Dos this mean you have some kind of server running at home? (sorry if it’s a silly question)

Yes, there are quite a few approximations in the list ;)

in the EU/Western Europe, as an e mail provider I would suggest in no order: maibox.org, proton, tuta and owning your own domain but that one last option (teh best one, imho) may already be too technical for most users.

LibreWolf is not an alternative to chrome, it’s a fork of FF. It won’t run Chrome extensions… which chrome users would likely expect to be able to run.

For a Chrome alternative, I use Vivaldi (which is based in the EU)
As a Firefox alternative, I use Waterfox

It’s an email client, not an email provider. It can be used to receive/send emails from almost any provider, not to create new ones.

LO is good software.

It replaced MSOffice Word for me (and I had been using Word since the early 90s). It also has a few extensions one may want to consider adding. Stuff like extra dictionaries for example, or better (than the default provided) ePub/HTML export tools.

https://extensions.libreoffice.org/

lolberts

Never thought I would one day thank a robot toaster, but than you. You taught me a new word ;)

lolberts

Never thought I would one day thank a robot toaster, but than you. You taught me a new word ;)

+1

Not forgetting the ‘Fisher Space Pen Company’ (the ones that make the ballpoint pen used by NASA astronauts, it works in zero gravity). Their pressurized ink refills are really excellent, also the look of their ‘Bullet’ pen (considering the name, on could say they’re really Americans ;)) is kinda clever but I always considered its ergonomics subpar while writing.

Marcel Bich invented BIC pens and I think it’s still French

Indeed. The PDF I linked, retracing the history of the company is nicely made (detailed enough to get a nice overview edit: but not detailed enough to get too boring ;))

Apple is American FYI. I feel like it’s not mentioned enough.

Sorry, I’m not sure to see what’s the link with pens?

Thx, I didn’t know about them. I would love to see more people re-discover anything Lino and small press related… Anything that may encourage them express themselves and maybe try fanzines or ‘zines’, as young people call them nowadays.

In the 80s, I was heavy into that and that was so exciting. Being much older today, I’m obviously not the target audience of most zines anymore but a majority of the ones I’ve had an opportunity to read felt a lot less exciting to me. Some are true works of art, no discussion about that, but they’re also very often so… politically-correct and so self-conscious, so afraid to cross anyone as to not dare much if anything. But like I said, I’m now much older and not the target audience for zines anymore.

Pilot is great, and not just with pens. I love their fountain pens a lot too be it their cheap lines and their much more expensive ones—my all time favorite fountain pen is their larger Falcon (the metal bodied one) with its flex nib. I also quite like my Mitsubishi uni-ball Eye Fine and Micro rollerballs (both waterproof ink, btw) but none of those are made in Europe ;)

+1 to that, they have great products. Rosemary & Co.

In France, one may want to check Raphael. I would say theire offer is a bit too complex to my taste but they have some real great brushes ;)

Depending on where you draw the line, Lamy might no longer count as a European brand, since they were recently bought out by Mitsubishi Pencils.

Good point. The company is still in Germany, though.

That aside, you’ve still got Pelikan,

I should have mentioned them (I quite like some of their high-end fountain pens)

You’re welcome.

Public education.