Well, maybe less of the engineering should be done by capitalist businesses. The more open platforms and protocols that the PC and Internet were built on usuall

Well, maybe less of the engineering should be done by capitalist businesses. The more open platforms and protocols that the PC and Internet were built on usually weren't developed by private companies with profit motives. They came from researchers, hobbyists, foundations, and companies with other profit centers which weren't focused on squeezing every possible dollar out of that particular technology. How we can encourage more of that is a tricky question. I certainly don't want a world where profit-motivated private companies can't build hardware and software. But I don't like the direction this current crop of businesses is taking us. I do think essential infrastructure doesn't belong in the hands of a single party -- we should have learned that lesson and internalized the risks of single vendor lock-in long ago.