Germany Is a Tech Paradox
Linux in government. Cash at the bakery.
Schleswig-Holstein (where I live) is moving 30,000 civil servants off Microsoft and onto Linux.
Last week I paid for my bread with exact change because the bakery’s card reader was “not working today.” As usual.
Both of these things are so Germany.
Tech Germany
If you read the international tech press, Germany is a digital sovereignty hero right now. On that front, it’s not totally wrong.
Schleswig-Holstein switching to Linux and LibreOffice.
The German federal government’s €300 million investment in open source infrastructure.
The EU GDPR.
The parliamentary hearings where French officials said out loud that American companies can’t guarantee the safety of European data under the CLOUD Act.
Germany and Denmark leading the EU’s push away from US cloud services.
This is real. I’ve written about it a few times. I believe it matters.
But it’s only half the picture.
