Posted on

Independence, or the end of the client state

English · Français (coming) · Deutsch (coming)

On 20 August 2025, Nicolas Guillou, a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, was added to a United States sanctions list for his part in the arrest warrant against Israel’s prime minister. Within days his Visa and Mastercard cards stopped working. His Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal and Expedia accounts were closed, and so was his Booking account, a company run from Amsterdam and owned in Connecticut. Parcels were refused when the carrier was UPS. He could no longer book a hotel or a trip online. He described it as travelling thirty years back in time. His Slovenian colleague Beti Hohler, sanctioned for the same warrant, had her Apple ID and iCloud blocked, and a European bank she had been with for decades closed her account the day after.

None of this happened in America. It happened in the Netherlands, to European citizens, judges of a court that 125 states created by treaty, for doing their job. Thirteen of the Court’s judges, prosecutors and staff are now under the same sanctions, including, since August 2026, the Court’s own president. In February 2026, France’s president wrote to Washington asking for them to be lifted, for Judge Guillou and for Thierry Breton, a former European Commissioner targeted over the European Union’s own digital rules. Judge Guillou still cannot use his bank card, and no European institution has the power to give it back to him.

Continue reading “Independence, or the end of the client state”
Posted on

Ein Erbe für alle, finanziert aus Erbschaften

English · Français · Deutsch

Maschinelle Übersetzung. Maßgeblich ist die englische Fassung.

Ich war 25, als ich im Sommer 1998 die erste Version von Mandrake Linux veröffentlichte. Die Idee selbst kostete nichts: ein PC, ein Internetanschluss, ein paar Monate Nachtarbeit. Alles, was danach kam, kostete Geld, das wir nicht hatten, und wir haben die folgenden zwei Jahre damit verbracht, es aufzutreiben. Ich hatte Glück. Ich kenne Leute meiner Generation, die bessere Ideen hatten als ich und sie nie ausprobieren konnten, aus dem banalsten Grund der Welt: In ihrem Umfeld hatte niemand etwas zu verleihen.

Dieser Beitrag ist eine radikale Antwort darauf. Ich behaupte nicht, dass sie morgen beschlossen werden könnte. Ich lege sie auf den Tisch, weil Europa der Debatte, die sie eröffnet, seit einem Jahrhundert ausweicht, und weil die Beträge dahinter weit größer sind, als man zugibt.

Continue reading “Ein Erbe für alle, finanziert aus Erbschaften”
Posted on

Europa ist nicht kaputt. Noch will es kaum jemand.

English · Français · Deutsch

Maschinelle Übersetzung. Maßgeblich ist die englische Fassung.

Mit fünfzehn habe ich eine kleine Zeitschrift gemacht. Sie hieß Europe Journal, ich versuchte, jeden Monat eine Ausgabe herauszubringen, und sie war in zwei oder drei Sprachen geschrieben. Ich glaube nicht, dass sie je mehr als ein paar Dutzend Leser hatte. Schon damals war ich von etwas überzeugt, wovon ich heute noch fester überzeugt bin: dass die Länder dieses Kontinents für sich allein keine Zukunft haben. Kein langsamer Niedergang, sondern das Ende ihrer Existenz als eigenständige Akteure, oder bestenfalls eine bequeme Vasallenrolle gegenüber der jeweils größeren Macht, die gerade guter Laune ist.

Mehr als fünfunddreißig Jahre später bin ich frustriert und wütend darüber, wie wenig sich bewegt hat. Diese Reihe ist mein Versuch zu sagen, was sich ändern müsste.

Continue reading “Europa ist nicht kaputt. Noch will es kaum jemand.”
Posted on

Un héritage pour tous, financé par l’héritage

English · Français · Deutsch

Traduction automatique. La version anglaise fait référence.

J’avais 25 ans quand j’ai sorti la première Mandrake Linux, à l’été 1998. L’idée elle-même n’a rien coûté : un PC, une connexion internet, quelques mois de nuits. Tout ce qui a suivi a coûté de l’argent que nous n’avions pas, et nous avons passé les deux années suivantes à le trouver. J’ai eu de la chance. Je connais des gens de ma génération qui avaient de meilleures idées que la mienne et qui n’ont jamais pu se lancer, pour la raison la plus banale du monde : personne autour d’eux n’avait de quoi prêter.

Cet article propose une réponse radicale à ça. Je ne prétends pas qu’elle pourrait passer demain. Je la mets sur la table parce que le débat qu’elle ouvre, l’Europe l’évite depuis un siècle, et parce que les montants en jeu sont bien plus élevés que ce que l’on admet.

Continue reading “Un héritage pour tous, financé par l’héritage”
Posted on

L’Europe n’est pas en panne. Elle ne fait pas encore envie.

English · Français · Deutsch

Traduction automatique. La version anglaise fait référence.

Quand j’avais quinze ans, je publiais un petit journal. Il s’appelait Europe Journal, j’essayais de le sortir tous les mois, et il était écrit en deux ou trois langues. Je ne crois pas qu’il ait jamais eu plus de quelques dizaines de lecteurs. Je croyais déjà, à cet âge-là, ce que je crois plus fermement encore aujourd’hui : que les pays de ce continent n’ont aucun avenir chacun de son côté. Pas un lent déclin, mais la fin de leur existence comme acteurs indépendants, ou au mieux une vassalité confortable envers la puissance qui sera de bonne humeur cette décennie-là.

Plus de trente-cinq ans après, le peu de chemin parcouru me frustre et me met en colère. Cette série est ma tentative de dire ce qui devrait changer.

Continue reading “L’Europe n’est pas en panne. Elle ne fait pas encore envie.”
Posted on

“GroovyGroovaBox”: my new, innovative, drumbox – running in a web browser

I’ve played music for decades, as a guitarist first, and I’ve been increasingly interested in rythm over time.

I remember a night we have been dancing at a Mandrakesoft event, in a club. There was this guy who had his very own way of dancing, breaking the rythm, making pauses with his body. I also remember at this time the song “Independent Women”, with some breaks in the rythm. It sounded super original. It was in 2000 or 2001 I think.

Since this this moment I have always expected that music would turn into something more innovative, especially regarding rythm.

Drumboxes have gotten more and more sophisticated with impressive alterations capabilities for sound, but not that much for the rythm. As a drummer you can create something different and new, and some do, at least to a certain extent.

But in the end nothing very radical happened and listening to newly released music always makes me extremely bored: nothing happens but these either old or silly patterns. 0 creativity, 0 surprise.

So, earlier this year, I aked Claude if there was any innovation in this field….

Continue reading ““GroovyGroovaBox”: my new, innovative, drumbox – running in a web browser”
Posted on

Europe isn’t broken. Few want it, yet.

English · Français · Deutsch

When I was fifteen, I ran a small magazine. It was called Europe Journal, I tried to get an issue out every month, and it was written in two or three languages. I don’t think more than a few dozen people ever read it. I already believed, at that age, something I believe more firmly today: that the countries of this continent have no future on their own. Not a slow decline, but the end of their existence as independent actors, or at best a comfortable vassalage to whichever bigger power is in a good mood that decade.

More than thirty-five years later, I am frustrated, and I am angry, at how little has moved. This series is my attempt to say what should.

Continue reading “Europe isn’t broken. Few want it, yet.”
Posted on

An inheritance for everyone, paid for by inheritance

English · Français · Deutsch

I was 25 when I released the first Mandrake Linux, in the summer of 1998. The idea itself cost nothing: a PC, an internet connection, a few months of nights. Everything that came after cost money we did not have, and we spent the following two years finding it. I was lucky. I know people of my generation who had better ideas than mine and never got to try them, for the most banal reason in the world: nobody around them had anything to lend.

This post is a radical answer to that. I am not pretending it could pass tomorrow. I am putting it on the table because the debate it opens is one Europe has avoided for a century, and because the numbers behind it are far bigger than anyone admits.

Continue reading “An inheritance for everyone, paid for by inheritance”
Posted on

One month with my new Murena GS6 Pro: finally a Murena phone that checks all my boxes

Recently I decided to change my Murena smartphone because its battery was really dying: I had to recharge several times a day and it was becoming problematic when travelling for business. Unfortunately this model didn’t have a replaceable battery, so it was difficult to change.

Also I thought it was the good time because we had just released the Murena GS6 and GS6 Pro, which seemed to check all the things I wanted to have in a phone. A good opportunity to test it “in real life”, not as a CEO looking at a spec sheet, but as a daily user.

As a side note, it’s also been a great way to test our new /e/OS Backup feature with a real load of data: all my installed apps, settings, accounts… I switched phones in less than an hour, and everything was there. This feature alone changes the experience of replacing a phone.

So it’s now been close to one month that I’ve been using the GS6 Pro as my main device, and I must say that I’m very happy with this phone…

Continue reading “One month with my new Murena GS6 Pro: finally a Murena phone that checks all my boxes”
Posted on

Joining the Wave: Murena & /e/OS 2026 Roadmap

This first half of the year has been intense, maybe one of the most intense periods I’ve lived since the beginning of the project. Many new opportunities are rising for Murena that will potentially turn our “privacy niche project” into something very big…

We’re close to 100,000 Murena and /e/OS regular users. Our business activity is getting stronger and stronger, even reaching break-even in 2025. And I have a growing feeling that we’re living a turning point moment: /e/OS and the Murena mobile ecosystem is increasingly becoming a credible default option to become the third major mobile ecosystem in Europe and in the world. And not only on mobile: we see very strong opportunities to even embrace and disrupt the PC market. Will the moray eel eat the dinosaur?

Number of active /e/OS users

All this to explain that this traditional “yearly roadmap post” is a bit late this year!

Continue reading “Joining the Wave: Murena & /e/OS 2026 Roadmap”