TL:DR A modern ICQ with very long story

Gadu-Gadu is financed by the display of advertisements. The developer is based in Koszalin, Poland and the company is wholly owned by another Polish company, Fintecom.
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I was replying to someone about where to find European muesli but I couldn't find this info on the Carrefour France site. Hold and behold, this site, open source and with an app, also has this information.

They list the ingredients and the countries where goods are produced.

It's also helpful for neighbouring countries where the French do their groceries (for example Germany - there are some Edeka references from the little I've seen) as well as other Francophone countries (I've seen a few Moroccan products). They also list all the countries in which a specific product is sold.

The website is, obviously, only in French.

I'm not affiliated to the website creators, I just found it out by myself and wanted to share this with you.

20:20 : "I think we should, us "Renaissance" (the party's name) ask solemnly to the EU, to activate for the very first time in our history the anti-coercion instrument. This instrument offer extended powers to counter with surgical hits, the deep interests of the new American oligarchy, finance and tech, without penalizing our economy, companies and our farmers"

Not trying to sound dramatic, but isn’t it weird how all the major social media platforms we use are American? Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), Reddit, TikTok (ok, that one’s Chinese)… but nothing really big that’s actually European.

We talk a lot about digital privacy, tech sovereignty, and how Europe wants to be more independent—but somehow we’re still stuck using platforms that are built, owned, and controlled by companies outside the EU. We’re basically renting our digital lives.

And it’s not just about data privacy or politics. It’s also about missed opportunities. We’ve got talent, we’ve got infrastructure, we’ve got smart people building amazing tech here… so why haven’t we managed to create even one major social network that people actually use?

Even if someone builds one, it ends up either super niche or gets bought up before it grows.

Honestly, I think we really need a social platform that’s: Made in the EU Respects privacy (actually) Doesn’t shove weird algorithmic content down your throat Isn’t just a clone of something that already exists

It’s not even about competing with the US—it’s about having options and not being totally dependent. It feels like we gave up before we even tried.

So I’m curious: What do you guys think it would take for a European platform to succeed? Are there any cool smaller ones out there that just need support? Or is the idea dead in the water already?

Really want to hear what others think about this. Let’s talk. We’ve got so many smart people here in Europe. What are they doing?

I'm thinking about purchasing balcony solar system in Netherlands. Is there any EU alternative, and if not where can I purchase one outside of Amazon?

Google doesn't have a privacy problem. Google IS the problem.

Are you a happy Google user? Think about it: By default, Google has access to:

1. Your web activity
2. Your location and address
3. Your emails
4. Everything you type on your phone's keyboard
5. Your Wi-Fi credentials
6. Your age and gender
7. Your WhatsApp history
8. Your photos and voice samples
9. Your payment history
10. Your passwords

The list goes on: just go to Google Takeaway and download the archive. Enjoy.

"But they're just using it to show me their ads!"

Maybe, but according to the Patriot Act, the US government and intelligence agencies have automatic access to your data. This process is fully automated and your data is scanned on a daily basis.

Don't think you're too small and obedient and nobody cares about you. This data can be used to influence your political views or against your friends, colleagues or employer.

Next problem: You cannot just move your data to another provider. There are no open standards for network cloud services. Moving your data is difficult and painful. You are locked in.

You can choose from many European services, but remember: the political landscape can change. Do you have a guarantee that Switzerland, Germany, or France won't become the next U.S., Russia, or China?

How will you move your data from Proton or Tuta? What can stop developers from building backdoors into their services? Basically, only their promises. Not much.

You should be able to switch providers if you care about your privacy.

So far I have only found one portable solution: Nextcloud. It's an open source workspace of German origin used by several European providers (e.g. murena.io from e.foundation). You can switch between providers or even host it yourself.

Moving your data is not enough. You shouldn't use plain android or ios if you don't want your phone to deliver your secrets to Donald's minions. But it can be a good first step.

I was going to buy the Puffco Proxy, but then I saw it was an american company. Does anyone know an European alternative as good as Puffco?

We had a good run..

What's the best EU made cornflakes you can get?

Still haven't found any on Cellogs level unfortunately. In Denmark for reference.

Hi folks. I am sort of struggling to find any replacement for the traditional big guitar companies such as Fender, Gibson, PRS, Martin, Taylor. Even for example with Fender, I can't really think of any European manufacturer with a comparable product to their American or Mexican-made Stratocaster, Tele, Precision Bass etc.

Any suggestions?

One area that Europe really has the best, is in Classical guitars. Spain make the best, and they don't all cost the world. Germany makes some really great, but more pricy ones.

Since we have to discard Ben & Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs, what ice cream brands should we treat ourselves to this Summer?

https://shadow.tech/

Hi all,

I adopted Luffy, a golden retriever for a little more than a year and we've been using Royal Canin because of the immediate discount we received from the breeder we got + convenience.

The company is owned by Mars Co and therefore is one of my main target to redirect some of my spendings to EU alternatives.

As it's my first dog, I'm not super informed/experienced about the market. If anyone has recommendation, I'll take it. Photo of the pup as a thanks for your attention :)

Are there any manufacturers of Guitar strings in the eu?

Does anyone know a good European antivirus program? I like to get rid of Norton.

Is there any alternative to have such complete kit like ifixit with many screwdrivers bits in one package?

Got a pair of wrangler shoes back in like October / November, and now to my surprise they're falling apart literally in front of my eyes. There's this local shoe store where I live(Flanders - VanHaren) which has this suspiciously budget friendly lineup "Memphis One" but I can't for the love of god find anything about the country of origin, production plants, parent company and so on.

I see many people moving to Signal, but Signal is still subject to American law and therefor in my book not a good alternative. The Signal software might be secure but it still runs on American Amazon and Google servers. European traffic can easily be blocked which makes us vulnerable to manipulation.

On the plus side, Signal is open source, so it should be relatively easy to make an European fork based on the Signal source code. An European alternative would also bring more employment to our continent. I was wondering if something like that is being worked on, or already exists. Does anyone know?

I'm not a very rich person, and i'm saving up my money for studies... so the cheaper - the better.

Any decent laptop that could run STALKER 2 smoothly on medium graphics would be perfect, as that's the only game i really want to play... Currently have an HP Laptop, but with tariffs it's pretty impossible to buy.

Considering Lenovo, as China isn't targeted by Electronic tariffs yet, but would love to buy something from the EU.

I am subscribed to Backblaze for years to have my data safe in case anything happens that destroys both my computer and backup drive, like a fire. However, they are from Silicon Valley, so now I’m looking for alternatives. As neither european-alternatives.eu and goeuropean.org have a category for backup or hits when searching Backblaze, I’m asking the community…