all this push towards tech independence (not just from EU) will make the most "basic" tools open-source and they wouldn't suck as much as they do now.

What I mean by this is e.g. you can already use Linux on a desktop and it's generally okay (or even good sometimes), however things like LibreOffice are absolutely unusable in terms of performance, functionality and user friendliness compared to e.g. Keynote or even Pages on macOS.

Multiple governments having to solve essentially the same issue on a global scale is a unique opportunity to save costs by working on open source together, and get funding and direction that's never been available to OSS before.

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#43

Post by I_am_tiberius »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #29
fcarraldo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ScaleWay and OVH are already filling this gap.

Good luck with OVH. Most EU companies, including this one, offer subpar services compared to their American counterparts.

I agree with Scaleway (I would more compare it to Digital Ocean) but OVH is really good and comparable.

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#44

Post by mhitza »

nasretdinov wrote: post #42

My hope is that all this push towards tech independence (not just from EU) will make the most "basic" tools open-source and they wouldn't suck as much as they do now. What I mean by this is e.g. you can already use Linux on a desktop and it's generally okay (or even good sometimes), however things like LibreOffice are absolutely unusable in terms of performance, functionality and user friendliness compared to e.g. Ke…

It also doesn't feel like the mid 2000s anymore, where offline word/excel are essential for most day to day work.

Most of the time I deal with csv downloads for data, or the shit PDFs that I can only fill in with the Adobe reader on windows. I can't recall the last time I fired up OnlyOffice (better MS garbage compatibility) for anything related to work.

This doesn't mean that those tools are irrelevant, but significantly less needed, and less of a migration hurdle for many companies.

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#45

Post by gdilla »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #29
fcarraldo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ScaleWay and OVH are already filling this gap.

Good luck with OVH. Most EU companies, including this one, offer subpar services compared to their American counterparts.

sure, gotta start somewhere.

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#46

Post by eloisant »

the_sleaze_ wrote: post #35
idontwantthis wrote: post #13

I wonder if the EU will begin trying to recruit American software engineers. I’d love to move to France.

They've been incentivizing it for years. Talent passport, EU Blue card and the Tech Visa. As I have heard they'll pay you to move there. Expect 50% salary and taxes that will make your eyes water. French bureaucracy is kafkaesque even in 2026. Other than that I agree I'd love to move there.

Taxes are not really an issue because of the services you get out of it: free healthcare, free education for your kids, etc.

But yes, salary before taxes is much lower than in the US. If your goal is to make as much money as possible, either stay in US or move to a different European country (Northern Europe or Switzerland).

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#47

Post by quijoteuniv »

kylecazar wrote: post #14

I don't see the dependency on these productivity and communication tools as that difficult of a problem to solve. They are going to have a much harder time weaning off American cloud infrastructure and on to something purely domestic.

Jitsi meet exists for long time and it works. What is needed is eu sovereign clouds

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#49

Post by sundache »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #29
fcarraldo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ScaleWay and OVH are already filling this gap.

Good luck with OVH. Most EU companies, including this one, offer subpar services compared to their American counterparts.

I use AWS and OVH at work and this has not my experience.

AWS has more services, but a lot of those are of dubious quality. I'd love to never have to use redshift or EMR again for instance. OVH is more basic, but what it has tends to work at least.

Re: France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.

#50

Post by ceejayoz »

baal80spam wrote: post #40
toomuchtodo wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone is optimizing for total comp. Some are optimizing for better lives. It's not a wild concept considering how many people get pulled into startups, 90% of which fail, under the guide of "mission" and lower market comp. Do you pick a mostly assured better quality of life? Or an equity payout lottery ticket/fairy tale? Certainly, there is a minority of folks making wild comp at FAANG, but that is a privilege…

> Some are optimizing for better lives Of course. I just hope these people know that for example healthcare in Europe is by no means free.

It's not free, but it's much cheaper. (And yes, that includes taxation.)

https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/health-spending.html

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OECD_health_expendit...

As a bonus, all that spend doesn't make us better in outcomes.

https://ourworldindata.org/us-life-expectancy-low#life-expec...

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