alt Hacker NewsNobody is forcing you to buy their products, so they haven’t taken away anything from you.
If you do decide to buy their products, nothing has changed since the day of your purchase, so they haven’t taken away anything from you.
Their “monoculture” didn’t “take hold” - it beat the Japanese offerings through innovation and a better product.
They operate in a free market, their R&D budget is made possible by their market success. If things change in the market (e.g. AI) the market will vote the way it always does.
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> They operate in a free market
They operate in the illegal duopoly, where you have the "free choice" between a tiny amount of freedom with unlimited telemetry and no freedom with convenience for a big buck.
Do you honestly believe "a free market" would only produce two alternatives?
In that case, the free market sucks and I want government intervention.
The market has forced us all to buy Apple or Google. There is not a vibrant field of alternatives, and there is certainly a desert of hobbyist tech.
The market is now so depressed that everyone has to jump through these companies' hoops to participate in the most important computing form factor in the world.
Don't apologize for trillion dollar hyperscalers. They don't need your love, adoration, or apology. They do not care about you at all.
Too much power has accrued to these two and it's being leveraged against all of society and the open market. Competition is supposed to be difficult, ruthless, challenging, and frenetic. I see two companies resting on their laurels that are happy to tax us into the next century while we wear their little straightjackets.