Buy European

Several websites and apps have been made for enabling consumers and organizations avoid U.S. products more easily. On reddit, the group "r/BuyFromEU" has around 200,000 members as of April 2025.On the subreddit, for example practical guides listing alternative European products are being shared. The website "Go European" launched by volunteers in February aims to make it easy to see which products are largely from the U.S. and which alternatives to these exist. The similar website European Alternatives launched in 2021 has seen a surge of users. The mobile app and browser extension "BuyEuropean" makes it easy for consumers to find out the exact origin of products and also shows relevant European alternatives when scanning or looking up products.

Hello!

I own and run a small technology company in Finland. I've been reluctant to advertise here for some time, even after asking in Matrix channel of this group some months ago, but now I've finally made my mind. It's more of introduction post, I guess, because I'm really bad at marketing.

I'm also make this as a statement: don't just buy European. Sell European! We are blessed with social security systems the rest of the world could not dream about, trying for business opportunities never results in uncertain future - if all fails, we stand for each other. So please, try the new things, be entrepreneurs, and be small if you have to, for it's small businesses and their humble people who really make the Europe economy run!

Anyway, we've been bold enough to actually manufacture things that are commonly thought to be made in Asia (or sometimes USA) here, in EU, better and sometimes (not always) cheaper. And we are just a few friends doing this weird thing for fun and to stay afloat financially.

Here is a webstore link: https://store.zymologia.fi/

It's not pretty, but I suppose there is no European alternative for most of this stuff, and people who need it (as far as I can tell) do not really care for pretty webstores.

We make plant cell culture chemicals. For example, root growth hormone gel, dip a plant cutting in it and it will grow roots much more reliably than normally. Just today I discovered that not only regular plants regrow roots, but also so did this piece of grape my neighbor sliced from his plant erroneously without any buds on it, last leaves it had were in October, still growing roots (not sure it will survive)

Another product is BAP-6, hormone that stimulates shoot formation. We've just finished rolling out it's production last week, so I'll try some on these leafless grapes to save them. We'll make a gel with this soon and place it in store as well, but anyone can already just make a gel from this powder.

And we make microcloning supplies, that allow propagating plants from a single stem cell (plants have plenty of these) in a jar, without light or any watering. Good way to grow plenty of, say, berry bushes, or rare plants.

We also have bee monitoring wireless sensors that we've developed here and assemble here to order: http://apiologia.zymologia.fi/ These are useful for beekeepers, the data they collect could predict swarming several days in advance (it's a bold statement as most other products could at most do it within 30 minutes or so when you don't really need a sensor to see what is about to happen; but we've found some know-how in old soviet research and made it work).

We also make really good liquid brewers yeast strains through pure culture technology, fed with all-grain pilsner malt, lively and ready to action.

All is handmade with love, we use our products ourselves (more than we sell, unfortunately). So if you, or some of your friends, are into some of these or similar weird hobbies and in need of supplies, or need something new developed and made locally, please contact me!

I wanted to spotlight a quietly massive success story in European digital sovereignty: GendBuntu — France’s custom Ubuntu distribution used by the National Gendarmerie.

The GendBuntu project derives from Microsoft's decision to end the development of Windows XP Back in 2005, France’s Gendarmerie began switching from Microsoft products to open-source software — starting with OpenOffice. Fast forward to 2024, and GendBuntu(Linux) is now running on 97% of their workstations (over 103,000 computers!).

France has shown what’s possible when a government actually backs open-source, in-house, and EU-grown solutions.
More countries should follow suit.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GendBuntu

cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/205936

For years, Big Tech has been tightening its grip on public institutions across the world, quietly slotting themselves into critical infrastructure that powers the daily running of governments.

Their allergy to privacy and bowing to their overlords (read: the country they're based in) has long been a thing of concern. There have been numerous cases where surveillance laws forced these companies to hand over user data without consulting, or even notifying, the governments of those affected.

For governments, this isn't just a privacy issue, but a sovereignty issue. And in Denmark, the Ministry of Digital Affairs has decided it’s time to push back.

Denmark's Open Source Move

Speaking with Politiken (paywalled), Denmark's Minister for Digital Affairs, Caroline Stage Olsen, revealed that the Ministry is moving away from Microsoft services, replacing Windows with Linux and Office 365 with LibreOffice.

This is set to happen in a staggered manner, where half of the staff will be switched to Linux and LibreOffice by summer (June-August), with full adoption expected by autumn (September-November) this year.

The move is said to be driven primarily by Denmark’s goal to strengthen digital sovereignty, ensuring that control over critical government data and systems remains within national borders.

This approach aligns with broader European efforts to promote open standards and safeguard public digital infrastructure from external influence. Take, for instance, the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, which is undertaking a similar transition, moving 30,000 government computers from Microsoft software to Linux and LibreOffice.

Speaking about the move on LinkedIn, the minister emphasized that:

It is not about isolation or digital nationalism. We should not turn our backs completely on global technology companies; many of them provide solutions that we benefit from. This applies both today and in the future.

But we must never make ourselves so dependent on so few that we can no longer act freely. Too much public digital infrastructure is currently tied up with very few foreign suppliers. This makes us vulnerable. Also, financially.

📋The above quote was translated from Danish.

Suggested Read 📖

Wow! German State Ditches Microsoft for Open-Source SoftwareThe end of dominance for Microsoft in this German state, replacing Windows with Linux, and Office with Libreoffice.It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra

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cross-posted from: https://rss.ponder.cat/post/210914

Murena, the company behind Linux-powered smartphones and one of the key driving forces behind /e/OS, has introduced a new search engine in partnership with Qwant, the privacy-focused search provider known for its focus on protecting user data and delivering unbiased search results.

Can it join the ranks of the best privacy-oriented search engines? Let’s find out!

Murena Find: What to Expect?

Operating in “no tracking” mode by default, Murena Find is meant to deliver relevant search results without monitoring users’ online activity. It now serves as the default search engine on Murena smartphones running /e/OS 3.0, with a planned rollout on Murena Workspace in the near future.

Of course, Murena Find isn’t limited to Murena devices. I took it for a quick spin myself and was mostly content with the experience. I started with a basic text search of the term "It's FOSS", and it provided me with relevant results like our main page and the news page.

Murena Find All and News search pages.

Next, I searched for the term "Denmark replaces Microsoft" under the News tab. The first result was incorrect, but the following entries were relevant, featuring articles from well-known publications like ZDNet and TechRadar. (My own article didn’t show up, but that’s okay.)

The Shopping tab works as expected, with handy filters on the left and relevant product suggestions in the center of the page. The Settings menu, accessible via the gear icon in the top-right corner, is surprisingly handy.

It includes options to change the interface language, set the search region, filter adult content, switch between light and dark modes, show or hide news on the homepage, and choose whether outgoing links open in a new tab.

Images and Videos search on Murena Find.

📋Evil Larry’s got plans… and they’re not good. 😨

Searching for images and videos is good too. I looked up pics of Evil Larry, and sure enough, there he was, staring right into my soul. The image viewing interface is familiar, with options to visit the source website, share the image, view it fullscreen, or report it to Qwant for removal.

For videos, I searched for the 2025 Honda CBR650R, and I got relevant results, although they were all from YouTube. I then tried "Arch Linux", and the results were similar. It would be nice if Murena or Qwant could include PeerTube results in the mix.

Murena Find vs. Google on uBlock Origin.

To see how it stacks up against Google in terms of trackers, I used uBlock Origin on Firefox to compare the number of trackers detected on each site. As expected, Murena Find was the clear winner, with 9 trackers blocked, while Google had 30, with the count steadily increasing.

During the launch, Gaël Duval, CEO of Murena, had a few words to add:

We created Murena Find to give users a truly private and ethical alternative for web search with better results. By joining forces with Qwant, we’re combining advanced search capabilities with a firm commitment to data protection.

You can read the announcement blog to learn more.

Suggested Read 📖

10 Best Privacy Oriented Search Engines To Google in 2025In this age of the internet, you can never be too careful with your privacy. Use these alternative search engines that do not track you.It's FOSSAnkush Das

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