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The real problem here is excessive governmental tolerance of monopolies and the lack of an adequate regulatory/legal regime to protect end-users from harms caus
by bleepblorp 6y ago
The real problem here is excessive governmental tolerance of monopolies and the lack of an adequate regulatory/legal regime to protect end-users from harms caused by vendor-lock in.
All of the companies you mention have near-monopolies in their respective sectors. Hundreds of years of economic history show that monopolies are extremely harmful to their customers.
Autodesk is only able to get away with what it does because regulators allowed it to buy out its competitors. Further, the extreme technical difficulty of reverse-engineering complex file formats--including legal obstacles such as enforceable shrink-wrap contracts against reverse engineering, the DMCA ban on reverse engineering, and patent issues--means that it's virtually impossible for competing, interoperable, products to emerge in Autodesk's markets.
Microsoft continues to be a problem because the US government decided, 25 years ago, that stopping Microsoft from abusing its operating system monopoly was unAmerican.
Companies, like people, follow incentives. The incentives created by strong copyright and patent law, combined with the deliberate unenforcement of anti-trust laws in the United States, prevent competition. Without competition, customers always lose.
Getting users a fair deal means changing the rules that define the software market to consider the needs of users rather than only the wants of vendors.
- Animats 6y agoAutodesk is only able to get away with what it does because regulators allowed it to buy out its competitors. Further, the extreme technical difficulty of reverse-engineering complex file formats--including legal obstacles such as enforceable shrink-wrap contracts against reverse engineering, the DMCA ban on reverse engineering, and patent issues--means that it's virtually impossible for competing, interoperable, products to emerge in Autodesk's markets. The main competition for Autodesk's Fusion 360 is SolidWorks. It's possible, although not that easy, to get models back and forth.[1] There's FreeCAD. There are many low end 2D CAD programs. If you're building something bigger than a house or more complicated than a keyboard, though, you probably want a pro product. [1] https://www.buildercentral.com/solidworks-vs-fusion-360/ https://www.buildercentral.com/solidworks-vs-fusion-360/
- wappa 6y agoFreeCAD likely helps Autodesk's position - when freecad is so crap, you will likely just pay for autocad/or/other than even looking at alternatives, because you have been already so frustrated.
- Animats 6y agoHaving used FreeCAD, I agree. Constructive solid geometry is hard, but it's all math. User interfaces for 3D CAD are very hard. Open source is terrible at hard user interfaces. Hence, no really good free 3D CAD.
- 374yruruuru 6y agoWho exactly is suffering because of Microsoft? Surely not the normal users, Macs are expensive and Linux is garbage outside the tech crowd's needs (a big shock considering who it services). There's plenty of competition in cloud development, office software, and system administration as well. The only losers are European style mom and pop scale businesses but those are relics of a bygone time (probably why Europe likes them). Where's the damage?
- bleepblorp 6y agoEveryone is overpaying because of Microsoft's monopolies. Office + Windows + Active Directory + Windows Server is the only viable enterprise-level software stack for white collar office work. There is no real competition in this space and, as a monopoly, Microsoft charges accordingly. Microsoft's monopoly pricing is passed down to every business' customers and, ultimately, extracts money from all of our pockets.
- fakedang 6y agoI don't even see how European style mom and pop scale businesses even suffered because of Microsoft. On the contrary, the adoption of Windows is much higher in Europe than it is in the US, understandably so. I doubt there are businesses outside of tech anywhere outside the US based on the MacOS. And because Microsoft took a reaaaally lax attitude towards copyright enforcement, everyone in the old and developing worlds basically pirated Windows, Office, etc to oblivion. In my books, post the antitrust case against it in 95, Microsoft has been the least monopolistic of the bunch, and a net positive to the rest of the world.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]