6 ms·

If only we could get rid of all of them, That would be awesome. The less GAFAM/BigTech feudalist the better.

by jrepinc 3y ago

Razengan 3y ago
Let's get rid of all the things they produced too. No iPhones, no Android, no Google Search. Let's go back to 1983.
- MiguelX413 3y ago
  I unironically advocate for this.
- ralphstodomingo 3y ago
  I don't think the tech advances these companies made were irrevocably tied to the anti-competition practices. If anything, if we made it easier and cheaper for anyone to build on top of the things already existing, we could have had much more.
- cangeroo 3y ago
  Absolutely. But they also monopolized the market and prevented alternatives. DMA is about fair markets. Without Google, Apple, or Tiktok, we'd have other platforms. Maybe fairer platforms? It's not like there'd be zero innovation in every category without those companies.
  - fsflover 3y ago
    > Without Google, Apple, or Tiktok, we'd have other platforms. Maybe fairer platforms? Yes, GNU/Linux phones are strongly disadvantaged at the moment due to the duopoly. Sent from my Librem 5.
    - fkyoureadthedoc 3y ago
      Even as a desktop os Linux in general as a windows/Mac OS replacement for the every day person is strongly disadvantaged by being a shit tier user experience. I've tried to switch several times for laptop OS and just gave up. Even if everything was easy and solid, and it had the same abysmal trackpad support it has now, I wouldn't use it. But basically every facet of the experience is like that trackpad support. I don't even want to think about what a ghetto the mobile experience probably is.
      - vladms 3y ago
        After having used Linux for multiple years I had to use macOS (and later Windows) and I found the experience shitty as well (ex: no system way to manage programs, strange multi-user support, annoying forced updates, more complex to setup remote connectivity and others). When my parents computer broke I put a Linux on it, and for them works great (just browsing and occasionally printing a document). Sure, if something is great for you stick to it, but assuming things about "every day persons" seems exaggerated. I also heard macOS <=> Windows switching experience is "bad" so for me it is more "what people are used to/how much they want to improve" than an inherent "quality".
- bigbillheck 3y ago
  > Let's go back to 1983 When exactly do you think google was founded?
  - meragrin_ 3y ago
    What about Microsoft and Apple? Are they not included in "GAFAM/BigTech feudalist"?
- jjulius 3y ago
  >No iPhones, no Android, no Google Search. You know what? That actually sounds pretty cool. Edit: I'm hardly one to care about karma, but it's funny that I'm getting downvoted just for thinking that that idea is neat. Differences of opinion are okay, no? If there's something you don't like about something I say, I'm open to feedback rather than silent disapproval. :) After all, what's so terrible about thinking that life without smartphones and Google Search wouldn't be so bad? Haven't a sizeable chunk of us posting here lived without those three things even existing for a good chunk of our lives?
  - MiguelX413 3y ago
    Yeah, I've unironically been advocating for the same for years now.
smhenderson 3y ago
I don't know, it's not as if they have done nothing that benefits society, that we all use daily, forgetting how much of it would not be possible without the contributions and innovation from these companies. I am absolutely not surprised by the whining and am in no way giving these companies a pass. Something absolutely must be done to better protect user data and privacy. But babies and bath water come to mind when I read comments like yours.
- rapnie 3y ago
  It is a bit tangential, but this article [0] by Baldur Bjarnason sheds a light on the EU's perspective in crafting regulations such as the DMA, and how that seems to be largely misunderstood by the big US tech companies. [0] https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2024/facing-reality-in-the-eu-and-tech/ https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2024/facing-reality-in-the-e...
  - bryanrasmussen 3y ago
    >Any time you see two entities of similar size fight, bet on the one that thinks it’s fighting for its life. yeah sure, but also bet on the one that can pass legislation regarding the other one.
  - asimpletune 3y ago
    This was a great read. One problem that I have, at least, is that I think the eu is not understanding the tech on this one and actually violating their own, all important, single market principle. With the apple all store, there actually was just one market and a set of standards and regulations that governed it. Now, there will be x many standards. The experience on the foo app will depend on what App Store it was purchased in. If the eu had taken a more ambitious route then I could see this actually working for apple, who operates, imo opinion, under the principle of balancing what is best for the customer against what the developer can tolerate. This has created the apple ecosystem as the only one that is profitable, precisely for the same reason the author argues the eu seeks to regulate businesses. So by more ambitious I meant there needs to be a convention that governs technology along a framework akin to a technology user’s bill of rights. No stealing information, no antipatterns, cancel subscriptions with a single click, etc…
rchaud 3y ago
Big Tech depends on you buying their hardware (iOS/Android/Mac/Windows) to pull you into their 'ecosystem of services': messaging, payments, streaming video and of course, targeted advertisements. We need some kind of ecosystem-agnostic hardware vendor that provides/supports: - a Linux-based GUI OS with minimal telemetry - Web Apps unencumbered by the whims of monopolistic browser vendors - a RISC-V desktop-class processor (one day...) - repairable, swappable components - some sort of local LLM interface for those who need it Fairphone, Framework laptops and the to-be-released MNT Pocket Reform 7" laptopnprobably come closest to this, minus the RISC-V.
- gessha 3y ago
  Please consider investing either time or funds in your Linux distro of choice. Desktop Linux has made progress over the years in being a great substitute for Win/Mac thanks to webappification and Win/Mac emulation. Mobile Linux still needs a lot of work on both hardware and software. Ubuntu Touch, Phosh, PostmarketOS, etc need every bit of help.
  - fennecbutt 3y ago
    With the end goal being? Nowadays OSS only seems to provide fodder for the big companies to pick up and chew on. Better Linux ain't gonna get many non tech people to not buy laptops from Apple, Dell, etc
- realusername 3y ago
  Phone manufacturers should be forced to open the bootloader with reasonable hardware documentation so users can install alternatives, the insane situation that we have now is created by this very issue.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

If only we could get rid of all of them, That would be awesome. The less GAFAM/BigTech feudalist the better.

Razengan 3y ago

Let's get rid of all the things they produced too. No iPhones, no Android, no Google Search. Let's go back to 1983.

MiguelX413 3y ago
I unironically advocate for this.
ralphstodomingo 3y ago
I don't think the tech advances these companies made were irrevocably tied to the anti-competition practices. If anything, if we made it easier and cheaper for anyone to build on top of the things already existing, we could have had much more.
cangeroo 3y ago
Absolutely. But they also monopolized the market and prevented alternatives. DMA is about fair markets. Without Google, Apple, or Tiktok, we'd have other platforms. Maybe fairer platforms? It's not like there'd be zero innovation in every category without those companies.
- fsflover 3y ago
  > Without Google, Apple, or Tiktok, we'd have other platforms. Maybe fairer platforms? Yes, GNU/Linux phones are strongly disadvantaged at the moment due to the duopoly. Sent from my Librem 5.
  - fkyoureadthedoc 3y ago
    Even as a desktop os Linux in general as a windows/Mac OS replacement for the every day person is strongly disadvantaged by being a shit tier user experience. I've tried to switch several times for laptop OS and just gave up. Even if everything was easy and solid, and it had the same abysmal trackpad support it has now, I wouldn't use it. But basically every facet of the experience is like that trackpad support. I don't even want to think about what a ghetto the mobile experience probably is.
    - vladms 3y ago
      After having used Linux for multiple years I had to use macOS (and later Windows) and I found the experience shitty as well (ex: no system way to manage programs, strange multi-user support, annoying forced updates, more complex to setup remote connectivity and others). When my parents computer broke I put a Linux on it, and for them works great (just browsing and occasionally printing a document). Sure, if something is great for you stick to it, but assuming things about "every day persons" seems exaggerated. I also heard macOS <=> Windows switching experience is "bad" so for me it is more "what people are used to/how much they want to improve" than an inherent "quality".
bigbillheck 3y ago
> Let's go back to 1983 When exactly do you think google was founded?
- meragrin_ 3y ago
  What about Microsoft and Apple? Are they not included in "GAFAM/BigTech feudalist"?
jjulius 3y ago
>No iPhones, no Android, no Google Search. You know what? That actually sounds pretty cool. Edit: I'm hardly one to care about karma, but it's funny that I'm getting downvoted just for thinking that that idea is neat. Differences of opinion are okay, no? If there's something you don't like about something I say, I'm open to feedback rather than silent disapproval. :) After all, what's so terrible about thinking that life without smartphones and Google Search wouldn't be so bad? Haven't a sizeable chunk of us posting here lived without those three things even existing for a good chunk of our lives?
- MiguelX413 3y ago
  Yeah, I've unironically been advocating for the same for years now.

smhenderson 3y ago

I don't know, it's not as if they have done nothing that benefits society, that we all use daily, forgetting how much of it would not be possible without the contributions and innovation from these companies. I am absolutely not surprised by the whining and am in no way giving these companies a pass. Something absolutely must be done to better protect user data and privacy. But babies and bath water come to mind when I read comments like yours.

rapnie 3y ago
It is a bit tangential, but this article [0] by Baldur Bjarnason sheds a light on the EU's perspective in crafting regulations such as the DMA, and how that seems to be largely misunderstood by the big US tech companies. [0] https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2024/facing-reality-in-the-eu-and-tech/ https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2024/facing-reality-in-the-e...
- bryanrasmussen 3y ago
  >Any time you see two entities of similar size fight, bet on the one that thinks it’s fighting for its life. yeah sure, but also bet on the one that can pass legislation regarding the other one.
- asimpletune 3y ago
  This was a great read. One problem that I have, at least, is that I think the eu is not understanding the tech on this one and actually violating their own, all important, single market principle. With the apple all store, there actually was just one market and a set of standards and regulations that governed it. Now, there will be x many standards. The experience on the foo app will depend on what App Store it was purchased in. If the eu had taken a more ambitious route then I could see this actually working for apple, who operates, imo opinion, under the principle of balancing what is best for the customer against what the developer can tolerate. This has created the apple ecosystem as the only one that is profitable, precisely for the same reason the author argues the eu seeks to regulate businesses. So by more ambitious I meant there needs to be a convention that governs technology along a framework akin to a technology user’s bill of rights. No stealing information, no antipatterns, cancel subscriptions with a single click, etc…

rchaud 3y ago

Big Tech depends on you buying their hardware (iOS/Android/Mac/Windows) to pull you into their 'ecosystem of services': messaging, payments, streaming video and of course, targeted advertisements. We need some kind of ecosystem-agnostic hardware vendor that provides/supports: - a Linux-based GUI OS with minimal telemetry - Web Apps unencumbered by the whims of monopolistic browser vendors - a RISC-V desktop-class processor (one day...) - repairable, swappable components - some sort of local LLM interface for those who need it Fairphone, Framework laptops and the to-be-released MNT Pocket Reform 7" laptopnprobably come closest to this, minus the RISC-V.

gessha 3y ago
Please consider investing either time or funds in your Linux distro of choice. Desktop Linux has made progress over the years in being a great substitute for Win/Mac thanks to webappification and Win/Mac emulation. Mobile Linux still needs a lot of work on both hardware and software. Ubuntu Touch, Phosh, PostmarketOS, etc need every bit of help.
- fennecbutt 3y ago
  With the end goal being? Nowadays OSS only seems to provide fodder for the big companies to pick up and chew on. Better Linux ain't gonna get many non tech people to not buy laptops from Apple, Dell, etc
realusername 3y ago
Phone manufacturers should be forced to open the bootloader with reasonable hardware documentation so users can install alternatives, the insane situation that we have now is created by this very issue.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]