Then they’re not truly democratic, which is a problem on its own

But what about porn / general nsfw, that doesn’t need a subscription and currently anyone can sign up / just visit those.

Not saying that these are not possibilities, but the technology itself and mistrust of government are, at least partly, different things. This is definitely a complex topic, spanning a lot of topics.

Yes, and governments, at least democratic ones, represent the interests of their people, so at least on paper this is the correct way to structure things. Then you use the channels to government to ensure it’s regulated properly. If this is not possible or there’s no trust, there’s a larger problem.

Okay, it’s 2 topics then, the privacy, and basically adding a mandatory authorization layer to the internet derived from your real identity.

To some extent this already exists for movies or say to buy alcohol, getting a driving license etc. in the real world, where people often also have to verify their age. So here it could be asked on what exact basis the internet should work differently.

That sounds great. I don’t follow the topic closely (probably I should), so wasn’t aware of these developments. This should be brought up in all discussions about age verification, so everyone knows there are better options.

Some people will feel that it’s not ideal, as you still have to trust the government, opposed to full anonymity, but that is a bit of a separate problem.

So there should be a rebuttal demanding a privacy respecting age verification token, instead of just arguing against age verification, which technically does have a point. This way it’s disabled as excuse to sneak in the other things.

I mean a dedicated, government issued age verification token that doesn’t reveal any data to the third party other than you are allowed access age wise.

Personal ids can also be used by non-owners, not much different than this theoretic age verification token. But yeah, ideally it would have a security layer to sufficiently confirm ownership.

Why is there no privacy respecting solution for age verification? Like the government giving you some sort of token that says you’re over 18 and that’s it?

Fully agree, there should be regulations, temporary at least, that require/incentivize critical companies to make a mobile Linux version of their apps, as well as strategic funding and incentives to make the platforms viable. We as citizens should contribute too, increasing pressure for this to happen, spreading the message, becoming early adopters where possible, submitting feedback, contributing to development, etc.

The political problems driving the push for independence are fairly recent, so the current state is unlikely to be extrapolable.

There are devices using these operating systems that are also gaining popularity, like Jolla, Volla and Fair phone.

Time to popularize Linux phones. I read that the security model is lacking, but especially given that Android is Linux too, it shouldn’t be too difficult to catch up. The EU is also interested in tech independence, so that could be one of the sources of funding. And there are a few viable early projects, like Ubuntu Touch and Sailfish.

Oh, that’s how you mean agile, as in opposed to rigidity, long term planning, bureaucracy, etc. in that sense you’re fully right. Though I imagine that much of it fades away if the incentives are right (e.g high pressure tends to weaken bureaucracy).

There are other rapid/flexible methods without sprint planning, dailies, etc. but this might be a bit too detailed for the general idea here.

Why exactly do you think that Europe‘s failure relates to agile? To me it seems more an incentive problem, which would be completely outside of software specific methodology

Agile is just one possible way to organize things and many developers don’t even like it or think that it improves productivity.

It would be interesting to study those cases, to see exactly what failed. We’re not weak and should be able to survive in „globalization“ context. Anyway, now it’s (more obviously) a matter of security too.

It’s so weird that a continent with the population, education and wealth of Europe struggles with… software? These are all solved problems and software development becomes easier by the day. Come on.

Tiktok alternatives can be developed too. The one and only issue is always just network effects.

Uhm all the non right wing parties? There‘s money there too. And it’s not necessarily so expensive.