I’m not convinced the distinction is necessary. It’s also wrong to say they don’t discriminate in who they choose to exploit for profit . Many many examples of double standards occurring in different regions by the same corporation. Behaving in one way in the global north, then the opposite in the global South for example. Exploitation of labour for one. Yeh the name of the game is profit at all costs including human if they get away with it. But the scale compared to what an individual bad actor can achieve (though real and scary for sure) is not worth comparing. Companies ARE made up of human beings. Hiding behind incorporations and limited liabilities does not always shelter corporate bad actors in regions with proper regulation. Yeh plenty to be cynical about but still, dont give these blood thirsty profit seekers any free pass on their behavior.

It surely would. And free up alot of budget to invest instead in local

Apple screwed their pro market anyway. Sometime back . The history with apple and creatives relates more to print history I’d guess . Adobe needs to be ditched , and is in some areas. Windows is a shitshow as we know. There are lessening reasons to be wedded to either Mac OS or Windows as they continue to enshittify and I for one welcome it.

Whether or not they are “my” files would be the legal test in the given jurisdiction. It probably gets even blurrier if the file was created in ‘my’ licensed version of MS software application x. And blurrier still if created in the cloud version of said software and stored direct to their cloud storage platform . I’m assuming with most saas or cloud things that its never my file and im just renting access to something they own even if i created it. You distinguished “local” in your comment though, so this is where the win11 tactics have been a new level of scummy and scammy with the forced syncing etc . The whole OS is theirs. or is it mine ? Do i need a legal team everytime I install software? This whole idea of consent as well…. yikes . I’m glad we have options.

Out of interest what type of engineering and what type of hardware? I’m a (lifelong) music Hobbyist with a passing interest who also works in tech stuff kind of. I’m presuming live sound is your world since you mentioned ios rather than mac os ? Linux seems the perfect candidate for that world though I guess the various companies also do their own proprietary systems in the digi mixer worlds and such ?

Yeh and their own ‘R and D’ may have been leverage in the negotiation.

I switched in 2021. I havent noticed any fuckupery. Whats been happening ?

Loneliness is also a thing, and I’d guess it’s rising. Falls under mental health also I guess. I also don’t relate, but we can look at the history of sex tourism, ‘mail order brides’ , dating sites etc, scams in general and there is a fair bit of cross over maybe. Add to the mix these pseudo intelligent LLMs that seem to serve to please and here we are. What I don’t get is how users falling for them aren’t having the bubble burst by the context issues and inconsistent coherence. Perhaps loneliness and other mental issues result in us hearing/seeing what we want to. Self reinforced illusion to fullfill some sort of need. Just speculating tbh.

I’m amazed it didn’t already as someone who has never used or heard one being used. What’s the business model? Just the data harvesting for purpose of their other businesses?

Is this done manually , or there’s a system thing for it ?

Wheres the melodrama in this post ? I’m detecting enthusiasm maybe, but not melodrama. They’re looking for peoples thoughts and experience, i.e what your own terms are for making these choices. Seems reasonable. Sharing that is optional of course and I also choose not to, end of story.

You’re right, but also They get alot more from the deal than you acknowledge. The service has never been free. They already had a profitable model, and now they want even more. I call it evil, but in a sense it’s standard corporate behaviour.

The two approaches you mention need not be mutually exclusive. I ditched google services more than 10 years ago, while loving somewhere they did some truly despicable antidemocratic things. but so what? They’re a corporation. There are political lobby groups, privacy foundations and advocacy groups you can contribute to. Despite being respectfully evangelical with those around me, most other than a fringe really don’t care enough about this. Doesn’t mean I’ll stop. I will still suggest alternatives. They’re my principles. you’re working in their interest if you tell your allies to give up. I understand and share the cynicism around political process especially in democratic nations with disappointing levels of corporate influence over legislation, we can only engage in it best we can, as well as exerting our rights as consumers. The critical mass required may seem insurmountable but negativity toward those effectively on your side is not going to help either.

To a degree perhaps. It has also monopolised industries that feed into each other. Even if you choose not to use their consumer products, you are being used by them as the product in these industries if you use the web at all, which is most of their business model. That isn’t consumer choice. Political intervention is one hope, which in some countries I guess there is some consumer power over, if consumers were to collectivise to a degree more valuable than the lobbying power of this monster. The internet was turned into the yellowpages with sharp teeth by google .

Thanks for the headsup. This is the final push I needed. Been running Jellyfin for 6months or so but need to put more time into it. Plex has been great, and I’ve also been paying (though felt a little conflicted) a sub which I’m willing to do if it keeps a worthwhile project on an honest trajectory aligning with my needs and restrictions, for a good service or product. However they’re now doing exactly why I started on the self hosting path. Who’s to say the third party is jot going to be a heavy handed industry body, corrupt authority , let alone the problematic world of adsales? They’re walking a very strange line and seem very confused about their purpose. Other than the all ruining ‘growth’. Seeya plex.

They would still have everything else to make up for and improve, but maybe it would be a start. Unfortunately self criticism is not in the programming, and its a very dangerous failing. Saying that, the boom in mental health awareness in China is an interesting cultural development occurring since covid, and Beijing has been involved in it.

I ditched it around 2014 when I noticed it had effectively become the yellow pages. Its pretending to be one thing to the ‘user’ when its actually serving someone else. This is transparent of course but the balance/compromise or tradeoff of it still providing some utility to the user despite this is what may vary for different people. My threshold was low. That and the privacy violations. Unfortunately its a corporation.

raindrop.io works well for me for most of what you’ve mentioned, but its not selfhosted so I’m interested to find out other options also.

Thanks both. I’ve seen enough. Beyond problematic on substicks part.

Mind providing a bit more context to this so I can look it up ? I’ll boycott substick if need be.