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Microsoft’s release of IE was horrible for customers and likely set the web back 5-10 years. You might not have witnessed the damage that the “free” “competitiv
by beagle3 6y ago
Microsoft’s release of IE was horrible for customers and likely set the web back 5-10 years. You might not have witnessed the damage that the “free” “competitive” IE 6 caused, but I assure you it was a lot of damage both directly to consumers and indirectly through the direct costs to developers.
They wouldn’t do it if it didn’t benefit them, and as a rent extracting monopolist, it’s always at the expense of the rest of society.
You might not see it if you don’t look while it’s happening. Ask someone who lived through the IE times.
- stale2002 6y agoRegardless, in the modern era, I don't see how any of the free products that FB has released have been bad for society, for the mere reason of them being free. I hope more companies release free products. As many as possible. Basically all internet products are free, in the modern era. This is not some crazy, extreme thing. Because it is what literally almost every internet products does.
- beagle3 6y agoNothing is free. Society at large, and possibly you, are paying in ways that are not well understood by most - with your concentration, mental well being[0]; as well as sucking the air out of innovation and lots of funding -- a lot of FB income is VC money channeled through startups' advertising budget. If I understand your position correctly, you are fine with it. I'm not. We can agree to disagree. [0] Facebook had an experiment where they showed only sad news to some people, only happy news to others, and tracked the resulting mood which was affected.