EU should fund open source alternatives instead of paying for US software!

[u/MalumaDev]

Lately there’s been a wave of open source clones of American software (pdfcraft, photocraft, solidcraft, etc). Clearly people want alternatives.

The catch is that maintaining software like this is expensive, so most of these projects die once the devs burn out or run out of money. That’s where the EU could step in. Fund paid teams per project and keep them alive long term. It would still cost far less than what European companies pay in licenses every year, and we’d be less dependent on US tech.

[u/ReadToW]

FOSS and open file formats should become the norm. Everything should be free for everyone, without ads or tracking

The example with photo editing isn't the best, but the EU uses text files every day, as do educational institutions. All files should be in ODT format, and the software to open them should be free and available to everyone. Ideally, we'd also need an operating system, but if we start small, it will have a significant impact in terms of freedom and improving everyone's quality of life

[u/No_Good2794 → u/ReadToW]

We have FOSS operating systems... I'm using one right now.

[u/SuperCarla74 → u/No_Good2794]

There's also FOSS office suites that support ODT.

In fact, ODT is the native format of Open Office.

[u/VladimiroPudding → u/ReadToW]

Ideally, we'd also need an operating system

Sir, have you heard of Linux?

[u/VitoRazoR]

A big part of the reason the US software vendors are so far ahead is because the EU has shoveled tonnes of money at them. That's not to say that the EU and FOSS vendors can't catch up - but it will take a little while and it will take those tonnes of money.

[u/srekkas → u/VitoRazoR]

we need to ditch "open"XML

[u/mmdoublem]

By EU, do you mean the government or the private companies in the EU?

There is this initiative that I think everybody should know:
https://publiccode.eu/

[u/Limp_Classroom_2645]

Should, would, could. yeah we know, why are you telling us what EU should do? create a local community and go lobby your local representatives instead of crying into the void.

[u/prototyperspective → u/Limp_Classroom_2645]

What they ask for is very inconcrete – it could be discussed here to come up with some more specific ideas and suggestions or demands that one could send to representatives. e.g. "criteria for funding are chosen that better guarantee useful products and efficient development etc" I mentioned in my comment could be for example number of users and number of users of non open source / non-EU software that their software could substitute with a factor about if there already are good alternatives to such or not.

[u/Hot_Bee5198]

Europe is much too fragmented nowadays. Every organisation thinks it needs to either buy or develop software. No country uses another country's project. No re-use of software. Really dumb.

Example In NL they have been developing a data quality language. In fucking Dutch! Its even registered and explained on the Architecture portal.

I mean: how will that ever become a European standard? Well, never. No other citizen can actually read and understand it.

Example 2: The Dutch Tax administration is very happy on its natural language Business rule engine as well. Regelspraak and ALEF are both developed and supported in Dutch only. So dumb.

So do not fund OSS if they are not in English, and a proper programming language.

[u/ih-shah-may-ehl]

The EU should only fund projects that are important to the EU governments.

[u/Timoroader → u/ih-shah-may-ehl]

They should fund projects that are used by the EU governments.

[u/PhoneIndependent5549 → u/ih-shah-may-ehl]

The eu should fund stuff important to its citizens. Not wasting tax money and providing proper european digitam infrastructure is a part of that.

[u/KnowZeroX]

pdfcraft, photocraft, solidcraft, are buggy AI slop, that isn't an example of something that should be wasting funding.

But funding real open source projects, yes.

[u/Mean_Initiative_5962 → u/KnowZeroX]

This is buyfromeu, nobody cares about actual quality. People are still saying that gimp is a valid as photoshop... 

[u/PlayerAssumption77 → u/KnowZeroX]

Also, since they're blatant copies, they still uphold the current industry standards.

[u/ftrx]

EU must, not should, fund FLOSS, not trying to copy someone else kleptocracy with decades of delay. Do FLOSS, we will flourish, nothing can save giants today, try to keep them, as puppet in politics who help their masters in economy, and all will be destroyed.

[u/SkyPL]

I would die laughing if EU Commission would start sponsoring WordCraft and GridCraft as a replacement for Word and Excel in the EU itself and the national governments.

[u/Metalrager3]

I work for a governmental organisation in Finland. They are sadly really pushing US software on us, including American LLMs in recent years. As a researcher, it feels ridiculous and when I have addressed this as an issue, most people just stay quiet. This is the kind of situation where I, as a mere employee (in an early stage of my career), feel rather powerless to enact change, when all the management staff is acting like they somehow represent big tech companies.

[u/gravitionwizard]

Instead of dedicating all these resources to create fake ones. Why not mobilize the EU to create real alternatives?

[u/Happy_Bread_1]

Every government funding should be in a way it returns common knowledge. Wholeheartedly agree with using open source in that regard.

[u/salazka]

Funding does not make things better.

It's the quality of people working on something, not how much money you throw at something.

[u/DKRY]

Even they committed to contribute just 1% of the US licens bills to open source..

[u/RydderRichards]

You want politics that benefit the masses and you vote right wingers into positions of power? That makes no sense

[u/prototyperspective]

The catch is that maintaining software like this is expensive, so most of these projects die once the devs burn out or run out of money

No, they don't die in such cases: somebody forks it if the devs don't add other maintainers who can keep accepting pull-requests and keep up active development. And lots of people contribute to such projects, not just the original devs – check how many open issues and pull requests already exist for these artcraft apps.

Fund paid teams per project and keep them alive long term

Often it's not a "team" but a single individual. And yes that's a great idea – wouldn't need to fill the income of that one person, just for example 300€ per month would go a long way to enable the person to develop open source EU software full-time. This would be fairly efficient especially if criteria for funding are chosen that better guarantee useful products and efficient development etc.