d3Xt3r
That’s the thing though, they have been pissing everyone off for over a decade now, going back to the days when Facebook introduced the algorithmic feed/timeline thing, and then with the promoted posts, and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the data harvesting and ads and blatant privacy violations. They’re one of the scummiest organisations out there and yet you all keep using it’s products and happily whoring yourselves out to Meta. Sure you can switch in theory, so what are y’all waiting for? There’s plenty of reasons to switch, plenty of decent alternatives too. The truth is, you can’t really switch. You don’t have a choice.
If you think you’ve got a choice, I dare you to uninstall WhatsApp for a month or two, and see if you’re able to get by without any issues. Then you’ll know why I said they they have you by the balls - basically, you’re a hostage, a slave. You really have no choice, no freedom, even if you’ve got other apps installed. You may convince your friends and family to switch, but do you really think the thousands of companies, government agencies etc will just switch for no good reason? Will they make new chat bots for the alternative apps? Will they develop new SoPs/documentation for their internal staff, spend time and money on marketing and advertising the new way of contacting them? Waiting for Meta to do something major to piss everyone off may never happen - Meta isn’t that foolish, and as people get more and more used to Meta’s products and their way of doing things, they get more and more entwined into the ecosystem and they’ll find it even more harder to leave. If everyone’s going to wait for everyone else to switch, then no one will switch.
I was there. It was fine. You didn’t need phones to be able to function in a society. Phones were something like an optional convenience that you had only at fixed places, like your home or office. If you were out and about, you typically didn’t have access to a phone, unless you were in the vicinity of a payphone, so you weren’t expected to be available on phone. Whereas in the countries where Meta has monopoly over, everyone expects you to be on WhatsApp, and you don’t really get a choice in the matter.
In some of those countries, it’s not really a choice. Like, WhatsApp is the only way of contacting a company’s customer care (via chat bots that run on it), colleges and universities may have study groups on it and teachers may hand out notes etc in those groups, also apparently it’s also the only way to contact even some government agencies.
Over-reliance on proprietary, closed-source products and services from megacorporations.
For instance, it’s really absurd that people in many parts of the world cannot function without WhatsApp, they can’t even imagine a life without it. It seems absurd that Meta literally has them by the balls, and these people can’t do anything about it.
Also the people who base their entire careers on say Adobe or Microsoft products, they’re literally having their lives dictated by one giant corporation, which is very depressing and dystopian.
Eh, as an IT guy, I love seeing computer screens on TV. They’re either a good laugh, or they can be quite interesting.
Among the interesting/iconic interfaces:
- The 3D “Unix” system in Jurassic Park
- The Matrix
- Minority Report
I also love seeing vintage/fake-vintage interfaces in movies, such as SolarOS (a take on Solaris) in Tron: Legacy
and all the hilarious ones such as the infamous “I’ll create a GUI in Visual Basic to track the IP address” scene in CSI.
Also, here’s a bonus link for you retro fans: https://www.windows93.net/
One of my favorite sites: https://www.windows93.net/
CrossOver is actually pretty good for Macs with Apple Silicon, where there is limited choice. But on Linux, you’re far better off sticking with Steam + Proton-GE / Lutris + Wine-GE
