Europe Decoupling is Bad News for GAFAM, Especially Bad to Microsoft
5 hours ago by Robert Greenall of Bill's BC:
Due to Cheeto's rhetoric and open (naked) hostilities, top European leaders have gotten increasingly suspicious of the US as a post-war (1945) ally. We won't be talking about the politics; we are pointing out, uncontroversially, that this is what's happening this year. Cheeto mocking allies and family members of leaders isn't just bad diplomacy; it leads to isolation (America Alone, not America First).
The buzzwords in the "IT" realm in Europe since 2025 aren't "Software Freedom" but terms like "Digital Sovereignty" or "autonomy" (those are all overlapping concept, set aside the words used to express the ideas or convey the ultimate goals).
Today in the sister site, seeing some new numbers from statCounter (also Steam Survey), we observe the effect of the French government ordering migrations to GNU/Linux (applies to about 2 million computers in the public sector) and we moreover see GNU/Linux at 6% in Germany, 7% in the Netherlands; in Spain (another French neighbour) Microsoft ought to shiver. We were expecting this. Cheeto does not fail to deliver... on racism and erosion of US "soft power". In Austria Windows is nearly at an all-time low and GNU/Linux holds steady at about 5%.
2025 was... interesting. This year even more so. Countries want independence. From the US. Free software, such GNU/Linux, is the means/method. █