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Europe's Software Problem

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Re: Europe's Software Problem

#371

Post by dmitriid »

PaulHoule wrote: post #315
jillesvangurp wrote: post #179

I'm a European, living in Europe, developing software. Lack of imagination is not our problem. It's so good that we supply our best talent to the US where it does extremely well revolutionizing AI, designing hardware for Apple, developing games, stream online music, etc. E.g. Amazon's CTO is Dutch. Basically the person that has been running AWS. The people and the education system are fine. Europe does have a few iss…

My favorite European tech company is Atmel (Norway), which developed the AVR-8 microcontroller which is in the original Arduino (Italian). Particularly, Atmel made the last 8-bit microprocessor which was just a bit more carefully thought out than everything else on the market and carefully positioned to give a lot of bang per buck. Atmel got bought by Microchip (San Jose, USA) Today when I think of Europe I think of…

The absolute vast majority of "GDPR popups" are actually illegal under GDPR.

Unfortunately, law enforcement has been asleep at the wheel.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#372

Post by pyb »

emj wrote: post #335
unknownOrigin wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And just to add to this, from a certain level (revenue) that's not that high (and depends on idividual states) you need a presence (VAT registration) and a business bank account in the country you're selling your services/goods in, even if you're not actually located there. E.g. a medium sized online shop based in the Czech Republic that is shipping to Hungary. Now imagine this if you're shipping to many EU states...…

Might have been true at some point, but nowdays even smaller payments are easy to send between EU banks. VAT payment is done in your home country, and you can deduct the VAT. The social aspect is harder; the amount of work to get a consistent revenue stream from another EU country can be enormous compared to doing buisness in another city in your own country. There are people who specialize in sales between EU states…

This is inaccurate for VAT.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#373

Post by handoflixue »

sschueller wrote: post #333
throwaway894345 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The US has those things and it's turning into a "third world country with a Gucci belt" I get the distinct impression that people who liken the US to a third world country are from one particular spot on the political spectrum. This seems like political rhetoric, not a summary of some level-headed analysis. Inequality, crime, etc in the US are certainly problems, but that seems like a low bar for the "third world c…

Generally I define a 3rd world country as a place that has a lot of inequality, corruption across the board, poor to no worker protection, failing and antiquated infrastructure, no free access to health care, high incarceration rate, persecution of journalists, a large working poor population with no ability to move up the social ladder, etc. Which one of those does the US not have?

The US has worker protections and social mobility, so you're flat-out wrong on two of your points. And actually the US has free access to health care via a variety of programs, it's just not universal, but I'll concede that's being pedantic.

Every country is going to have inequality, corruption, antiquated infrastructure, and persecution of journalists, so those are meaningless unless you provide some sort of comparison point.

"High" incarceration is at least attempting to articulate a comparison but only because I actually know the numbers there.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#374

Post by tester756 »

thiago_fm wrote: post #4

This problem will never get fixed. The author forgot to mention in depth the main reason why EU isn't even in the game: culture. In order to be innovative and compete, we need very flexible working laws, people with a big growth mindset, a less relaxing lifestyle and AMBITIOUS people. A lot of third world countries are years ahead of the whole EU continent in that aspect. I say this because I live in Europe for the q…

you know what makes people work hard harder than ""culture""?

poverty

>a less relaxing lifestyle and AMBITIOUS people.

all I see is `""hackers"" sitting 10h a day working while believing they're saving world`

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#375

Post by WalterBright »

hardolaf wrote: post #350
WalterBright wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple was funded by DARPA? I don't think so.

Apple was a zombie before Steve Jobs was rehired. Also, it was initially funded by Mike Markkula who was from Intel which was a company founded with DOD and DARPA backing.

I guess that means that since my father was in the military, I owe everything to the military. Right?

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#376

Post by jokethrowaway »

We already have plenty of OSS software.

Signal can be a perfect replacement for Whatsapp. If the EU want to spend money on maintaining, improving and deploying Signal, that'd be great.

People still won't use it, though.

It's too late. If Europe wants a slice of the market they need to make business as frictionless as possible like the USA did in the past - that will bring capital, eventually.

I think Europe has bigger problems to care about though.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#377

Post by ik22kkKK3i »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #179

I'm a European, living in Europe, developing software. Lack of imagination is not our problem. It's so good that we supply our best talent to the US where it does extremely well revolutionizing AI, designing hardware for Apple, developing games, stream online music, etc. E.g. Amazon's CTO is Dutch. Basically the person that has been running AWS. The people and the education system are fine. Europe does have a few iss…

European bureaucracy is deadlier for businesses than cobra's venom.

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#379

Post by jbverschoor »

mnouquet wrote: post #338
WYepQ4dNnG wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> raising similar amounts of money in Europe is super hard This. I am European but live and work in US. Simply put, US wins hands down because they: - have resources, read $$$$ - take risk - have the right entrepreneurial mindset Europe? let's just say they are not even close.

In Europe, everybody wants to be a manager because mere developers is not high enough status. In the US, a 45yo DB engineer is akin to highly skilled wizard.

Yep.. you get paid shit as a dev here unless you run your own business.. has always been like that, will always be like that. Europe will never be big in software. We have nice livable cities, and we have old cultures, that’s about all what’s good here

Re: Europe's Software Problem

#380

Post by varispeed »

mnouquet wrote: post #338
WYepQ4dNnG wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> raising similar amounts of money in Europe is super hard This. I am European but live and work in US. Simply put, US wins hands down because they: - have resources, read $$$$ - take risk - have the right entrepreneurial mindset Europe? let's just say they are not even close.

In Europe, everybody wants to be a manager because mere developers is not high enough status. In the US, a 45yo DB engineer is akin to highly skilled wizard.

Developers are the modern bricklayers that just sit by the computer and find what to copy and paste from stackoverflow.
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