My thoughts tend to go to dark places these days. And so when I watched Google on Wednesday trot out one after another of its homegrown computing devices for every task and every nook of our homes, I went straight to dystopia: R.I.P. digital competition.
Nothing to add.
Specifically, Jasper (https://jasperproject.github.io/). It’ll run on commodity hardware on a commodity OS (Linux). If enough services get hosed out of working with Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, they’ll move to the open platform.
Mycroft (https://mycroft.ai/) too.
Contribute to ReactOS.
Why reactOS? Are they even close to being compatible with what ever their current target is?
Why not true FOSS from the ground up, ala Debian Linux ? Why pay to have a worse, less compatible version of windows?
True FOSS? Now that’s an insult for everyone but die-hard GNU fanatics!
And why not ReactOS (notice capitalization)? It is a _true_ open source operating system no matter if it is compatible with whatever. If you don’t realize that maybe you should simply STFU?
Linux started the same way as ReactOS, it was supposed to be a Unix like operating system, just like the BSDs are also Unix like, or Haiku is BeOS like. There is no OS “True FOSS from the ground up”, at least not like i think you mean.
I do not use Windows on my Daily driver (laptop). On my computer, I have installed Linux and as I do not game on my laptop, I can do all what I did on Windows anyway. I do not have any Apple devices or computers at all. However, I have an Android phone. Though I do not use that hello google thing, and I never have location turned on. Whenever I leave home, I disable Wifi.
I know that I might not have disabled all of concern, yet I feel that I have turned off what I can and still be able to use my various systems. My phone is for email, texting and phonecalls. So the useage for me, is rather basic. Games? Yeah… I game retro games. Pc, consoles, Amiga and C64. Not on my phone… Games are shit anyway on a phone.
Edited 2017-10-05 23:16 UTC
Cry me a river. It’s been dead since the mid-2000’s.
The digital competition has been dead since SGI went out and stopped making the machines that were fun to look at and fun to work on.
Recently Solaris stopped development as well. Obviously the open source variants still exist and are getting development.
To be fair, people stopped buying them before SGI stopped making them. Nobody wanted to pay USD 10K for a box (an Indy with XZ and an R5K) was hardly better than a 2K Intel clone. Not to mention that IRIX updates required an expen$ive service contract. Don’t get me wrong, I liked SGI boxes, but they were a wealthy person’s game.
And if computer bling was your weakness, even a bondi blue G3 could be had for cheap, released shortly after the Indy was EOA.
I think the article is a bit more specific (and I found compelling) than what others have mentioned…
It’s about voice-activated devices.
Because you won’t browse for apps to launch, the services you use will probably be the default ones.
E.g. on a Google device it’ll be Google’s search, music, video, etc., with less opportunity for third-parties to get in on it.
The article gives the example that you aren’t likely to say “Play song on Spotify.”
I dunno. I thought it’s new and interesting.
I’m not sure I agree with the premise that voice assistants are more restrictive. Amazon has opened up their platform to allow third party skills. They are so open that most skills are garbage.
I understand the default to amazon is bad and may be a barrier to many people. But, I’m not convinced its worse than ios restrictions. With out being able to set default applications for maps, mail, browser etc, its kind of the same thing. You can do things the apple way and other ways, but apple will try to reduce the friction to stay in apple world. Yet, people do still use non Apple services. So, I have hope for Amazon echo.
But also, I have no idea why anyone want’s/ needs echo. It seems like such a gimmick. Plus I have my voice assistant on my phone that can do almost everything as well. And its on my phone which is always with me.
I tried this with Bixby on my Note 8. “Hi Bixby” “Open Humble Bundle” “Install Sorcery” It was at that point that instead of installing Sorcery through Humble Bundle, it opened the Google Play Store which of course wanted 4.99 for the game when I already have it in my Humble Library. Maybe I worded it wrong, may try again later.
Computing devices were open when their target audience was a minority of knowledgeable users. Now when they are supposed to be used by everyone and their dog, the requirement are to be braindead easy to use, which leads us to the tight control from a handful of corporations.
Compare with the food industry, where the global industry is also controlled by a few megacorporations. Or car manufacturing. Or…
Bingo. “Funny” things happen when a product/industry becomes comoditized.
This is how things go.
In the beginning there are hobbyists with their bare boards and sensors.
Then there are the gen 1 devices cobbled together for casual, but technical, consumers. They look less like Frankenstein devices then the original homebrew systems.
Next, companies come and go as they figure out how to sell the thing.
Finally, there are the commodity systems for “everyone”, which are generally bags of crap, but they work for most people.
That’s all you need to know.
They (and so does the likes of FB etc) want to know about your life, the people you interact with, where you go. In short, what you are for breakfast, listened to and everthing, and I mean everything about you.
They will then sell it to advertisers.
As for these devices that they want to put in every home that will spy on us and do their job for them AND they expect us to pay them for the [redacted] of letting their crap inside our homes? You gotta be kidding. No, No and thrice No. This is far too close to what Orwell predicted more than sixty years ago.
I won’t have anything to do with them now or in the future.
I hate all adverts and I once worked for an Advertising Company (which probably explains it)…
If anyone thinks that they are intruding in your life then I’m sorry to tell you, it will get a lot, lot, lot worse.
That good enough for you Thom!
another baseless thoughtless idiotic rant posted as something insightful.
We already have the open system we need. Today. Just say no to using Google and you are on your way.
But if you choose the products of a company then you can’t complain if they expand their offerings – like Coca Cola etc. have done in the past and others will in the future.
Nobody forces you to drink cola, and if you do you have other alternatives than the “original”.
RIP digital competition. Followed immediately by a list of all the digital competitors.
Get this author some pearls to clutch.
Phone is the most important closed platform, luckily with $162,000 remaining it looks like the librem phone is going to be fully funded.
If it is of any comfort, when the operating system grows big enough, it gets universal. Cross-culture, nation independent.
Edited 2017-10-08 23:32 UTC