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No government should be using big tech products. It's essentially corruption IMO. There are so many smaller, cheaper, better alternatives. And these days, build

No government should be using big tech products. It's essentially corruption IMO. There are so many smaller, cheaper, better alternatives. And these days, building software is not that difficult. There are a lot of open source stacks to start with.

embedding-shape 1y ago
I'd love to see more support for locally developed solutions, but many of the governments in the EU are just reaching out to the most popular cross-EU businesses, often German or Austrian, instead of their local companies. But then I guess the argument could be made for that you should go for the best option possible, as long as it's within EU, and I can certainly see the point of that too.
tobinfekkes 1y ago
> building software is not that difficult. Maintaining it is.
- jongjong 1y ago
  I disagree with this as well to some extent. I see how much big corporations spend on "maintenance" and all the bureaucracy involved. It's easy money for them and their employees. Too easy. The problem with Europe is that they starved their tech sector completely. IMO neglectful to the point of corruption. The salaries of EU-based engineers was just laughable compared to US. And they outsourced a lot of the software work to foreigners and basically ended up with low quality solutions, compromised by foreign nations from all sides. In terms of tech, EU governments have been extremely incompetent... They could not have failed worse if they tried. So now there is a lot of fixing to do. Radical fixing.
  - tobinfekkes 1y ago
    > the EU outsourced a lot of the software work to foreigners and basically ended up with low quality solutions Is that very different than the US? That seems more like a timeless endeavor, not a European tech one.
- righthand 1y ago
  Only if you’re constantly trying to zero the budget after it’s built.
  - tbrownaw 1y ago
    s/is difficult/requires ongoing expenditure of resources/
mmooss 1y ago
> No government should be using big tech products. It's essentially corruption IMO. Governments are organizations like many others, with similar needs. Almost all need to be purchased in the marketplace. Is every purchase from a business, even a large business, corruption? What about cars? A phone system? Electricity?

embedding-shape 1y ago

I'd love to see more support for locally developed solutions, but many of the governments in the EU are just reaching out to the most popular cross-EU businesses, often German or Austrian, instead of their local companies. But then I guess the argument could be made for that you should go for the best option possible, as long as it's within EU, and I can certainly see the point of that too.

tobinfekkes 1y ago

> building software is not that difficult. Maintaining it is.

jongjong 1y ago
I disagree with this as well to some extent. I see how much big corporations spend on "maintenance" and all the bureaucracy involved. It's easy money for them and their employees. Too easy. The problem with Europe is that they starved their tech sector completely. IMO neglectful to the point of corruption. The salaries of EU-based engineers was just laughable compared to US. And they outsourced a lot of the software work to foreigners and basically ended up with low quality solutions, compromised by foreign nations from all sides. In terms of tech, EU governments have been extremely incompetent... They could not have failed worse if they tried. So now there is a lot of fixing to do. Radical fixing.
- tobinfekkes 1y ago
  > the EU outsourced a lot of the software work to foreigners and basically ended up with low quality solutions Is that very different than the US? That seems more like a timeless endeavor, not a European tech one.
righthand 1y ago
Only if you’re constantly trying to zero the budget after it’s built.
- tbrownaw 1y ago
  s/is difficult/requires ongoing expenditure of resources/

mmooss 1y ago

> No government should be using big tech products. It's essentially corruption IMO. Governments are organizations like many others, with similar needs. Almost all need to be purchased in the marketplace. Is every purchase from a business, even a large business, corruption? What about cars? A phone system? Electricity?