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I'm doing my part: - Degoogled for three years now - Voting with my money (such as supporting Pine64) - Self-hosting my website and some services - Self-hostin

by mehdix 5y ago

I'm doing my part: - Degoogled for three years now - Voting with my money (such as supporting Pine64) - Self-hosting my website and some services - Self-hosting at work as much as possible - Learning and applying basic tech instead of some black box from some giant corp - Shopping regional as much as possible - Shopping on alternative online stores - etc.

ramesh31 5y ago
Unfortunately you were never the target audience. Companies like Google operate on the scale of billions, and the vast majority are completely unsophisticated and only able to use whatever software is easiest.
- tartoran 5y ago
  Yep. Same thougts here. But I feel that a turning point may come at some point though
- dane-pgp 5y ago
  The point of technically-minded people switching away from these companies isn't that we expect everyone else to all follow our example at the same time. Instead, the goal is to support these alternative services financially; and with bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests; so that those alternative services become the easiest to use, at which point the rest of society will switch without having to be told. That may seem unrealistic, since billions-scale companies have much greater resources to invest in user experience, but you have to think of this as asymmetric warfare, with their size being a liability rather than an asset. For example, large services need to justify their expenses by maximising the amount of money they extract from users (just look at the latest controversial feature of Edge[0]). Also, keeping these alternative services running provides an existence proof to regulators about how services don't need to be exploitative, giving them cover to write rules that re-balance the playing field, such as requiring social media and messaging companies to make their services interoperable.[1] [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59492429 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59492429 [1] https://marketresearchtelecast.com/digital-markets-act-meps-vote-for-interoperable-messengers/209942/ https://marketresearchtelecast.com/digital-markets-act-meps-...
- rightbyte 5y ago
  > the vast majority are completely unsophisticated and only able to use whatever software is easiest. Not really "the vast majority" ... I believe the problem on Google's side is that it is easier to do good services on easy stuff, like mail and simple search querries like "who is the president in Finland" or "when does X close". So Google prioritizes trivia searches over searches an unsophisticated dentist would querry to look up some procedure. Programmers just seem to rely more on websearches where other fields have like magazines, workplace courses and conferences.
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  You don’t need everyone to change, the commoners imitate the elite.
  - randcraw 5y ago
    Who will the masses ultimately follow: solitary tech savvy geeks who warn of naked emperors? Or armies of corporate-sponsored feel-good social influencers who entertain by promoting only themselves and the fad-du-jour? I know none of the former who have built self-promotion-based $multi-million empires. I wish that were true of the latter.
    - GhettoComputers 5y ago
      The masses will do the easy thing, signal was made and adopted by WhatsApp for example. The magic and evil of software and hardware is that you don’t have to understand it to use it. Elon musk memed people into crypto.
tartoran 5y ago
Im on the same page but personally I think it won’t make a big difference.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
  It's not so much about making a difference as it's about living by principles. I boycott Facebook, Amazon, and Disney.
  - randcraw 5y ago
    I agree that living by principles is worthwhile. But so few people do it that it will have so little impact on market forces and inequities that they are wholly irrelevant to the OP topic. You may as well tell us that you've decided to take up flying by flapping your arms.
    - Lich 5y ago
      > It's not so much about making a difference
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - dvtrn 5y ago
      You may as well tell us that you've decided to take up flying by flapping your arms. How is having and deciding to live by a set of personal principals, even if there isn’t an outcome on “market forces” in any remote way comparable to believing you’re a bird?
- reaperducer 5y ago
  You don't always have to make an impact on the world. Sometimes making an impact on your world is enough.
hoofedear 5y ago
It’s like going technologically vegan

by mehdix 5y ago

ramesh31 5y ago

Unfortunately you were never the target audience. Companies like Google operate on the scale of billions, and the vast majority are completely unsophisticated and only able to use whatever software is easiest.

tartoran 5y ago
Yep. Same thougts here. But I feel that a turning point may come at some point though
dane-pgp 5y ago
The point of technically-minded people switching away from these companies isn't that we expect everyone else to all follow our example at the same time. Instead, the goal is to support these alternative services financially; and with bug reports, feature requests, and pull requests; so that those alternative services become the easiest to use, at which point the rest of society will switch without having to be told. That may seem unrealistic, since billions-scale companies have much greater resources to invest in user experience, but you have to think of this as asymmetric warfare, with their size being a liability rather than an asset. For example, large services need to justify their expenses by maximising the amount of money they extract from users (just look at the latest controversial feature of Edge[0]). Also, keeping these alternative services running provides an existence proof to regulators about how services don't need to be exploitative, giving them cover to write rules that re-balance the playing field, such as requiring social media and messaging companies to make their services interoperable.[1] [0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59492429 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59492429 [1] https://marketresearchtelecast.com/digital-markets-act-meps-vote-for-interoperable-messengers/209942/ https://marketresearchtelecast.com/digital-markets-act-meps-...
rightbyte 5y ago
> the vast majority are completely unsophisticated and only able to use whatever software is easiest. Not really "the vast majority" ... I believe the problem on Google's side is that it is easier to do good services on easy stuff, like mail and simple search querries like "who is the president in Finland" or "when does X close". So Google prioritizes trivia searches over searches an unsophisticated dentist would querry to look up some procedure. Programmers just seem to rely more on websearches where other fields have like magazines, workplace courses and conferences.
GhettoComputers 5y ago
You don’t need everyone to change, the commoners imitate the elite.
- randcraw 5y ago
  Who will the masses ultimately follow: solitary tech savvy geeks who warn of naked emperors? Or armies of corporate-sponsored feel-good social influencers who entertain by promoting only themselves and the fad-du-jour? I know none of the former who have built self-promotion-based $multi-million empires. I wish that were true of the latter.
  - GhettoComputers 5y ago
    The masses will do the easy thing, signal was made and adopted by WhatsApp for example. The magic and evil of software and hardware is that you don’t have to understand it to use it. Elon musk memed people into crypto.

tartoran 5y ago

Im on the same page but personally I think it won’t make a big difference.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
It's not so much about making a difference as it's about living by principles. I boycott Facebook, Amazon, and Disney.
- randcraw 5y ago
  I agree that living by principles is worthwhile. But so few people do it that it will have so little impact on market forces and inequities that they are wholly irrelevant to the OP topic. You may as well tell us that you've decided to take up flying by flapping your arms.
  - Lich 5y ago
    > It's not so much about making a difference
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - dvtrn 5y ago
    You may as well tell us that you've decided to take up flying by flapping your arms. How is having and deciding to live by a set of personal principals, even if there isn’t an outcome on “market forces” in any remote way comparable to believing you’re a bird?
reaperducer 5y ago
You don't always have to make an impact on the world. Sometimes making an impact on your world is enough.

hoofedear 5y ago

It’s like going technologically vegan