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Of course you can avoid all those businesses. Plenty of people do. It would merely be inconvenient. There are many alternative search engines (granted, a lot of
by kkjjkgjjgg 5y ago
Of course you can avoid all those businesses. Plenty of people do. It would merely be inconvenient. There are many alternative search engines (granted, a lot of them powered by Bing, but at least you wouldn't submit their data to Microsoft - surely there are also some who have their own search corpus). Instead of Amazon, just use price comparison sites and order from other businesses (you may be surprised to find that Amazon does not always have the best price). Microsoft may be the hardest, but you can demand a Mac or a Linux machine at work and use LibreOffice.
They are also not "infrastructure". Their crime apparently is to have created a product that is so convenient to use that everybody wants to use it. I don't think that is a healthy attitude for society.
- sofixa 5y agoAs a business, you can't avoid Google, or Facebook. Not having a presence on Google Maps/Google Search thing, or a page on Facebook, is severely limiting your reach
- kkjjkgjjgg 5y agoSo what? You are turning things on their head. Google is giving you reach that you wouldn't have had before they existed. They are not taking away reach from you, they are giving you additional reach. You absolutely can get by without Google, you just have to limit your reach.
- nathias 5y agoI work in tech, I can personally not use any of it, but will be forced to use them for doing business. Their crime is breaking anti-trust laws, for which they should have been disbanded a long time ago. I don't find them convenient in any way.
- kkjjkgjjgg 5y agoWhy would you be forced to use them for doing business? Who is forcing you? I don't think Google, Microsoft or Amazon force you to use their products. I know there was a time when Microsoft pressured vendors to only sell bundles with Microsoft Software. Even then, there was already Linux, and other vendors.
- nathias 5y agoI write code for company X, company X only uses MS Teams to communicate. I either don't eat or use MS Teams. See how that works?
- kkjjkgjjgg 5y agoWhy do you have to adapt to company X? Tell them you can only work for them if they don't use MS Teams. They certainly are not forced to use MS Teams either.
- nathias 5y agobecause X stands for any here, no the don't all use MS Teams, but there aren't any companies that would not use some of the baddies
- kkjjkgjjgg 5y agoThen start your own company. You can't blame MS for companies using their products. Nobody is forced to use them.
- nathias 5y agoand make your own internet, right. Only when you do that MasterCard and Visa come and shut you down.