[istanbulbebesi]

Just go for Qwen or Deepseek. They are both very good.

[microtonal]

Or Mistral, it is French and has been great for my day to day queries (haven't tried for programming yet).

[sillyfluke]

Mistral has made a pivot from small model focus to large model focus by getting into bed with Microsoft. I don't know how sticky their deals are but, taking a quick look at recent Microsoft press releases, Mistral still seems to be prioritizing releases on Azure.

[microtonal]

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good. They are currently the most (if only) serious non-US Western player.