Tech
- I was going to buy a Sonos column but instead found AudioPro (Sweden) which offers similar capabilities. Also looked at BlueSound (Canada)
- Created an email with Proton Mail (Switzerland) to replace my Outlook and Gmail accounts. I have been moving things to the new email.
- Replacing Uber with Bolt (Estonia) was pretty straightforward.
- I was in the mood to read some comics but instead of subbing to Marvel Ultimate I decided to explore more European comics, so I subscribed to Izneo (French). There are some downsides here due to being European, like language and the lacklustre English selection due to publishers being all over the place, but I’m enjoying reading some new things.
- Altought it’s open source, I was using Bazzite on my gaming computer, but it’s mainly an American distro, especially since it’s based on Fedora, which is tied with Red Hat and IBM. I decided to switch to OpenSuse since it has many ties to Germany.
- Not European but I bought a Kobo (Canada/Japan) to replace my Kindle. Same with creating an account with StoryGraph (Canada) to move from Goodreads.
- In terms of media I was already subscribed to Filmin (from Spain I believe) but I need to invest more time on it.
- I have switched my browser to Vivaldi (Norway) and my search engine to Ecosia (Germany) even if the backend for both comes from Google it’s something.
- For maps, I found HereWeGo Maps (Netherlands) but haven’t been using it yet. I was subscribed to Moovit for public transport, but I have switched to Transit (Canadian). I might end up with CityMapper (British) but let’s see.
- For translation DeepL (Germany) is great.
- I’m also paying attention at the supermarket, but most of my purchases there are white-label ones, so it’s not difficult to avoid American products.
Buying from the EU
With the recently happenings in the US, there has been a growing sentiment of rejection of American made products and companies, replaced by the desire to support local brands instead.
It seemed to start with Canada due to the threats of annexation, but now it has also extended to Europe and I have been caught in it as well.
It’s not a new feeling that the US has too much of an influence in Europe and that, despite the size of the continent and the union, culturally the US is the one setting the pace. Most trends were set by America, and Europe had little influence back. The fact that we consumed so much American media ended up influencing what we thought was cool and the products we consumed. I really felt in a space where I knew and connected more with American culture than my own. The internet made this effortless as well, since it was easy to find like-minded people and cultures which, in my case, ended up being American.
Because of all of this, I have recently I have started to try to move some services/products to European (or at least non-American) alternatives. The tech/products side is the most important to me, but I also have a desire to look for media and art that is closest to me.
I’m not trying to be radical about it, there are some things that are currently off limits. I have been trying to switch more to PC Gaming, so Steam is impossible to replace, and my current tech life is too connected with Apple that moving from that ecosystem on a whim is too much. The same also applies to media and music. They are a part of my culture as well and, while the US is turning into a fascist state, there are still many good people there making awesome things. Spending money on those people and companies might contribute to the US economy, but it’s okay. It’s also a positive that good people and companies can keep existing during these times.
That said, there have been a number of communities and resources that have appeared to help with finding European alternatives to US products. So far, this is where I am at:
Apple is the big red mark still and, as I mentioned, it might be for a while. I have been looking at alternatives like e/os (French) with a Fairphone (German), Tuxedo Computers (German), Nextcloud (German) and Withings (French). The price involved in this switch isn’t the only problem. The issue is that it’s difficult to beat the polish and the ecosystem benefits I currently have by using all Apple devices and services. I will at least try to use European apps but, realistically, ditching Apple is maybe too difficult.
Regarding Steam, I could use GOG or go with a Japanese console, but I like Valve as a company and I enjoy a lot of the freedom they have when it comes to gaming, so this one will stay.
I have been happy exploring these alternative services and seeing what non-American companies offer. The US has been the “default” for so long that it’s easy to get into that mindset and not even look around at what we have near us. In general, moving from relying so much on a country that is not reliable is always good and, tech wise, the current mindset of Silicon Valley of being focused on everything but providing good solutions to their users is refreshing. Yes, there are issues with European companies as well and open-source has problems, but at least I don’t feel like everyone is attempting to steal my data or replace my job and hobbies with LLMs.
The story of Audion - A look back at the MP3 revolution
I was poking around the website from Cabel Sasser (due to my recent love of the Playdate console) and came across this history of their MP3 software Audion that I found fascinating.
It’s cool to read about the software industry around the 00s and how things worked back then. It also included some fascinating twists and turns like the fact that Apple almost bought Panic and wanted them to build iTunes! Just reading about Apple pre-iPod is a trip.
This exchange beween Sasser and Jobs on the showfloor of Macworld was an highlight:
"Well, Steve, I really think it'll still find an audience," I replied. "We've got a lot of higher-end features that you guys probably won't ever add."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Well, umm.." I was a bit stumped. "You can keep a count of how many times you've played a song, or you can even rate your songs by popularity..."
"...why the hell would anybody want to do that?"
"Well, maybe you want to sort your playlist by your favorite songs..."
"...you've got to understand, this is just 1.0, of course. You can only imagine where we'll be by the time we release 2.0!"
Jobs first dismisses the idea of star ratings just to put Cabel on the spot to pitch the feature to him and explain it. iTunes did end up having this shortly after so he saw the value.
It’s a great read and Sasser is a great storyteller.