News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:WhatsApp Introduces Ads in Its App by account42 on Wednesday June 18, 2025 @05:00AM (#44308030)
The problem is that there is also tons of services that promised not to enshittify but then changed their minds when they thought that fucking over their users would be more profitable. That includes even Google, look up their early views on ads. Because of this those promises are often (IMO rightfully) ignored as hot air. The only way to ensure that your software doesn't get enshittified is to legally guarantee that you are not dependent on a single vendor for future development - the most effective way to do that is insist on open source software.
Re:WhatsApp Introduces Ads in Its App by bitmasher9 on Wednesday June 18, 2025 @11:19PM (#44315143)
Yeah I love open source. Daily Linux desktop user and open source code contributor here.

Open source doesn’t solve the problem “I need to be able to search the entire internet for a document.” Even “I want to safely receive email” is a challenge to do with open source software. At some point I need to use software as a service, and at that point I’d prefer to give money to the service directly than having the service target advertising at me.

Re:WhatsApp Introduces Ads in Its App by prisenco on Thursday June 19, 2025 @12:15AM (#44315378)
That's not the only way. Wikipedia has avoided it through a non-profit, donation and volunteer based structure.