[yodsanklai]

> why can't Europe produce a Google, Facebook, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft?

I wonder how much it has do to with education and research. The US have been ahead of Europe in the computer sector. For instance, when Google was founded, were there competitive research teams in Europe working on this type of technologies?

Actually, I graduated around that time in a high-ranked French engineering school, and I think our CS classes were pretty weak (at the master level).

[bsaul]

I completely agree. Our great engineer culture is now a burden. We need phds and great research to be able to compete.