Decentralize. Democratize. Demonetize. Time for a new internet, a new gaming industry, and a way of sharing thoughts and ideas where clout is the least important factor.
Don’t forget strong policies to keep everything from enshittifying all over again! Check out Cory Doctorow’s thoughts from DefCon: https://youtu.be/rimtaSgGz_4?feature=shared
Wizards of the Coast
Literally every company is doing this. There was a time when, for example, Apple could reverse engineer the Word document format and make their own word processor that uses them. This was very common and resulted in things like IBM PC clones that sped up innovation.
Now companies use litigation and corporate buyouts to reduce their competition, then set up ways to extract rents on customers rather than providing a service. Business folks love this because it means a consistent stream of revenue that won’t go away. And now you’ve got carmakers looking to charge by the month for features.
For more details, read Chokepoint Capitalism.
And now you’ve got carmakers looking to charge by the month for features.
When I reach the point at which I am forced to buy a car like that, I’d just find out from where the feature gets controlled and hack in my own controller and a good 'ol switch.
Right now it’s your right to do what you want to your car as long as it still passes vehicle inspection, but it appears that car makers want new laws that prevent you from modifying your own car.
If we just sit on our hands now, well likely move into a future where we will be forced to either pay subscription or take public transit, which requires subscriptions.
The Library of Congress added “software that runs land vehicles” to their copyright exceptions somewhat recently. That’s why farmers are legally allowed to use cracked software from Ukrainian grain farmers to run/repair their tractors
At least public transit is an ongoing service. I’m far less opposed to subscriptions when I’m actually being provided with something for them.
Car manufacturers trying to charge subscriptions for features in the car you own feels like racketeering. They’re not providing an ongoing service, they’re asking me to keep paying them to not remove a feature.
This was very common and resulted in things like IBM PC clones that sped up innovation.
i don’t think it was due to reverse engineering but bcz of releasing specification by IBM them self due to which other manufacturer where able to make identical clone and can run extracted BIOS from IBM PC without any modification!
Microsoft. They’ve been itching to go to a fully cloud-dependent subscription-only model for Windows for a while now.
I could’ve sworn that they said win 10 was going to be the last windows and it would just receive updates.
the surprising thing there isn’t that they went back on their word, but that they said it in the first place.
Seriously, how could an OS company seriously believe they’d never need or want to release a new major version
It was to keep everyone in their eco system and just update it as they found more ways to extract revenue
Right but they could have done that without promising that 10 would be the last Windows version. Let’s be honest, everyone is already locked into their ecosystem outside of enthusiasts and people with Apple Hardware. If you want a non-mac laptop/desktop, unless you go well out of your way, you’re almost certain to end up with a Windows PC, they didn’t need the “last version” gimmick to keep people on Windows.
Hell, a lot of non-techy people who are already used to using Windows would rather not use a computer than learn to use a new OS. It’s easy to forget how tech illiterate the average person is
I’m probably one of the less technically literate people here and in my case, you’re absolutely right. I assume Linux involves typing commands somewhere and I, frankly, have to look up how to do a vlookup in excel every time it happens.
I would probably prefer to use my phone (an old ass iPhone) instead of a computer with a totally new os. I’m not a huge fan of macs, but it’s still basically the same on the user end. I suspect linux is more different.
Inb4: I straight up don’t have time to switch my os for at least a year, I just wanted to support the above comment. I am well aware that my assumptions are probably wrong, just wanted to share what the reputation of Linux is among non tech people (if they’ve ever even heard of it).
I assume Linux involves typing commands somewhere
It doesn’t, it’s akin to command prompt/poweshell on Windows albeit less verbose or Terminal in Mac. It’s just something you can do but if you don’t use it on Windows then you aren’t going to need it on Linux
I would probably prefer to use my phone instead of a computer with a totally new os
Android/Chrome OS are Linux, I think this is the easiest way to show people how little “command typing” is needed
just wanted to share what the reputation of Linux is among non tech people
Tech people use that reputation as well, a bunch of people think it makes them smarter but Linux is better for non tech people than Windows because it has a natural defense against scammers/viruses.
I switched to it because Windows was too complicated and I couldn’t get anything to run well <- Linux has less overhead but that wasn’t my issue
it’s akin to command prompt/poweshell on Windows albeit less verbose or Terminal in Mac. It’s just something you can do but if you don’t use it on Windows then you are going to need it on Linux.
You just lost 99% of windows and Mac users right there.
I believe you, I just don’t have any issues with windows, so there’s no need to change.
You should read up the Halloween documents to get a better understanding of where some of those assumptions (which to be fair have since become something of a self fulfilling prophecy…) originate from.
Some people stay on previous versions though and that means less of a base to send advertisements to
It’s not a worry of people going to Linux, it’s a worry of people staying on 10 instead of going to 11
As a lifelong windows user, 10 is my last windows, I’ve heard nothing but garbage from those I know running win11.
I will be switching, it’s just a matter of distros, better support for gaming/vr/drivers etc.
I’ve been messing around with Ubuntu on an Orange Pi 5 and so far, apart from gnome (even with extensions) I’m really pleased and feel much more in control of my hardware.
The moment I heard of ads in the start menu on 11 I vowed it won’t happen, and yet the bing bar showed up on my desktop last week after am update. Needless to say I’ve already been into the registry to fix that issue, but yes, that basically sums up how I feel, and I know most I know feel the same re: MS Windows at this point.
I assumed what they ment where that with W10 they would transition from point releases to a rolling release model.
This is common in the Linux world, Arch being the most well known example.
Yeah then MacOS 11 came out after 20 years. The idea was to have the same version number for the dumb dumbs. It’s why the Xbox 2 was called Xbox 360 so it’d match PlayStation 3, but bigger.
Firefox did the same bullshit. Was on version 5 for ages, saw chrome do insane version numbers, „oh no they might think we are outdated“. Now firefox v110.
What a pile of shit
LOL why do you care what version number it is? They could switch to using letters, I wouldn’t give a shit.
The part that’s cool is rolling updates. It just doesn’t make sense to have a release schedule like they did. The reason why software had that in the first place was for marketing: you’re supposed to get excited for the new version 6.0 or whatever and run down to the computer store and buy it to replace your old, outdated version 5.0. That model doesn’t make sense for software that’s free, though. Incremental updates make more sense. Features get rolled out gradually instead of being all bundled together for a big, splashy upgrade.
I do not care about the version numbers, i care about „oh no, chrome is doing something, quick we need to adjust or we will be laughed upon“.
Copying chrome is the pile of shit.
Rolling updates makes sense, i agree with that.
A giant tech company lied!? That’s not something that’s ever happened before.
99% of people who use Windows wouldn’t even mind, I think.
This is a turning point and I’m here for it
Twitter, Reddit, Facebook=> FediverseUnity=> GodotAAA Studios=> Indie devsI sure hope so. It’s about damn time.
I support all of this. Especially the fediverse.
Red Hat (Enrerprise Linux) & HashiCorp (Terraform) closed the source of their products in different ways, also fucking over their community of clients and contributors, though their reasoning seems slightly more sane than “no more free money, aaargh!”
Unfortunately and admittedly, we are the problem. These companies know that people pay for convenience and stick to what they know. If we were less likely to do so companies would have to raise their standards. Take Twitter for example, even with Musks over inflated numbers other sources indicate there’s still hundreds of millions of Twitter users. They see all of the things Musk has done and it hasn’t buried his business thus they are now taking pages out of his book.
Agreed on convenience being enough for most people. Unity isn’t going anywhere. They are priced above Unreal now but they have the market share to justify it. There are a million other game engines with newer approaches than “coke and pepsi” but they take more work and there’s less community to pull from. There are just so many assets and abilities pre built in those game engines that allow a young developer to be productive. If you don’t need all of that then you have a wide pick of frameworks to apply your code chops to. I’d love for Godot to become Dr Pepper but it’s got a long way to go for even that slot. If unity had done this in a year or two from now it might be a different story but it takes a long time to reach a status like Blender, and even Blender isn’t the go-to for industry professionals. I love LibreOffice but I’ve never worked at a company that is willing to tolerate those little rough edges.
Twitter is still the centralized place for a mainstream figure/organization to engage from. They have all researched mastodon and the like, opened accounts, and can’t get the same engagement. It takes people more work to find their accounts in other places and most lay-users just aren’t going to put in the effort. They’re only in it for the lulz. This may reach a critical mass someday like with myspace but any alternative still needs a central point to funnel them to. Reddit doesn’t benefit from centralization the same way and I think Lemmy/ap will scratch the itch for major topics, but it’s still harder to grow smaller communities that aren’t risa.
Blizzard has been being blizzard for years, that’s not just a 2023 thing!
I wish it was different. We all hate nodding to authority. But there’s a certain momentum that carries with popularity and they can surf that on their enshittification for years to come.
- zbyte64 ( @zbyte64@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English5•1 year ago
I just think people shouldn’t be chided for doing what is convenient when so much of our economy is attention based. Kind of like hating the players instead of the game.
I have enough hate for both and more tyvm
“Why don’t you pay for every damn bullet you fire in the game you fucking peasants!!??” -Unity CEO
Please somehow let YouTube/Google be next. Somehow.
I keep up to date with a lot of tech stuff through youtube so I genuinely don’t know who can offer a service as big and reliable as google. I’m pretty sure they’re offering at a loss or something right? I’ve tried Peertube and Oddysee but not all creators are on those platforms.
Google is pulling shenanigans with Chrome through it’s inbuilt ad tracking and web integrity.
Oh yeah, and that’s only going to get worse. I’m honestly hoping for YouTube to somehow crash and have a reformation. I know that’s a pipedream, but still
Why is this a trend?
Twitter, Reddit, and Unity have not been profitable. This was fine when money was cheap (near zero interest rates). The market was awash with capital trying to find something that could turn a profit. A business plan that was basically underpants gnomes (1. Gather underpants 2. ??? 3. Profit!) was acceptable. Twitter’s and Reddit’s 1. was “gather users”, Unity’s “gather projects”. Now money isn’t free anymore, and capital is demanding that these businesses fill in 2. with something. Twitter is doing whatever Musk thinks is good, Reddit is trying to monetize its API to make AIs pay and to serve real users ads through its first party app, and Unity is trying to monetize the projects it has gathered. All of them have been offering a product below cost, and users are understandably angry that the cost is going up. (And in many cases, finding that the product isn’t really worth anything.)
Blizzard is different. It operates in a creative field and has been very profitable. Games are art as much as they are products that are sold. As such, they’re fickle: you can’t assembly line manufacture games and make a hit after hit. Artists in music that turn out bangers decade after decade are rare, as are authors, directors, etc. Blizzard’s streak of awesome games was bound to end eventually. AAA games are also extremely expensive to make: if you make an AAA game, it must be a hit or you’ll lose money. Alternatively, you can use dark patterns to monetize it, then it doesn’t have to be as good to make loads of money. Banking on your creatives to keep beating the odds is risky; infesting a good enough game with scummy monetization is a safer bet.
I’m still laughing at reddit and the ads thing. They pushed me more into blocking all their ads and tracking even harder, and to patch their official app when I had no choice but to go to reddit. Everything they’ve done has backfired as far as I’m concerned.
TL;DR quantitative tightening
So, you’re saying that Twitter would’ve gone the same way without Musk?
I don’t think it would’ve gone the exact same route, but they would’ve become more aggressive about gaining revenue.
Twitter wasn’t very profitable, but it wasn’t hemorrhaging cash either. If Musk had come in, left most things alone, and focused on killing the actual dead weight while getting a little extra cash from blue checks his simp army would have had ammunition for another decade.
It was in fact hemorrhaging money. They have been cash flow negative for quite some time now, with steadily decreasing assets. While they recently have been decreasing their short term debts, they have also been accumulating long term debt to such a degree, that in Q1 2022 their cash/debt ratio became negative.
All this long term debt must be becoming an increasing problem during the current economic climate.
No matter what you think of Musk, radical changes were absolutely necessary.
I am extremely skeptical of the claim that these companies have not been profitable. Fuck they said LOTR trilogy lost money and they were some of the biggest movies of all time. I don’t think these companies are above cooking the books to make it look like they are losing money on paper.
All these guys talk to each other, they don’t really have unique ideas
They’re all Disrupters
Companies can no longer continue to grow through innovating their products or services. Companies are no longer competing in that domain because they have already conquered it completely.
Companies can no longer grow through marketing and branding. Branding is everything and everywhere now, even normal people have personal brands, they have already conquered that domain and most people have grown to disdain marketing and branding so its less effective than ever.
Companies can no longer grow through data collection and advertising. All data is collected, ads are everywhere and they are always listening to everything we say and do. They have already conquered that domain.
Now all that’s left is competition through exploitation. It’s the only way companies can continue to grow. That is the stage of capitalism we are entering.
i fear mozilla may be in the line here, finally giving-in to google on manifest 3’s limitations, web ‘drm’, and targeted ads program, in exchange for keeping the lights on (google is their single biggest source of funding via payment for being default search).
I see literally no incentive for them to limit their API to just the Google version of Manifest v3. If I recall correctly they already expanded their implementation to offer more.
If they ever implement WEI (the “web DRM”) then it’s because the Internet forces their hand. A web browser is only as useful as the websites it can browse. If our banks will demand WEI support Mozilla doesn’t have much choice. We need to worry about the website providers changing the web, not Mozilla adjusting Firefox to these changes. In the latter case it’s already too late and it’s hard to blame Mozilla at this point.
I agree on WEI, and that’s the scary part since crappy companies will demand it in the name of security and everyone gets fucked and the Internet becomes a little less free.
People wouldn’t use Firefox if it couldn’t run google and if it made bing default then you’d see a bunch of idiots making memes about how it’s so bad and they won’t use it because it’s default
Google has been worse than bing for a decade and chrome has been worse than Firefox for longer. But people still use them and think they are the best.
You even have people make jokes about edge only existing to download chrome
I feel like you vastly overestimate the audience
For my searches, Google still works better than bing. I wonder for what topics bing gives better results?
Sports, piracy, video games, videos, and tech support for me
Google’s advantage for me is the date filter. If I want to find something from a decade ago then I have to use it
That would be a tragedy
I’m honestly astonished that Google hasn’t pulled the plug on Mozilla yet. After all, their missions completely and utterly oppose each other and Mozilla probably causes the biggest losses to Google.
If your prediction comes true, which isn’t unlikely, Firefox forks that already exist would probably take its spot. Or privacy friendly Chromium based browsers. I know, the latter sounds like an oxymoron, but they exist and one of them I would be hated on for naming has actually been proven to have better out of the box privacy than Firefox.
But if Mozilla goes, Google are setting themselves up for a hell of a lawsuit, since the only cross-device browser would be Chrome (and it’s children)
The problem with privacy-friendly Chromium is that no one is building a mobile counterpart.
Mozilla’s mobile version of Firefox supports desktop extensions. It’s not inherently privacy friendly but you can make it that way.
Yeah but chromium…
Short term gains … and gain them as fast as possible … because the end is coming near and everything is going to be over soon.
While depressing, it makes sense, seeing as this market model isn’t sustainable in the long term, let alone short term.
Interest rates went up and with it the era of free money. Now the investors come knocking for profits and lots of it. As they get squeezed, they squeeze the customer harder with worse products and services for more money.
Companies be like:
Epic Games
