I’m a FOSS (free and open source software) contributor and enthusiast. So I prefer to use such products (Lemmy instead of Reddit, Linux instead of Windows, Firefox instead of Chrome, Signal instead of WhatsApp, you get the idea). Was just thinking that if everyone moved to such solutions, the tech and ad industry would lose billions of dollars. That would translate to governments losing billions of dollars in tax revenue. Would such a move ever be encouraged then by the governments?
I don’t know the solution but I do know that we’re losing what the internet was suppose to be.
I remember in the early days how we all thought it was insane and unethical to create scarcity in data.
We all knew data could be copied and shared almost limitlessly and so the internet was headed towards this new post information scarcity world were we could all collaborate and share information and knowledge and culture.
It seems like now we’re putting up walls everywhere and charging for access to every bit of data we can. I think as an online culture that we lost a lot of that early 00s mentality of what the net would be.
I feel like we dropped that baton and the newer generation is almost pro data scarcity.
I remember the general feeling you talked about, and the insanity of the idea when DRM was introduced.
It seems we vastly underestimated the ideas corporations can produce and implement.
For a short while it seemed as if with AI the field would be leveled again, but then I was astonished how quickly the EU moved with regulations first and foremost to protect copyright.
I work in tech. Some would lose, but others would win. We spend more and more every year on services. The software isn’t entirely FOSS, but the licensing cost is often trivial compared to the costs to implement and maintain. For instance, we use WordPress for our website. We give thousands every year to our web designers while spending 0 on the software. The big software we use, that we spend hundreds of thousands yearly on, is moving in the same direction. I suspect they will go FOSS in the next decade, and focus on hosting/professional services.
Just because software is Free as in libre doesn’t mean it’s free as in beer. Running those services costs huge amount of money. Running enough instances of lemmy to replace reddit would cost collectively much more than the one optimized centralized service. So I guess that would translate to governments making billions of dollars in tax revenue.
The cost is hardly in the software. It’s for the support and setup. Even if governments switch to Linux, they’d need some sort of support contract in place with a vendor.
Great, so even on Lemmy ‘Shower Thoughts’ are just statements.
I did write a whole paragraph below the title, do people have more complex shower thoughts?
No, the fact it’s so complex is part of the problem. It’s an interesting discussion to be had but it’s not a Shower Thought.
A Shower Thought is something like “If Eminem’s Mom wanted to she could probably make a good amount of money selling her own spaghetti sauce” (stole this from Reddit). It’s a random thought that comes to you, serves no real purpose but still just kind of lingers in your mind.
Lolol that’s absurdly optimistic and completely ignores commercial contributions. No licences hardly means less expensive.
Lolol that’s absurdly optimistic and completely ignores commercial contributions. No licences hardly means less expensive.
Lolol that’s absurdly optimistic and completely ignores commercial contributions. No licences hardly means less expensive.
Lolol that’s absurdly optimistic and completely ignores commercial contributions. No licences hardly means less expensive.
