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Slashdot Asks: Which Tech Giant You Can't Live Without?
In this week's column of NYTimes, Farhad Manjoo writes about the five largest technology companies in the world: Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet, the parent company of Google. As he notes, these companies have become the most powerful firms of any kind, essentially inescapable for any consumer or business that wants to participate in the modern world. This brings us to two questions:
1. Of the five aforementioned companies, tell us one whose services you don't need for work and for personal use. (In short, the company that doesn't matter to you.) Here's a poll where you can cast your vote.
2. On the same note, which company's services and products you can't ditch (for work / personal use)?
1. Of the five aforementioned companies, tell us one whose services you don't need for work and for personal use. (In short, the company that doesn't matter to you.) Here's a poll where you can cast your vote.
2. On the same note, which company's services and products you can't ditch (for work / personal use)?
I can get my PC from intel, my monitor from Samsung, my OS via Linux and internet through some sort of fascist company.
I don't need those 5 at all.
IBM
Anonymous Coward's votes are clearly Dalit.
I've never owned any Apple products, avoid buying from Amazon, think Facebook is a huge waste of time, and got rid of my last Windows (W2K) computer a few years back.
But my Android phone is indispensable and I find that duckduckgo's search results aren't as good as google's results.
Let's be honest, the world runs on Windows and Office. Linux simply isn't capable of meeting the needs of most users.
I could get by just fine without Apple, and Amazon for that matter. Google is necessary, though - Android devices are affordable and pretty good (and just getting better), and GMail will take over for Yahoo! Mail when that goes under. If Linux would get less fragmented and less stupid (systemd, Unity, blechhh!), maybe Microsoft could go away - but that's decades in the future.
I don't use FB, or any of the social networking sites they acquired, but I admit I do use products/services from the other four on a daily basis (or weekly, in Amazon's case).
I could probably do without Microsoft if Apple lowered their prices on laptops, but they never do.
None. Zero. They could all go bankrupt and it would be business as usual for me after some slight adjustment.
As soon as the tech giants learn that people couldn't live without them (despite whether it's true or not), that's when they always start creeping into nefarious territory with their policies to push their profits higher.
I'd also like to add that Facebook was caught performing psychological experiments on their users that included attempting to make users extremely sad.
Fuck Facebook. I left them YEARS ago and haven't looked back. Now when I talk to friends I meet up with, we have something to talk about because they have no idea what I've been up to AND I have no idea what they've been doing lately.
Other than Facebook I'm indifferent to every other large business. I'll buy products that have high quality longevity and are a value to me. The second they tamper with the quality, I lose trust in them and move on to some other product.
I've exited entire markets of products just because none of the offerings were valuable to me. My wallet thanked me for that.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I run my own mail servers and infrastructure. I am not a fan of giving any information up to various west coast companies. While I obviously own hardware manufactured by them I make sure it's pretty much snipped and doesn't phone home - a few well placed routing table entries take care of that.
When I am out and about I only allow connection back to my own infrastructure at home. So all I really need is Comcast. I'm happy to do everything from etch my own boards to make my own CPU in an FPGA and tinker around without giving Silicon Valley a piece of my existence.
I wish I had an alternative to Comcast. That's the only game in town for Internet in my area. And it's fairly unreliable (goes down a few times a week). Such is the consequence of living in an area with old wiring.
They are all fighting each other for the honor of having the title of "most evil", so i dont need any of them.
To me, companies like General Mills, Tyson and so on are by far more important than software companies. You got to eat first.
If we look strictly into tech - CISCO and the likes, they make networking gear keeping Internet running. Followed by chip designers - that will be AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, ARM. Followed by crypto and PKI companies, like OpenSSL Foundation, RSA, and Entrsut. Crypto is really difficult to get right, starting fresh there would be a huge setback. OS is not that important in grand scheme of things, if necessary we could have most things running again within a year if we had to start fresh. I know people who could probably cobble boot loader and a compiler in a week working directly in assembly. So Microsoft, Apple and other software-only companies are highly replaceable. The only reason they exist is because a whole bunch "on computers" patents.
I put in Alphabet/Google because my company provides a Chrome Extension as a development tool for our product. If Google went away, I'd be fucked.
The initial voting was interesting with Amazon getting exactly ZERO votes. I'm an Amazon customer but life would go on if they went away and I guess everybody else feels that way.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I've hated Apple since elementary school when I forced to use inferior Apple II hardware that paled in comparison to the Ti-99/4a I was using at home. When there was Mac, I had an Amiga. Since then, I've come to know a lot about the company, the hardware, Steve Jobs, and how they do business. They disgust me on every level. To this day, I've never owned or purchased an Apple product and I never will. I only ever interact with their hardware or software when I've been asked for technical support by friends and family. iTunes always failed to impress and I haven't had the need to install Quicktime since the Window 98 era. Fuck Apple and the legions of idiots who willingly bend over and give them access to their wallet. They sell purposely overpriced hardware that is hard to service (ram soldered to the motherboard? Go fuck yourself) and limit user choice to maximize profit far and above any other company on Earth. Never Apple!
Société BIC S.A.
Actually, they're all dispensible, but the one I'd least like to give up would be Alphabet, due to Google Search. Searching without Google pretty much sucks. I sometimes try others, and they're noticeably worse. I also use Android, but it sucks. Android only wins by being the best, not by being any good.
I shop at Amazon every 1-3 months. They could be replaced, but it would be more effort. I know people who would miss AWS a lot, but I doubt they would have a hard time replacing it.
Apple, I could personally live without, but I use 'em at work. We get very little support from the company, though. If they company died, we'd have enough time left on our 10.7 and 10.11 machines to smoothly migrate to the web (desktop-agnostic, so probably Linux).
Microsoft and Facebook are completely irrelevant and if they disappeared, I wouldn't know about it until someone else told me. Those companies don't contribute anything at all.
American Standard
https://www.americanstandard-u...
You are welcome on my lawn.
This is the very definition of a monopoly - we can't 'do without them'. Another indicator is that they are all 'gushing money'. It is just a transfer of wealth from people who need it to people who spends capital on (mostly) crazy crap.
Apple - Don't Need
not a fan boy, and though I work with CS I'm happy with the MS compatible product
Amazon - Don't Need, but Really Like
What can I say as a guy, and a parent (see bulk diapers, toilet paper, detergent), and clueless shopper, they have become an asset. e.g. I bought my son a nice watch for his 16th birthday. I first attempted to go to the down town Los Angeles jewelry district. I had my negotiating cash in hand but realized immediately I had no idea what qualified as a good watch. Amazon to the rescue every offer was counter offered by the Amazon cost on my phone. Ultimately I purchased the watch on Amazon for less $10.
Facebook - Hate It
Humanity would be better off without it. I've watched all my associates become attention whoring narcissistic children. between that and eye catching adds funneled through friend likes it's kinda sad.
Microsoft - Use It
Being in an engineering/architecture field it's required, the only alternate to Office has been Google Apps (see docs) I actually used this in a professional office until people could no longer deal with the accountants whining about there precious icons. (we went back to office). Yes I've tried the linux office apps think they work great but in my professional life this is a pipe dream
Alphabet - Need It (this could be google subliminal suggestions)
What can I say they whore my information but it works and it's cheap (see $100 android phone). I also just discovered the cool features in google photos. lossless uploads and automatic sorting. After 10+ years of Film, DSLR this is sooo convenient.
While I do not necessarily use every tech giant out there personally, I feel like if you took one away it could adversely affect how the markets have grown, and we could be living in a very different time.
One thing I am certain of, if Oracle did not buy Sun Microsystems, we would be better off today. I feel as though anyone else buying Sun would have yielded better for everyone.
Loathsome company, horrible product.
Without a credit card we are back to paper billing, bank transfers, trading in fucking seashells.
"BUT WHUT ABOUT THE BITCOINZ!?!?!"
Not until I can pay my water bill with bitcoins will it be ready for mass consumption. Once Bitcoin reaches the low level of utilities then it'll be ready for primetime.
Wheel of Time: Book by Book and Sumview (summary review) Bigdady92 style: http://bigdady92.blogspot.com/
Linux user.
No social media.
Will dump Android the minute there is an alternative.
FOSS apps only.
That browser stuff is hard to get around, please give suggestions.
I can live very well without any of them especially the (anti-)social media companies.
Microsoft was the last one I gave up. Boy did I feel good and still do tbh.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
If the question is the former then the answer is none of them. Otherwise I'm required to use Microsoft products at work. I don't use any Apple, I can't stand MS products (exception being their SQL server and Server OS), Amazon I rarely use unless I'm buying a vinyl, I have no Facebook account, Alphabet's search engine has gone to crap...I guess out of all of them YouTube might be the only one I actually like even if I can live without them.
A world where the only viable phone was an android and the only viable system running the defacto standard desktop app (MS Office) would suck. Apple provides a unique and viable competition. I don't think it would be possible today to start a new "apple". Though one has to give MS credit for finally innovating a bit with it's surface series.
One can't quite say the same about microsoft. If microsoft went away the hegemony of the Office app series would fade, probably for the better of everyone. Though there would be a period where there was a tower of babble in the bussiness and govt document exchange world as people moved on to a new standard. On the whole it probably would be good to chuck off the embrace and extend legacy and get back to stable standards in interchange formats. So in the long run it would turn out better.
Facebook is a giant empty shell. Nothing it provides is innovative. It just has the virtue of working in a space where a monopoly has an advantage. It would be instantly replaced and after a bitter battle someone else would replace its role.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I'm guessing that if you do have an Android or iOS based smartphone then either Alphabet or Apple will be your indispensable choice accordingly, but if you are an Android user then Apple is probably your most likely first pick for the one you could do without. That was certainly going to be my choice, until I thought about it a bit more. Then I realised that, as an Android user that doesn't care much about Apple, they're mostly harmless since you generally don't need to go near their ecosystem, whereas Facebook will try to track you even if you haven't opted to use their services and they are far more pervasive on third party sites. So, for me, no pain from going without Apple, but a definite upside if Facebook were to just go away.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Damn, I wish SCO was still around. Many of those companies rely on Linux, which of course is built upon significant amounts of SCO UNIX source code.
I use GMail and its associated calendar multiple times a day. I mostly prefer Google's search, though DuckDuckGo does a great job, and Bing is a distant third. The only time I visit Amazon is out of curiosity, though I think I have ordered books as local book stores close (yes, I patronized them until they got shut down to build condos -- welcome to Toronto). Apple -- don't care. Microsoft -- well, I use a Windows laptop for some stuff, so I guess I need them around. Facebook -- ugh, but it's the only way to stay in touch with many of my friends.
I most certainly don't need Apple. I use products and services of the other four, but if they went away tomorrow, I could easily do without them. I make a conscious effort to keep it that way.
I confess to using Gmail (for convenience) and purchase the occasional item from Amazon but that's it but I don't even interact with the rest. If they all vanished, I would be just fine. Does this mean I'm not participating in the modern world?
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I use no Apple products. I'm surprised this is here actually. I assume most people with Android phones and Windows PCs don't. Sure, there are the Apple TV and iPad users but the former are in a competitive market and the latter are becoming more niche-interest as people switch to using their phones.
Google's services are all replacable with other services that will be at least adequate. Amazon is a useful company to buy from but there are other online retailers. Microsoft is a tricky one, but I do only use their major products as a consumer. My work involves developing for Linux based embedded devices, on a Linux machine. I use Windows for gaming and there's some software which is native. I dare say I could switch to Linux and Wine since I'm mainly a retrogamer.
So that leaves facebook. Nothing would give me more pleasure than facebook ceasing to exist. It's crack. I'm there because all my friends are there. Without facebook we'd find another means of communication.
I do use all of them save for Apple. But the only one I couldn't leave behind is Microsoft: In business they still have a few very entrenched products.e.g: Office. Despite all the alternatives it's what most businesses (big and small) usually end up using. In a business setting few dare editing Office format files with Libreoffice since they might not work on Office.
At home I depend on Windows to be able to run my videogames. I could certainly buy a Playstation but I have lots of games that only work on Windows and they're usually cheaper on PCs that on consoles too.
Even if it blocked the entire internet I'd still manage to live. You do realize there was life before the internet right?
Are they still alive I wonder...
Why isn't AOL on the list? I'm still rocking my dialup account on AOL, and I think it's all I'll ever ne(SAD&~~~~
CARRIER LOST
sig: sauer
Nothing is irreplaceable. At the moment, several would be inconvenient. I use Amazon for shopping, Google for personal email/shared documents, and Microsoft for my work OS / Office suite. It's not saying that these couldn't be replaced, but would be rather annoying to train everyone at work on Linux and to use something other than Excel, I wouldn't have one centralized space to buy stuff - but that is easily remedied. However, iTunes can burn in hell.
The guy at the watch shop should have thrown you out of the store. His shop isn't a free Amazon showroom. If everybody followed your example, there would be no brick and mortar stores left, and you'd be whinging about how you can't see physical items before you buy them.
I need air, water and food, in that order.
Next stupid question.
Irrelevant news and morons using moderation to mod down what they disagree on. 2018 resolution: so long.
is full of indispensable people.
The same goes for companies. Life existed before them. Life will exist after them.
What is even funnier is that all the examples are companies that do things that are pretty bad for the customers. So it is liker asking what finger or toe you would miss the least.
Apple: Abuse of copyright and trademark
Amazon : Abuse of workers
Facebook : invasion of privacy
Alphabet : Invasion of privacy
Microsoft : They ain't GNU
I am sure you can come up with a few more things they do. Yes, what they do is legal. That does not make it moral and are bad for the customer. So why would I favor one above the other if I would love to see them all leave?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Is this a serious question? We can live without any 'tech giant', you can't live without food & water...what the hell is this insistence that 'tech' is somehow 'vital' to our existence? It's important, fun to have but seriously it isn't a requirement for living a life.
I don't like Microsoft, but as long as I'm employed, I doubt I could escape them.
I could use Android, but I prefer Apple.
I'd really be hard-pressed to get rid of gmail, and I have a lot on Google Docs.
I can't think of any good alternative to Kindle and Amazon rules online shopping.
Facebook can FOAD. I have little use for it.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Microsoft: Not only do they make the OS's that we use, but they also make the business software that we use (retail point of sale). We're satisfied with all of them. If Microsoft suddenly went away, we'd have to choose from some not-as-good alternatives, and would hurt our business.
I don't respond to AC's.
Can't live without:
Apple: main computer for daily use (personal and work). Safari, Mail, Pages, etc.
Alphabet: GMail (email used for various websites, great spam filters). YouTube. Chrome for websites that choke on Safari.
Netflix: my only entertainment source (limited selection compared to the USA but still worth the price).
Microsoft: only used for gaming. I don't use Office or anything else from Microsoft. It's just the OS that happens to be required for most games.
None at all:
Facebook: No account, I don't use it. Don't care.
Amazon: limited selection in Canada, prices are average, shipping costs are usually too high. Not interested in Prime, I pay enough monthly fees as it is. I usually buy either locally or from other websites.
#DeleteFacebook
I write code using an oracle-owned language, which I deploy on an Amazon-owned infrastructure, which interacts with Microsoft desktop machines (90% of my userbase). I use libraries developed by Google (less and less nowadays, but still I use guava sometimes) I certainly use google to find answers to problems.
That is how I make 100% of my income. I mean, before Google and Amazon and java, I still made 100% of my income in software, so presumably I would continue to do so even if these megacorporations ceased to be, but as of right now, 100% of my income is undeniably tied to these 4 companies.
Alphabet/Google - Yeah, it's hard to not use Google
Facebook - so far I haven't had a need to set up an account and don't feel like I have been negatively impacted
Microsoft - I haven't used Windows in more than a decade, but I'm sure I interact with MS products via ATMs and things like that.
Apple - as a consumer this one is pretty easy to avoid (see Android under Alphabet/Google)
Amazon - I know a few people who still distrust shopping online and don't use Amazon. So it is possible, but it's so convenient!
So, in my view Google is really the only one that is the most difficult to avoid. The rest are fairly easy to not use.
The article says which one "can't you live without" and the poll says "which one CAN you live without" (paraphrasing).
So, I predict other people will fuck up their answers like I did and pick the one they wanted to keep and not discard first.
*Need it Alphabet = Innovative; modernized search, free mapping, Youtube, Chrome, good cloud apps, good phones, enabling low cost computing devices, pioneering self driving cars, Amazon = Reinvented online shopping, Amazon Prime, Amazon Web Services, drone delivery please! Apple = I like my iPhone; Android is an adequate OS, but no company supports their legacy phone hardware as long as Apple does. OSX is solid. I could easily use a Mac for 99% of everything I need to do on a computer *Don't need it Microsoft - Even though I use it EVERY DAY, there are some great alternatives, especially in the consumer space. ChromeOS does 95% of everything I need on a daily basis. Facebook - I have never used it and I don't care to
Me: Microsoft for gaming and Google
My grandpa: none
The tech giant that I cannot do without: Richard Stallman
Google
they sell the water filters that keep me alive. I don't know if they manufacture them theirselves.
Looking at the list, I see a few services I use, but none I need. I occasionally use Facebook, but wouldn't mind it it disappeared tomorrow. I use YouTube and Google Maps, but there are alternatives to both I could happily use instead. I don't think I use any Microsoft or Apple products or services.
Amazon is probably the one of the group I find most useful, but since I pretty much just use them for books (and ebooks), Amazon can be replaced by any local book store or library, just with a little more effort on my part.
I'd miss Google Search and maybe Gmail but I could live without Alphabet AKA "Google's EU antitrust shield". Amazon is convenient but there are plenty of other places to buy things online. My life would be markedly improved if Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft went away.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Given that the technology we use is more of a hive collective, with no one failure being disastrous, I'm going to say none.
Google... I could replace my use of it with another search engine and both docs and android have multiple competitors
Microsoft... I use the OS (windows 7) daily but again there are alternatives
Apple... pretty much the same, use it daily, but there are alternatives
Is there really anyone else?
The few pieces of tech I can't do without are not tech giants by any means, and do have alternatives, which would be very costly (time and money) to implement
I do not own any Apple products, I don't use Facebook or other social media. I connect using email, phone, and texting. I also walk or drive to meet people at a restaurant or bar. Dinosaur Tom
They produce nothing that I use in my personal or work life. I do need Microsoft as all my stuff is from those guys. Not saying I love it all but it all works the way I need it to work.
No electricity, no nothing.
I could do very well without any or all of the above companies.
None of them offer any services I'd particularly miss.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I lived perfectly fine before using their products, I could live perfectly fine without them again.
But which ones would I be severely annoyed at losing? Spotify is probably the most important one, Youtube comes second.
Eat the rich.
I'm torn between Digital Equipment Corporation and Sun Microsystems.
I do a lot of Windows programming, so if Microsoft went away I'd take a short-term hit. But only short term -- I'd just switch to whatever took its place.
The rest of them are entirely optional.
... the most disposable. Everything they do can be replaced easily. Then comes Microsoft. Facebook is a somewhat special case, in that they are irreplaceable at what they do, but what they do can be eliminated (and I often wonder if we'd be better off without them) Amazon is like Facebook, except that what they do (or what we do via them - shop for stuff we need) isn't irreplaceable, Google is on top of the pile, as they are how we find everything else. Tomorrow, I might sort them differently.
I don't *need* any of these, but Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google all add something to my life, to a varying extent. Probably Google quite a bit, and Facebook least of these.
Not a Microsoft person, though. Don't use Windows, I would go Linux or even Chromebook before I did that. Office is obviously far, far better than the alternatives, but for current work I could get by with any Office Suite, and use Google Office quite a bit.
The problem with avoiding Google is that their search engine really is the best. I mostly try to use other ones that respect privacy, but if they aren't giving me the information I want I'll switch over to Google, because it really does work best.
I don't own a Windows computer, but I sometimes have to use Windows at work. That's true for a lot of people.
Amazon is easy to avoid. Anything they sell, you can also get from lots of other online stores.
Apple is easy to avoid, as long as you aren't also avoiding Google and Microsoft. If you can't use either Android or iOS, that's hard. If you can't use either Windows or macOS, that's hard. (I know, use Linux, but that isn't always a good option.)
I already don't use Facebook, so I guess that's easy. I know, I'm making it harder for myself to keep up with friends. Just like in the old days before we had social networks. That's a choice I've made.
So you can avoid any of these companies, but do you want to? I avoid Facebook because they're evil, and I avoid Windows when I can because I dislike it. I don't try to avoid Apple or Google, except that I try to limit how much information Google knows about me. And I use Amazon a lot. They aren't a monopoly, they just have a great selection of products at reasonable prices with good customer service. You can shop other places, but most people default to Amazon for good reasons.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Slashdot, of course.
of tech company?
I think the only ones that I'd miss are companies like Level 3, NTT, etc, considering how much of the internet they backbone.
I use Apple's iCloud mail, because it's fast on MacBook, but my main mail is in Protonmail
Google's Music, because I can't keep all songs on my laptop, but it's good to have your own collection uploaded somewhere...and for free.
Amazon's Kindle, but only e-reader itself, so there are alternatives.
Microsoft's Skype... sadly Skype was bought not by Google, I wish it dead =)
But if some of these companies will disappear, I will be only happy. Maybe only not Amazon, I like their Kindle e-readers :D
Of these 5, Amazon and Apple are now optional for businesses. Maybe Facebook too if you sell B2B.
Anything Amazon sells in its web services is now also available from Google. Anything Amazon sells is available elsewhere for similar cost.
Apple is only needed if you absolutely want to publish your own i-app. If you just do business through a website, though, they're a luxury.
You still need Google for marketing your offerings, and you still need Facebook if you market to consumers (although other social media is becoming more relevant/cost-effective), and you still need Microsoft (Office) if you exchange business-related docx, xlsx and pptx files.
- Apple - don't use it at all
- Amazon - I use it, but don't depend on it
- Facebook - only check once in a while when I get a notification that one of my family members posted something. If Facebook disappeared, there are other services that work just as well.
- Microsoft - I use Windows a lot, but these days, there are alternatives that work about as well. Who really cares about the OS, when all you do is browse the Web and check your email!
- Google - Nobody can duplicate what Google does with Search. Not even close. I remember life before Google.com. It was a lot harder to find out things I wanted to know. Google is almost magic. Bing and Yahoo don't even come close. MapQuest and Garmin don't come close to Google Maps and Navigation. Without Google, I'd be lost, figuratively and sometimes literally! There is no adequate replacement for what Google does.
Cloud services are a trap. The more you dig yourself into them, the harder it is to get out. I use the programs that I want, on my devices, the way I want. My data is mine. If I need cloud services for syncing between devices, I can set up my own cloud system.
It seems that every company has stopped caring about making anything, and now only cares about how they can get customers to pay for something every single month for the rest of their lives.
Microsoft - Use It
Being in an engineering/architecture field it's required, the only alternate to Office has been Google Apps (see docs) I actually used this in a professional office until people could no longer deal with the accountants whining about there precious icons. (we went back to office). Yes I've tried the linux office apps think they work great but in my professional life this is a pipe dream
This hasn't been true for at least a few years now. Office on Mac is excellent now IMO. I hate windows. I'm an engineer, and thank God I've started at a company that doesn't believe this nonsense. First day, they asked if I wanted a Mac or Windows machine. Nice!
Without their bloatware inflation, I would be unable to get 10-year old hardware for an apple and a song in order to get all my computing and sound processing jobs done (obviously using GNU/Linux which doesn't check all my file accesses for viruses and copyright violations).
Well this was a jewelry exchange designed to allow single source competition (see tons of sales booths within an open area). Normally I would agree being a proponent of the local small business. However this gentleman was reselling store brand (sears) as new unique with an unreasonable markup. Amazon gave me the advantage of knowledge:
a. value
b. quality
c. product origin.
This took away his advantage which he used maliciously.
I don't use Facebook or any MS product *now*, so that much is very easy.
Apple... I do have a Macbook, which I like, but I could replace it with a high-quality laptop with a good Linux distro without any qualms. I don't use any software which doesn't run on Linux.
Amazon would be tough. I buy tons of stuff from Amazon, including monthly subscribe & save items, etc. But i could do without it.
Google, heh. I use Android devices (phone, tablet, watch), and Chromebooks, and Chromecasts, and Nexus Players. I have Nest thermostats, smoke alarms and security cameras. I have a non-trivial investment in apps, books and movies on Google Play. I use Chrome, though that would be easy to change. I make heavy use of Google search & maps, though I suppose those might not be too hard to replace with Microsoft's or Apple's versions. Vast numbers of documents, spreadsheets, etc., personal and professional, are in Google Docs. The primary way I message people is via Google Hangouts (more than SMS). All of my photos are in Google Photos (though they're in other places as well). I use Drive for my offsite backups. My personal email domain is handled by GMail. That would be a PITA to move.
At the end of the day, I *could* do without any of them, but leaving Google would require a huge amount of effort and be extremely painful.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
I can't live without google. Its father of all the companies for sure.
Facebook: Facebook not existing would actually make my life better because then I wouldn't have to hear condescending "Oh, you're not on Facebook" comments from... everyone ever.
Apple: I don't use any of their products. (Though I like that they provide a check on the Microsoft and Google platforms.)
Amazon: I'll answer this as soon as I'm done buying something on Amazon.
Microsoft: Professionally, no getting around this. At home, the number of things keeping me on the Windows platform is vanishingly small. (Basically a combination of Ubuntu getting better and more things supporting it and Windows getting worse.)
Alphabet: Losing Search and Android would be troublesome. All the other services I use have reasonable replacements from other companies.
and maybe NCR or Cray or HPE. You use their computers a lot and you may die if they do. A 'computer' in your home is mostly a toy.
Intel - Need their network cards!
I've been network blocking all the cloud stuff for years - no google, apple, facebook, twitter, microsoft, yahoo, or pretty much any other centralized services used directly.
Self-host almost everything from cloud storage to email - not using "tech giant" products ... except Intel CPUs (could use AMD), but I've got to have Intel NICs. There are many reasons that BSD users understand.
If you want a family social network, use RetroShare. It is private, encrypted, self-replicating, and cross platform. What's not to like?
No Apple?
To my knowledge, I've never paid Apple a penny, not $0.01. Haven't used any Apple products since the late 80s.
Bought a Nexus4 phone directly from Google, but Google and I have a disagreement about lifespan for $400 hardware. They think 3 yrs, I think 10 yrs. It wasn't my money that purchased the phone, but they won't be getting any money from me.
Hitachi might qualify for HDDs in my Can't live without list. Seems they are the only HDD makers not totally screwing up quality these days.
I don't believe that Big IT serves my needs or interests. It cripples my abilities. It limits my choices. It creates powerful political pressures that wish to enslave me.
I don't need or want Big IT or any other powerful corporation. I would be better off without Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, and Oracle.
if Slashdot went bankrupt, that would affect you personally. Who needs Intel? If ASML foreclosed, that would affect the computer world badly.
... it hasn't changed in DECADES. Microsoft and Apple is all I need (like it or not). Bring back Alta Vista and Lycos! Google is for kids.
I'll rank these companies by descending utility to me personally:
Google
Apple
Amazon
Microsoft
Facebook
Certainly, for most of my life I didn't have any of these services available to me. But those were the days when the news sites I used the most had to be printed out on big sheets of cheap paper and delivered house to house by small boys. When I shopped for anything, I had to drive around to different stores looking for the item and comparing prices. To look something up, I had to drive to a public building called a "library" and search in printed books - and have any of you young whippersnappers ever seen a Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature?
... the big 5 went down tomorrow, permanently. I don't think I'd miss them at all, except for a short period of adjustment while websites sort out there depencies on code hosted on external CDNs. However, there are too many people who have way too much dependency on them. On the other hand, it's probably not making their lives any better and possibly even worse. On the whole I think society would be better off without them in the longer term.
Well this was a jewelry exchange designed to allow single source competition (see tons of sales booths within an open area). Normally I would agree being a proponent of the local small business. However this gentleman was reselling store brand (sears) as new unique with an unreasonable markup. Amazon gave me the advantage of knowledge:
a. value
b. quality
c. product origin.
This took away his advantage which he used maliciously.
Couldn't agree more. People who go to the Birkenstock store , try some on, then go buy them online for $15 less should be shot. But, in this case, it's hard to feel any sympathy for sleezy watch salesmen.
I don't use Apple, Facebook or Alphabet.
As Bob once said, you gotta serve somebody. But it's probably not a bad idea to take stock of your techsploitators every now and then, if for no other reason than you might need to jump ship when they do something that isn't advantageous to you. However, this is an amazingly naive article at best. There's absolutely no mention of cloud services! Seriously, how can this dude think driving to Target somehow counts as "giving up" Amazon when AWS powers so much of the world's online presence? He forgot about iCloud, he forgot about all the other Google services he most certainly uses, etc etc. And guess what, there's at least one more multi-conglomerate you forgot about: your ISP which you probably pay more to over the long term than any of the Five. Call it the scary six (or more likely seven since he probably pays for both wired and wireless like many of us do).
Monsanto :(
First lets throw Apple, Amazon and Facebook in the trash. Zero use, unworthy of consideration.
Microsoft has recently released numerous memos explaining to the world their disposition as an untrustworthy malware vendor. While I very much still believe Microsoft has the best products in some categories it's prudent both personally and professionally to cut your losses and move on. There are sufficient number of "good enough" solutions going in the right direction while Microsoft lunges head first in the wrong direction the math is starting to add up more and more. Noting a significant uptick in customers moving to Linux abandoning Win32 is out of the question right now however I'm unsure if this will still be the case a few years from now.
This leaves Alphabet soup. I like Google search yet not convinced easy answers are actually worthwhile. Slight modifications of behavior like collecting more official reference material locally, search providers for SO/Wikipedia and scraping a handful of list archives would likely yield a more optimal outcome v simply always following path of least resistance.
Today Alphabet's "Don't be evil" draws more laughter than believers. Considerable damage has been unleashed over the years from intentionally or not bankrolling industrial scale shit scraping sites and link farms to decimation of managed directories, SEO weaponization, monopoly/monoculture in the search space, popularity based ranking and progressively insane and outrageous data collection schemes this firm is engaged. In all seriousness dejanews was in many ways more useful to me than Google is today. Physical phone book is in many ways more useful v. Google... If I had to chose between SO+Wikipedia and Google ... Google would lose... handily.
In the grand scheme of things simply following the path of least resistance never leads to the best outcomes.
I already Live without Apple as I don't like their prices. Yes I'm a damn cheapskate who feels $20 is as much as I'm willing to spend on a smart phone. Don't use Microsoft, switched to FreeBSD after Win10 was released and I block all access to facebook as I certainly don't need their effen spam.
I rarely use Amazon for anything though I'm married to Gmail - got my account in 2003 and simply can't live w/o it anymore.
Professionally, part of my job involves using Android, iOS, AWS and Windows. So, professionally I would be okay with FaceBook going away. Actually, I'd be fine having to support fewer platforms. As long as they give me time to migrate away, I don't really care which of them remain.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Useless ... except they have some cool PHP VM tech that will outlive them.
So glad so many people here don't use any of those company's products. (yeah, right)
only one of those that is really important to me. I already have nothing to do with Amazon, and very little to do with MS or Apple. Facebook is convenient for keeping in touch with certain people, but I could live without it. Google(Alphabet) you'll have to pry from my cold dead hands.
You can even live without money - barter for stuff.
I'd pick one or all of these companies. Industrialized farming is what's allowed the population in developed countries to far outgrow their food production capability when it was grown by manual and animal labor. Without them, I'd either be dead of starvation, or working on a farm instead of in tech.
From most to least disposable:
1. Facebook. Tried it once, got rid of it after a few months. I think.
2. Apple. I've never bought anything from them.
OK, those were easy to get rid of. The last 3 are a bit more of a challenge.
3. Alphabet. I've been online since before Alta Vista. Some other search engine would fill that role. I'm not using their email or any other service. I'd miss YouTube though. Getting rid of Alphabet would be just a minor inconvenience.
4. Amazon. The 21st century Sears. This one would actually hurt. I haven't ordered that much, but when I have it's been a pleasant experience. With Alphabet and this gone, we're back to using Alta Vista to find some random web site that might be a good place to order... sort of a 1999 online shopping experience; not the end of the world though.
5. Microsoft. Switching from their IDE would be a much bigger hassle than switching search engines or having to shop a bit differently. The development environment is the one thing that keeps me in it, and "I'll look into something else" has been something I've said for years. I've used alternative browsers, searches, and even shops that aren't Amazon affiliates... but I'm loathe to much up any development I still do. Maybe some day I'll decide that I just never want to program again. Then this might be no. 3 on the list.
RMS is a bit to weird for my taste.
Giant doesn't even come close to describing him. Colossus. Titan. Lavatorian. Behemoth.
He's all of those, and more.
I was on the internet before most of them. Apple only beats me by 3 years. I can run freebsd to do everything I need, with no influence of microsoft in redhat linux as well.
Lets face it, there are other stores besides amazon, but none that are anywhere close to being as good. There are other search engines that are almost as good as google. iPhone/android has always been a toss up. Microsoft has a VERY hard to replace position on 2 billion PCs and basically every enterprise around the world. It's not that they can NEVER be dislodged, it just takes a lot longer than the others. As evidence, people have been giving away Linux desktops for free for almost 20 years, and people still don't want them.
As long as there are options, they are all replaceable.
like broadcast and cable, i've already dumped fb and haven't looked back; obviously don't need google for search, youtube? not a big fan, gmail-i have plenty of alternatives; ms can be swapped with linux and a word equivalent; android can bow to whatever and amazon, well, that's a bit tougher but doable. i use it a lot, meaning serveral times a week but i won't need prime if i'm not shopping there, have not allowed alexa in the house and it's been months since i watched one of their shows so i'll use another internet shopping service and actual brick 'n' mortar purchasing. honestly manjoo, it's not the first time i've noticed but seriously, you need a life. a real life. there's an actual world out there. you kinda depress me.
- js.
Slashdot!
They are the few brands than make things that work. Placing ads and OS can be replaced.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
We're all posting here...
I was suspicious of them at first, then after Snowden I made a point of getting rid of the last of them.
Apple: Never got into it.
Amazon: Used it a few times. Not heavy.
Facebook: I was aware this was a privacy nightmare from the start and never signed up.
Alphabet: Didn't get Gmail because of their policy of scanning emails for ads. Kicked Search to the curb after Snowden.
Microsoft: Stopped using windows over a decade ago. Stopped using hotmail post snowden.
I already live without Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.
I had a Facebook account for all of three months before I deactivated it after finding it to be boring and pointless.
I really do no understand why this fad has not already come to an end.
From least to most important:
5. Facebook: I gave up on Facebook several months ago, I don't use WhatsApp and barely touch Instagram. The only service of theirs I use is Messenger and even that is hanging on by a thread, with only a few friends I use it to talk with. Opinion of company: Low.
4. Apple: Apple is not my first choice for devices or services. While I do have a handful of Apple devices, they barely get use and my life would hardly be impacted by abandoning them. My only interest in Apple would be as a platform to develop for, considering its large install base. Opinion of company: Medium.
3. Amazon: Because I do not live in the US, shipping from Amazon is way too expensive for my taste, so Amazon is a last resort. I usually get my products from my local online megastore, and if that fails, I usually choose Ebay before Amazon. If shipping to my country was free or comparable to local shipping, I'd be tempted to put this at #2. Opinion of company: High. (I'm sure they're evil like every other big company, though.)
2. Google: I don't use Gmail. I would be fine using Bing. I am contemplating getting an Android phone, but only because iPhone 7 was disappointing and Windows Mobile is dead. And Google+? LOL! Only reason Google is so high is because I can imagine abandoning all products and services from Facebook, Apple and Amazon before I abandoned YouTube. (I am not loyal to the YouTube brand; there's just no decent YouTube competitor. If one appears, I will be more than happy to jump ship.) Opinion of company: Medium.
1. Microsoft: I use Windows for my OS, Outlook for my email, OneDrive for my cloud storage, Xbox for my console gaming, Visual Studio for my programming, and if I were rich enough I'd have a Surface Book and a Surface Laptop. And, while none of these are perfect, I am perfectly fine with these products and services. The only Microsoft product I use and will be abandoning is my Windows phone. Opinion of company: Medium-High. (I enjoy their products, but when they don't have competition, they tend to suck. It just so happens to be a point in time when they have a lot of competition.)
If American Standard went under, more people would buy Kohler toilets.
https://prism-break.org/en/all...
Casteism
Sorry to tell you, but I believe setting up your mail server is complicated.
Let's say it's not a problem though (you find a recent tutorial, do the little things so that spam filters like you) then you need a domain, and you need reliable payment for that. Hosting, and you need reliable payment.
I think we would need some kind of escrow service or system, not unlike micro-financing, as it is for small or even very small payments.
Even in the first world you have the poor, unemployed, people that will become either of these at some point, or perhaps more commonly people who make a family live, and live paycheque by paycheque or hand to mouth, or whichever way you may say it.
In a former slashdot discussion I spent a post complaining about that, here I am trying to suggest a solution. Perhaps there would have to be such services for the US, others for the EU or individual countries ; perhaps such a service may be almost global anyway like famous payment processing companies or escrow companies you may think of. I don't know well about legal issues of a service company about money.
Anyway, what I'm saying is I have no idea if I'll be able to pay $19.99 on May 13th 2019 at 2:30 UTC, but if I can chip in $10 this week because I did well or avoided spending it on whatever, then that will do. I will then afford to not lose my domain or hosting or low end VPS at some arbitrary future date for an arbitrary underlying reason.
> It also doesn't need JavaScript to run
Google also, for all its evil parts, to its credit also does not require JavaScript to run. When I heard that they were moving to a JS based search, it annoyed me. It's one thing to give suggestions while you're typing, but what's the point of showing search results if you haven't even told them what you're searching for yet?! They could have totally broken old non-JS search, but they did not.
Also, Google Image Search works without JS. This is deliberate, because JS-based image search is totally different from non-JS. I'd argue that non-JS works better (for me) than JS-based.
Finally, they don't annoyingly hide-by-default their FAQs so that you have to have JS turned on just to be able to read a Google help answer.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Saves us from bad guys.