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The OS comparison is especially bad since we have seen very little meaningful competition in that space. Linux dominates the server space. Windows dominates th

The OS comparison is especially bad since we have seen very little meaningful competition in that space. Linux dominates the server space. Windows dominates the desktop/laptop market, with Apple a niche player and Linux even more niche. On mobile, it's more balanced but there is still a duopoly. Personally, I would love to just pay a microtransaction for the show I want to see, but I'm not sure the economics stack up.

jackson1442 5y ago
I think it would be interesting to see TV move more in the direction that transit cards are moving. You tie your card to your account and pay per view. But if you spend enough money in a week, you're no longer charged for access (a "week pass"). Then, if you spend enough in a month, you're again no longer charged (a "month pass"). This idea could potentially be passed onto seasons and series rather than being time-limited. That way, you're always getting the optimal price for your content consumption, streaming companies can make a little more money (since these Pass rates would likely be higher than the current monthly membership), but those who just want to watch one series or one episode aren't left out to dry.
smoe 5y ago
> Personally, I would love to just pay a microtransaction for the show I want to see, but I'm not sure the economics stack up. I'm longing for this for years. I'm pretty fed up of often the only choices being either free and ad supported or having to pay a monthly subscription for entertainment, journalism, software, etc. I have quite a high willingness to pay for all of these, but I don't want to manage a hundred concurrent subscriptions nor having to restrict use to a small subset of services.
- twelve40 5y ago
  you can watch tons of movies on Amazon each for a couple of bucks. Does that count as a microtransaction?
  - cgrealy 5y ago
    Actually, I can't, because of stupid geo-restrictions (yes, I could use a vpn, that's not the point).
  - smoe 5y ago
    It certainly does count, but last I checked it is very hit and miss what movies I can actually watch due to geo restrictions. Sometimes there are multiple version of the same movie, some blocked some available. At least it shows this info already on the search result page. Often there is no version with original audio but only the dubbed one, which is a deal breaker for me.
parasubvert 5y ago
People went with the content. Windows had the apps, so people went there. Mac kept a fraction because they wouldn’t give up certain apps that Mac was superior with. And then that whole market had huge disruptions when most people stopped using Mac and Windows most of the time in favour of IOS or Android. Again - because of the app experiences. Exclusives are why Nintendo continues to thrive with the Switch. I just don’t see his “open always wins” coming to pass. Google said that with Android and still make more money from iOS. Oops.
rmk 5y ago
The past decade has been about moving to the cloud, more than anything else, and this is a space where the OS mostly receded into the background. However, Linux, with its namespaces, provided LXC and subsequent innovations that leveraged namespaces to usher in the container revolution. I think this has safely put Linux in a league of its own. eBPF may cement Linux's status as the OS of the cloud if it is adopted widely. So there's a lot of action in things that build on OS innovations, but OS innovations themselves have been much slower I think. And the Microsoft with its 'openness' winning over Apple is a story that ignores the phenomenon that is the mobile phone completely. It's iOS and Android, not Microsoft Windows that's the definite winner in that space. Microsoft has a much more mature and well-loved tech stack that was the de-facto choice of developers in the 90s and aughts but failed to capitalize on that in the mobile world.

jackson1442 5y ago

I think it would be interesting to see TV move more in the direction that transit cards are moving. You tie your card to your account and pay per view. But if you spend enough money in a week, you're no longer charged for access (a "week pass"). Then, if you spend enough in a month, you're again no longer charged (a "month pass"). This idea could potentially be passed onto seasons and series rather than being time-limited. That way, you're always getting the optimal price for your content consumption, streaming companies can make a little more money (since these Pass rates would likely be higher than the current monthly membership), but those who just want to watch one series or one episode aren't left out to dry.

smoe 5y ago

> Personally, I would love to just pay a microtransaction for the show I want to see, but I'm not sure the economics stack up. I'm longing for this for years. I'm pretty fed up of often the only choices being either free and ad supported or having to pay a monthly subscription for entertainment, journalism, software, etc. I have quite a high willingness to pay for all of these, but I don't want to manage a hundred concurrent subscriptions nor having to restrict use to a small subset of services.

twelve40 5y ago
you can watch tons of movies on Amazon each for a couple of bucks. Does that count as a microtransaction?
- cgrealy 5y ago
  Actually, I can't, because of stupid geo-restrictions (yes, I could use a vpn, that's not the point).
- smoe 5y ago
  It certainly does count, but last I checked it is very hit and miss what movies I can actually watch due to geo restrictions. Sometimes there are multiple version of the same movie, some blocked some available. At least it shows this info already on the search result page. Often there is no version with original audio but only the dubbed one, which is a deal breaker for me.

parasubvert 5y ago

People went with the content. Windows had the apps, so people went there. Mac kept a fraction because they wouldn’t give up certain apps that Mac was superior with. And then that whole market had huge disruptions when most people stopped using Mac and Windows most of the time in favour of IOS or Android. Again - because of the app experiences. Exclusives are why Nintendo continues to thrive with the Switch. I just don’t see his “open always wins” coming to pass. Google said that with Android and still make more money from iOS. Oops.

rmk 5y ago

The past decade has been about moving to the cloud, more than anything else, and this is a space where the OS mostly receded into the background. However, Linux, with its namespaces, provided LXC and subsequent innovations that leveraged namespaces to usher in the container revolution. I think this has safely put Linux in a league of its own. eBPF may cement Linux's status as the OS of the cloud if it is adopted widely. So there's a lot of action in things that build on OS innovations, but OS innovations themselves have been much slower I think. And the Microsoft with its 'openness' winning over Apple is a story that ignores the phenomenon that is the mobile phone completely. It's iOS and Android, not Microsoft Windows that's the definite winner in that space. Microsoft has a much more mature and well-loved tech stack that was the de-facto choice of developers in the 90s and aughts but failed to capitalize on that in the mobile world.