Re:Have the Tech Giants Grown Too Powerful?
by wilsonnb2 on Thursday July 12, 2018 @09:48AM
(#17514488)
> For entrepreneurs, the monopolistic stranglehold these companies have, make them impossible to beat with a better product. The best possible outcome is acquisition. You may join, but never beat them.
Isn't this exactly what everyone said about IBM until Microsoft came along, and then what everyone said about Microsoft until Google/Apple/Facebook/Amazon came along?
Why is this time different?
Microsoft only stopped being a destructive force of nature after the Department of Justice gave them a kick to the face.
Re:Have the Tech Giants Grown Too Powerful?
by neospice on Thursday July 12, 2018 @09:43AM
(#17514438)
As an entrepreneur, I feel that its not always the problem that they can't be beat at the product game- but that the product doesn't really matter.
Often people don't look at the product, but the marketing. E.G. It's not a problem that SquareSpaces has an awesome site-builder, but it is a problem that they can afford to use [Keanu Reaves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqnhN2Rzaqc) as their mascot.
Re:Have the Tech Giants Grown Too Powerful?
by chrisdhoover on Thursday July 12, 2018 @08:40PM
(#17519746)
You got to get in to get out Peter Gabriel sang. I’ll take my RSUs and move fuck the out of here with my analog wife, car, hi fi, and camera. She and I’ll be happy cooking with gas reading books drinking bourbon and watching it all fade in our rear view mirror. We’ll surely be just memory by the time the US devolves into chaos, the oil runs out, and disney has acquired ATT.
Re:Have the Tech Giants Grown Too Powerful?
by wolfgke on Thursday July 12, 2018 @09:41AM
(#17514407)
> For Free Software hackers, the giants turning away from open standards, and towards DRM and abuse of the CFAA, is chilling.
Every DRM needs two sides: A company implementing it and a mass of customers willing to tolerate it.
The serious problem that I see is not the DRM itself, but the laws that prohibit people to develop and distribute cracks for the DRM.
For entrepreneurs, the monopolistic stranglehold these companies have, make them impossible to beat with a better product. The best possible outcome is acquisition. You may join, but never beat them.
For Free Software hackers, the giants turning away from open standards, and towards DRM and abuse of the CFAA, is chilling.
For a free society, surveillance capitalism needs to die.
If you have ambitions in life beyond RSUs and a regular massage, yes they are too powerful.