[1_player]

People from Switzerland are probably the most patriotic in the world after those from USA. If it's made in Switzerland, you can be sure "Swiss-made" is prominent and there's a white-on-red cross somewhere visible.

But, honest question, is there such thing as the "Swiss guarantee" in tech?

What have the Swiss ever done for us, in computer science, to demand such respect just by mentioning the place of origin as certificate of trust?

[polymeris]

It's only partially patriotism. More importantly, I suspect, just a brand that sells well, no matter what you are selling. That said, EPFL/ETH and CERN have done some important things in computer science.

[T-A]

CERN is an international laboratory which happens to be located on the border between Switzerland and France. I wouldn't call it Swiss.

[bergstromm466]

CERN is made possible by shared European funding, hardly 'Swiss'.

[polymeris]

True. And much of the work at ETH is conducted by foreigners, but the marketing association is still there.

[tdudzik]

And much of the work in the USA is done by foreigners or even outsourced to other countries.;)

[T-A]

> What have the Swiss ever done for us, in computer science

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niklaus_Wirth

[vinay427]

There's definitely more Swiss-made signage and emphasis in Switzerland than anywhere in the US I've been, having lived in both countries. You'd have a hard time finding broccoli, dish soap, or wheat flour labeled with a made-in-US or made-in-[state] insignia in the US, for instance.

In general flag-bearing, however, the US might just beat out Switzerland but I doubt either are at the top of that list.

[systemvoltage]

It also depends on which cantons in Switzerland. You're hardly going to see flag bearers in Zurich canton for example.

There are parts of Switzerland that are extremely conservative - think deep American south but more. Women's right issues are far backwards than the deepest of US south. Women in gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1971 in Switzerland.

Switzerland is also small, the size of SF Bay Area (~ 7 million people). Most people don't realize how small Switzerland is - not in land area, but in many other aspects.

There is also some friction with Germany when it comes to culture and customs. The Swiss pride themselves to speak Swiss-German. Never suggest buying a German watch or you're going to get nasty reactions :-)

Last but not the least, Switzerland has declined to be part of the EU and majority of the people are against joining it. There are a lot of parallels than differences between Brexit philosophy and Swiss sovereignty.

[fmajid]

The Pascal programming language. Whether this is a feature or a bug is left to the reader...

[thinkloop]

The trust is supposed to be in their legal system and politics.