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Joined 3 months ago
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Cake day: March 21st, 2024

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  • Can anyone explain why Apple is such a target when there are several other companies that truly are a Monopoly, not just popular? They might not have super great business practices, but under capitalism that it not only okay, but it seems to be the default.

    There isn’t a single product they sell that only Apple sells, there is a huge market for smart phones, smart watches, home computers, tablets, headphones, chargers, etc. Being a popular product does not make a company “a monopoly” and if we wanted to just go off market share, Microsoft needs to continue to be pursued, as does Amazon, Google, Disney, Comcast, the single other ISP in your region of the country, your power and water utility companies, every chain restaurant, most places that cut men’s hair.

    Why go after Apple specifically when there are many companies to go after? Because people don’t like them? Do you like your power company? Tough shit, they are the only game in town. Do you like your ISP? Tough shit, you have two options and one is the worst DSL connection you’ve ever seen. Did you like any of the 20 streaming options in 2018? Tough shit, 12 of them merged into 3. Want to buy a computer in a store? Better like Microsoft or have the ability to install and maintain a new OS (is Linux the only other option?)

    I’m not saying Apple is amazing or they have good business practices. But there are far more insidious companies where there simply isn’t many or any legal alternatives.



  • I agree that if Google is getting the content for free they should, at least try, to keep it ad free for the consumer. But I don’t know if Google has to pay licensing for stuff like PBS. PBS does technically have ads, but they are unobtrusive, shown at the beginning or end of a show and are presented as “Brought to you by….” Less of an ad and more recognition that a company has paid to support bringing PBS to you for free.

    I’ve never uses this service, so I’m not aware of how they might insert ads either. Between shows? Typical ad-breaks times every 8.5 minutes of broadcast time? More?


  • Isn’t that the agreed upon consolation for free content? Was nobody alive when TV was the primary means of content consumption?

    It always irked me that people are upset over YouTube running ads. Like, of course they had to start running ads, hosting/programming/daily operating millions of videos isn’t free for them. They need to make money some how, even at “break even” which prevents the idea of profit seeking would mean running ads.

    Hate to sound like a “kids these days” but seriously, absolutely nothing in life is free and if there isn’t a direct cost, advertising is going to be present.






  • I see more and more stores and parking lots with EV parking/charging. Once it becomes a value-add for the average car user many apartments and shared parking spaces will start to include EV charging.

    I don’t understand the comment arguing about upgrading power infrastructure. EVs don’t use more electricity to charge than say a fully electric water heater or any major appliances/tools that a maker has at their homes. Maybe in some more rural areas, but then again, those are the places that 3-phase 240v already exists to support farming/processing tools.




  • The fun part is he doesn’t need to be okay with the punishments the court deems necessary. In fact, it’s better if he doesn’t like the outcome as it will dissuade him, possibly, from doing the same thing again. He got away with being a shitty commercial property developer because he never faced and repercussions. So he just kept doing it until he ruined his reputation with every contractor in the city.


  • I get it, I walked into the den and poked the bear. But I think a reality check for this kind of “Linux will take over Microsoft” is necessary. 95% of computer users don’t care about their OS and would never imagine re-installing it or installing a different one. Just the idea of thinking about an OS puts that person in the advanced user category. It took Google to mod Linux and sell it to every public school in America to get it to a 4% user base. It is clearly not something for everyone, it isn’t even for most people who use Reddit or Lemmy, and those communities are def more closely representative of people capable of using Linux.

    I understand that there have been many advances to make it a usable OS for the casual person. But it isn’t. Sure, your mom might be able to use it “out of the box” but it doesn’t come in a box. The two widely adopted versions of Linux had to be heavily modified by large dev teams of Valve and Google, for very limited numbers of devices. Would Valve make a version for a non-gaming focused device, or computer at large? Would Google make a version that wasn’t in direct support of Googles products? I doubt it.

    It isn’t just lack of knowledge of Linux that is holding it back. Its main demographic is nerdy computer people who are willing to, occasionally, run a shell command or hunt down the necessary things to get their webcam to work. That isn’t what Microsoft aims for, they aim for the average computer user who wants to watching videos, play games, browse the web and check their emails without thinking about any part of how or why it works.


  • I appreciate the enthusiasm Linux fanboys have about this. But ain’t nobody but the most tech savvy would even consider it.

    Linux is not consumer friendly, it typically involves putting in a shit load of effort to get working with your hardware, the ones that don’t still need a ton of work to make “Windows-like” and compatibility is always going to be an issue.

    Yes, there have been a ton of strides toward this dream situation. But without financial incentive, making things user-friendly isn’t going to happen. In fact, much of the Linux community prides themselves on having a “difficult” OS.

    Once Linux can, by default, have an easy to use interface, can natively run Android apps and windows applications, and can work with a huge range of hardware, it will never take off. Linux might get a few points of market share due to some business applications finding Linux a better option than updating HW and windows build, but those companies are going to struggle and will be even more dependent on their IT staff for the simplest of things.