Would be nice to have a german software culture. But all we got is politicians who wish for that and then turn a blind eye on fraudsters like WireCard. Something is missing from the german cultural dna, that our neighbours have.(Swiss,Luxemburg, Belgians, Chechen Republic, Poland, Litauen).
Seems the most important thing to be big in software in europe, is to foremost be not german ;)
Things will hopefully change now that the political tide has turned. Digitally, the old government was essentially stuck to the status quo of 2005, when they took over.
In my view the weak digital culture in Germany is a direct consequence of political non-engagement with the matter during the last 15 years. Many areas are affected, first governance itself (fax machines!!), in education (universities and schools "discovered" digital tools mostly in March 2020, when they were forced to), business and trade (card payment still not being ubiquitous, let alone contactless; Some trivial contracts still require ink signatures and paper being mailed around etc).
Other European countries are a lot more progressive, e.g. the UK.
Latvia comes to mind.I think, germans aging population plays into this conservative mindset. Now add the manufacturing culture, wanting to add a physical object/machinery to every piece of software and you can start to see the brakes.
Feels like a good chunk of OSS development is happening in germany. By some accounts, the entirety of linux is being ruined by one german. The biggest software companies like SAP are maybe not shining examples, but when you go lower, there‘s a lot of good stuff. What differences do you see to the other European countries? Who‘s big in those countries?
Well, specifically about "office like" software there is Softmaker (that is Germany based) that offers a (Commercial) suite that is (IMHO) a good, low cost, alternative.
They also offer (or offered?) a free version for personal use, I have on one PC at home a few years old version and it was not shabby at all, IMHO faster than Open/Libre Office.
Seems the most important thing to be big in software in europe, is to foremost be not german ;)