Google has criticized the European Union’s intentions to achieve digital sovereignty through open-source software. The company warned that Brussels’ policies aimed at reducing dependence on American tech companies could harm competitiveness. According to Google, the idea of replacing current tools with open-source programs would not contribute to economic growth.
Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs and chief legal officer, warned of a competitive paradox that Europe is facing. According to the Financial Times, he said that creating regulatory barriers would be harmful in a context of rapid technological advancement. His remarks came just days after the European Commission concluded a public consultation assessing the transition to open-source software.
Google’s chief legal officer clarified that he is not opposed to digital sovereignty, but recommended making use of the “best technologies in the world.” Walker suggested that American companies could collaborate with European firms to implement measures ensuring data protection. Local management or servers located in Europe to store information are among the options.
The EU is preparing a technological sovereignty package aimed at eliminating dependence on third-party software, such as Google’s. After reviewing proposals, it concluded that reliance on external suppliers for critical infrastructure entails economic risks and creates vulnerabilities. The strategy focuses not only on regulation but also on adopting open-source software to achieve digital sovereignty.
According to Google, this change would represent a problem for users. Walker argues that the market moves faster than legislation and warns that regulatory friction will only leave European consumers and businesses behind in what he calls “the most competitive technological transition we have ever seen.” As it did with the DMA and other laws, Google is playing on fear. Kent Walker suggested that this initiative would stifle innovation and deny people access to the “best digital tools.”
The promotion of open-source software aims to break dependence on foreign suppliers, especially during a period of instability caused by the Trump administration. The European Union has highlighted the risks of continuing under this system and proposes that public institutions should have full control over their own technology.
According to a study on the impact of open-source software, the European Commission found that it contributes between €65 billion and €95 billion annually to the European Union’s GDP. The executive body estimates that a 10% increase in contributions to open-source software would generate an additional €100 billion in growth for the bloc’s economy.
If I could get all my games to work on Linux, I'd nuke my dual-boot in a second. But I'm 99% linux at least.
(And yeah, I've tried the compatibility tools.)
Maybe the answer is having a PC only for those games. As a console. Like some people bought the N64 just to play Zelda and nothing else.
Out of interest, when's the last time you tried? So many games now seem to have Linux compatibility because of Valve's push for the Steam Deck (and Machine). I'm in the same boat as you though, still haven't taken the plunge.
I blew away my Windows install in favour of Fedora about a year ago. There are only two games in my entire library that don’t work - Call of Duty and Battlefield, both of them because of anti-cheat fuckery. The other 300+ that I’ve tried playing have just worked. Zero tinkering required.
Times have really changed. The life hack you should know is to use ProtonPlus to install Proton-GE which is a customised version that has a bunch of fixes for different games. You just set Steam to use this one over Valve’s default version for all games and you’re pretty much done. They’ve integrated tweaks and fixes for thousands of games, on a per-game basis, so if you’re using this build of Proton then you have nothing else to do. No fiddling, no command line monkeying, just launch and play, same as Windows.
It’s honestly very impressive these days.
The last barrier, anti-cheats.
*the companies that refuse to use Linux compatible anti-cheats
or make their anti-cheats linux compatible :)
The kinda sad part is that a lot of people say "just don't play those games then", I play Valorant and PUBG with friends and I can't force them to find us something else to play just because I want to switch to Linux.