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The Helsinki Times reports that Finland's Minister of Finance suggested during a recent foreign policy speech that Finland and the EU could pursue self-sufficiency in computing, in particular to avoid over dependence on just a handful of companies. She pointed out that this overreliance on said companies has become so severe that company policy has already started to override existing relevant legislation. The topic had earlier been brought up by President Sauli Niinistö. So far, though, not even Russia has made progress in that direction despite over a decade passing since announcing plans.
"Cyber self-sufficiency, in practical terms, could mean having a European operating system and web browser. The EU could also function as a provider of certificates," she envisioned in a foreign and security policy speech in Helsinki on Wednesday, 26 February.
Previously:
Moscow Bans Sale of Gadgets Without Russian-Made Software
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @07:08AM (2 children)
Because its direction is controlled and will be controlled by Google. Unless you want to completely diverge from them, which would be quite a bit painful task and require quite some euros.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 28 2020, @08:07AM (1 child)
In this case, divergence would be good. Google spies too much, and it only benefits Google and a few partners. Google wouldn't have any control over a new browser, let's call it EuroFrugal so we can get a dig in at Google.
I'd like to place a wager here. I'll bet that there are more than enough qualified people in Europe to develop and maintain an indepentent fork of Chrome. If the EU were backing the browser as an indepence from US influence, I'm sure they could hire some of those qualified people to do the job.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 28 2020, @08:11AM
That'd be an interesting development, although I don't believe at the moment that it will actually happen.