Top
Best
New

Posted by bwb 1/26/2026

France Aiming to Replace Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, etc.(twitter.com)
900 points | 779 commentspage 7
freakynit 1/28/2026|
I summarized all comments using LLM for better reading: https://hn-discussions.top/france-replace-video-conferencing...
aucisson_masque 1/26/2026||
Honestly the greatest thing trump did is help us, French, and maybe Europeans, to get back our sovereignty.

I’m fed up of having to use Americans tech for everything and people getting along with it.

Chinese managed to separate almost completely from the American tech market, eu can do it too.

Maybe get stronger relations with China too, this 70 year old consensus where we must follow the USA whatever the case is finally ending.

For instance, i bet there would a be lot to win if we diplomatically supported China annexion of Taiwan. Cheaper microprocessors, unrestricted access to newly annexed Taiwanese factories.

yodsanklai 1/26/2026|
> i bet there would a be lot to win if we diplomatically supported China annexion of Taiwan

Sure, and let's give Ukraine to Russia while we're here so we can get their gas. The problem with the bullies is that they'll keep taking.

aucisson_masque 1/26/2026||
Ukraine is European problem. Taiwan, Who cares in Europe ?

As long as we have access to microprocessors…

Trump v2 is the greatest change in world policy, adapt or die trying.

simgt 1/27/2026||
It's fairly obvious that France won't do much if China were to invade Taiwan, but we can at the very least pretend that we care about their fate. It's a much better functioning democracy than ours.

There was never a scenario in which Russian tanks were to get into Paris.

lenerdenator 1/26/2026||
If only they'd taken their reliance on Russian natural gas so seriously.
sharyphil 1/26/2026||
"You know what they call Zoom in Paris?"

"What do they call it?"

"Le Zoom"

RankingMember 1/26/2026||
translation (and without twitter): https://www-numerama-com.translate.goog/cyberguerre/2167301-...
grougnax 1/27/2026||
They won’t be able to make products as great as here in the US
tjomk 1/27/2026|
They don't need to. They need just good enough. Don't underestimate "Made in Europe", just like "Made in America"
mistercheph 1/26/2026||
Let's hope the alternatives they build are open source
weinzierl 1/26/2026||
I live and work in Germany and know many people across Europe. Admittedly more in Western Europe, and admittedly my bubble leans toward traditional industries.

I see a lot of talk about "sovereignty" and "European software". What I don’t see is action.

Does anyone working in Europe actually see signs that people are taking this seriously?

Einenlum 1/26/2026||
Same. French here. I can't stand hearing these words anymore, when at the same time I read that the French intelligence services closed a 5-year deal with Palantir.
202508042147 1/26/2026|||
Well, my company is! I just migrated this weekend our database from AWS RDS to a Hetzner VPS with Volumes. It's a small step, but it works for us and it is way cheaper!
jopsen 1/26/2026||
> What I don’t see is action.

Building serious products and services in this space is easily 5 year investment, by that time there will be a new US administration.

Hope is not a strategy, but it's certainly cheaper in the short run.

----

But have you divested from US assets?

Maybe one should, considering we just deployed armed troops with live ammunition to scare of America.

I fear we don't know how close this was. Maybe, we'll know in 50 years.

skc 1/27/2026||
The irony of building 'sovereign' software on top of Windows and MacOS.

Without a hardware or OS pivot, this feels less like independence and more like empty posturing.

michaelsshaw 1/27/2026|
The French government has its own version of Ubuntu, used by law enforcent, and is supposedly slated to be used by all agencies in 2027.
mytailorisrich 1/26/2026|
This is the French government aiming to have all the government agencies use videoconferencing software that was developed internally by themselves.

So a huge waste of taxpayers money...

This is a pure ongoing cost to develop and maintain (more so than using an market product) while not getting any traction externally. The productive way to do this is to encourage private companies to develop these products and to support them with government contracts. There are not going to conpete with Silicon Valley if they don't create actual private competitors. Absolutely ridiculous approach but unfortunately typical of the industrial scale waste of the French government...

More comments...