The reason that gets brought up in discussions like this is that Microsoft got that flak back when they abused their monopoly position to push IE. Comparing iOS's and Android's market position to Windows' from that time, it's not the same landscape, especially for Apple.

However, as a human being, I hate them all for their practices. If it wasn't for the free software movement, I would have definitely dropped IT as a dear hobby of mine.

Android, where you can make any app default, where you can use any browser engine, where you can sideload any app including alternative app stores? Sounds super anti-competitive...

All of this is doable in Windows too. The Firefox fix was to make it more convenient to change the default browser.

App stores weren't even a thing before Google and Apple made it the norm, and I would say the Windows Store is barely used.

Totally. Which is why I’d pay over $300 for a dumb phone like the Mudita Pure with its FreeRTOS-based, open source OS.

Call me stupid, but I’d be far happier without Apple or Google in my life, and am willing to pay the price for that in terms of inconvenience. I’m way happier without Microsoft, that’s for sure.

The stuff microsoft got hated for in the 90s is now standard operating procedure for giant tech companies. Not to defend MS, but perhaps 'create a monopoly and then agressively expand sideways into other areas to extinguish competitors" is the default behaviour of these behemoths and it wasn't anything specific about MS apart from them being the first one.

Not for nothing, it seems that various governing bodies are slowly waking up to the idea some of those giants have really gotten a little too big, so there is a chance of some real action similar to action taken on MS.

Smacking down the first one was supposed to signal to the others that this is not how society accepts them to behave.

I wonder where we got off track.

The main difference is that in the 90s, the US still had real physical activity underlying its economy, and pretty impressive at that. You smack Microsoft, but who cares - there's still a wide industrial base, hundreds of thousands of small to medium enterprises, global monopoly on entertainment, semiconductor supremacy, high-end aircraft and car manufacturing, etc.

That's gone - industry got outsourced, the gap between Intel and TSMC is growing every year, Boeing's reputation will unlikely to ever recover, Hollywood is a joke, oil and gas extraction is perceived as villains, journalism in terminal decline, finance and pharma pure rent seeking. Software is the only thing left where Americans can say with a straight face that they're proud of it - hence the unwillingness to taint the crown jewels

> I wonder where we got off track.

We stopped enforcing the law against large companies. :(

Apple's behavior today on iOS is clearly worse than 90's era Microsoft Windows, but we had a semi-functional FTC back then, and we mostly don't today.

When was the smack down?

As a next step, you could order a phone from e solutions, or slap their system on one of the supported phones. You don't lose too much convenience-wise (I think) compared to a normal Android, but you're one step away from the Google ecosystem.

Why not go to a GNU/Linux phone instead? (Librem 5 or Pinephone.)

Pinephone is considered enthusiast/experimental. Librem has a 52 week wait and is overpriced. The solution should be Calyx, but they've decided the solution requires paying a bribe to Google in the form of buying a Pixel - talk about missing the point, and missing your target market right out of the gate.

>Facebook, Apple, and Google all got away with their monopolist power grabs because they don't have any 'S's in their names for critics to snarkily replace with '$'s.

Workaround: Fac€book, Appl€ and Googl€. It even works for the parent companies: M€ta, Alphab€t. The European union saves the internet again!

Use case: remember when Googl€'s motto was "don't be evil" rumour says they changed it to "be €vil"

Android is at least open-source so you could in theory tweak it to your liking and avoid Google services altogether.