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European Alternatives

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181–190 of 526 posts

Re: European Alternatives

#181

Post by ragall »

gtirloni wrote: post #100
tene80i wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why? What's unsustainable about an email service, for example, run by competent European engineers at European salaries?

The huge influx of competent European engineers to the US is a real thing.

That was true a few years ago, but not any more. Covid made a lot of US-based companies sack local developers and actually open offices in Europe. I have friends in Italy who, between 2022 and 2023, moved from local companies to US companies opening offices in Rome and Milano, and got a salary bump from ~30-35k to 80-90k plus bonus and RSUs. Same thing happening all over Europe.

Re: European Alternatives

#182

Post by ungovernableCat »

loehnsberg wrote: post #27

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 powe…

European leaders fundamentally have no issue with Americans dominating tech and were happy to have their entire digital infrastructures rely on US companies. If the Trump admin could give them some sort of nod behind the scenes that all of this is just a big show and they're not actually going to break NATO or invade or w/e insane shit they're saying I guarantee you a sizeable amount would just say hey no worries then let's keep the status quo going.

But that's not what's happening. It's a clear and obvious security risk to their sovereignty. If the government can't guarantee that to its citizens then what even is its purpose? The Trump admin has already tried to use American tech dominance as leverage.

Ask yourself this question, what if there was a foreign tech competitor that managed to scale up to be basically a better cheaper AWS. Would the US government ever allow it to encroach its market to the point that AWS or Azure did in Europe? Look at what happened to tiktok if you want to see what approach they'd likely take.

So how exactly would you envision an objective and neutral provider in a world of geopolitical competition?

Re: European Alternatives

#183

Post by carlosjobim »

s_dev wrote: post #62
vldszn wrote: post #59

I submitted my project EasyInvoicePDF (a free & open-source invoice generator) a couple of months ago to European Alternatives but never heard back unfortunately. The project has no backend and is purely browser-based, but I’m based in Europe and developing the project here, so I consider it a European project =) App: https://easyinvoicepdf.com/?template=stripe GitHub: https://github.com/VladSez/easy-invoice-pdf

It's a cool project but it is 'niche'. I think the purpose of the site is more about the alternatives to 'large players', platforms and infrastructure companies. Still Constantin Graf should have clarified out of politeness but possibly he's busy or doesn't have time to respond to every email. However I'd point out there is a market for European 'Product Hunt' that would include more of these smaller projects.

I don't think creating an invoice is "niche". It is such a common need for users that invoicing software should be included in the operating system application suite. (Which it is somewhat if you consider Pages invoice templates).

Millions and millions of people need to make and send invoices. Many more than people who need domain name registrars, uptime monitoring services, content delivery networks, or microblogging services.

Re: European Alternatives

#185

Post by hagbard_c »

drnick1 wrote: post #157
tene80i wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> But also English fluency is widespread, so it’s not a bad starting point. Being able to string together a couple of sentences is not "being fluent." By that standard, all of America would be fluent in Spanish.

Neither is pedantry a sign of intelligence, a message many a contributor to this here site would be good to take to heart. As to the choice of language English is and will most likely remain the lingua franca (pun intended) in most of Europe as it is the language which is most often learned as a second language. While many Europeans are not fluent in this language they do manage to read and make themselves understood in it. This makes it not a bad starting point just like the grandparent stated.

Re: European Alternatives

#186

Post by ragall »

lostmsu wrote: post #78
Tade0 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't want US salaries with US costs of living. Also working for companies located in Ireland[0] or Switzerland you can have your US salary, it's just that the pool of jobs is limited. [0] Provided it's a company in the first of Ireland's two economies.

Not sure about Ireland, but Switzerland used to be true, but now it is also far behind since 5+ years. See, Google Zurich vs Seattle https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater... https://www.levels.fyi/t/software-engineer/locations/greater... Hm, after carefully reviewing the entries seem more or less the same, Zurich slightly lower.

Considering the low taxes and lower cost of living in Zurich (yes, lower than Seattle), and the much higher quality of life, Zurich is a no-brainer.

Re: European Alternatives

#188

Post by Juliate »

gtirloni wrote: post #119
kuon wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might get lower salary, but if I break my leg I pay nothing and I am paid during my leave.

I doubt you break your leg every year though. The kind of companies that we're talking about (big tech that are national champions) offers health insurance (among other benefits) and 200-500k USD/year salaries. I think culture and quality of life not withstanding, the raw numbers simply don't favor the EU becoming a tech leader with the current incentives.

The thing is that in Europe, you don't need your employer to have health insurance. It's more beneficial for everyone in the end (well, obviously not for the private health insurance companies who care more about their margins than public wellness).

Re: European Alternatives

#189

Post by lmf4lol »

whilenot-dev wrote: post #152
ivan_gammel wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The forging pan-European nation composed of many nationalities is a thing in all meaningful contexts. European civilization, European economy, European products, European voters etc.

Not really, no. Europe is neither a sovereign state nor a single political entity. It's a continent composed of many individual nations with a versatile history. I mean sure, your example shows that the virtue of being "European" represents a certain demographic and a sovereign territory. Again, it's a continent, so what?

yet

Re: European Alternatives

#190

Post by retired »

pepinator wrote: post #126
jacquesm wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A language is a tool, not a nationality or a border. Your average educated European speaks at least three, one of which is English because it is a good language to have because it is the language of international commerce. This has been the case since many decades and has nothing to do with using the language internally. But: many people do use it internally. French tourists abroad are more likely to use English than…

> Your average European speaks at least three ok ok I get the point but let's not exaggerate

It has been edited to "average educated European". If going by tertiary education, that is about 30% to 35% of the European population. I wouldn't be surprised if that group speaks three languages. In Spain it is typical to speak three of Spanish, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque, Portugese, Arabic, English. In The Netherlands basically anyone speaks Dutch and English plus a third language, usually Frisian, Limburgish, German, French, Spanish, Turkish or Arabic.
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