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What is the best way to prevent big companies (like Google, but not only), that have a de facto monopoly on certain and important parts of the internet, from ap

by yuvalr1 10y ago

What is the best way to prevent big companies (like Google, but not only), that have a de facto monopoly on certain and important parts of the internet, from applying vendor lock strategies to kill their competitors?

rtpg 10y ago
Antitrust regulation + governments that apply it. Google's already been denied strategies before
thr0waway1239 10y ago
For one thing, when the tech giants act like dicks - which is getting more frequent nowadays, be sure to complain loudly and gratingly and leave that record for everyone to see. The big companies have much more organized PR than the little folks, so best if you don't pull your punches. Companies don't have feelings, but since software engineers are big suckers for mottos like "Don't be evil", your complaints may give them pause. (Except FB, where everyone is clearly already tuned out). That may not prevent the lock-in happening, but it will improve the odds of recruiting folks who can help with the more positive strategies. And with that vent out of the way, here are some positive ideas: 1. At some point, the giants tend to get too heavy handed for their own good. Try your best to keep alternatives alive until that point. 2. If possible, see if you can make the user on-boarding experience of your favorite OSS software much better. Usually it is easy because the standards around documentation/user on-boarding are generally pretty poor. 3. The reason people usually don't do 2 is that there is no incentive. See if you can figure out a sustainable way to incentivize it. Throwing out a wild idea: Say a StackOverflow like gamification website for people who create OSS documentation and fix OSS issues. And if you are one of the committers, help users' with their problems when you actually have time to do something about it. FireFox was asleep at the wheel for quite a while not addressing its real defects. Chrome would have been another Safari like browser (i.e. dominant, but only within its ecosystem) if FireFox had actually improved at the rate you would expect from a heavily used software product.

by yuvalr1 10y ago

rtpg 10y ago

Antitrust regulation + governments that apply it. Google's already been denied strategies before

thr0waway1239 10y ago

For one thing, when the tech giants act like dicks - which is getting more frequent nowadays, be sure to complain loudly and gratingly and leave that record for everyone to see. The big companies have much more organized PR than the little folks, so best if you don't pull your punches. Companies don't have feelings, but since software engineers are big suckers for mottos like "Don't be evil", your complaints may give them pause. (Except FB, where everyone is clearly already tuned out). That may not prevent the lock-in happening, but it will improve the odds of recruiting folks who can help with the more positive strategies. And with that vent out of the way, here are some positive ideas: 1. At some point, the giants tend to get too heavy handed for their own good. Try your best to keep alternatives alive until that point. 2. If possible, see if you can make the user on-boarding experience of your favorite OSS software much better. Usually it is easy because the standards around documentation/user on-boarding are generally pretty poor. 3. The reason people usually don't do 2 is that there is no incentive. See if you can figure out a sustainable way to incentivize it. Throwing out a wild idea: Say a StackOverflow like gamification website for people who create OSS documentation and fix OSS issues. And if you are one of the committers, help users' with their problems when you actually have time to do something about it. FireFox was asleep at the wheel for quite a while not addressing its real defects. Chrome would have been another Safari like browser (i.e. dominant, but only within its ecosystem) if FireFox had actually improved at the rate you would expect from a heavily used software product.