https://social.overheid.nl/about is the official Dutch government mastodon server

I’m not just talking about faster. Over long distances flying is often almost an order of magnitude faster, significantly cheaper, more reliable (trans-continental rail journeys often involve tricky connections between different rail carriers), and much easier to book (for example, try booking a flight between Amsterdam and Bucharest, and then a train ticket). There are some connections where rail makes sense right now, but definitely not all connections.

Airlines are also obligated to pay compensation if their flights are delayed, railway companies are too under certain circumstances but the amounts are far lower and this doesn’t cover separate tickets, which are often needed to travel on these very long railway journeys.

But I think we’re in agreement that it shouldn’t be this way. In situations where taking the train takes merely 2x as long as flying instead of 10x as long, it should definitely be the preferred option. Now the goal is to expand international railway connections, extend the railway compensation rights to make the trip safer to book, and provide a pan-European ticketing system that shows the lowest prices and allows all connections on a single ticket.

Unfortunately the train routes from the Netherlands to, say, Portugal, Spain, Italy, or eastern Europe are not well developed enough yet. The train is great in the directions of Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, and London, but beyond that it often takes longer than flying and often requires multiple tickets

I like the increase in competition, but my concern is for the 90+% of users who really don’t know what they’re doing. Can we be sure that all these alternative app stores will properly enforce security through their apps? At least the iOS app store and Google Play have some standards regarding apps that are actual malware, but could we trust every company to do this?

The “anti-consumer” approach of restricting apps that violate standards may very well be the best one for most people. I support the DMA and the right to sideload but I’m concerned about the impact it will have. Maybe we’ll go back to the early 2000s days of PC malware.