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)?

Comments

None of them.

[the_skywise]

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.

Re:None of them.

[someone1234]

You should add google.* to your banned host list, and see how far you get on the "internet" :D

Re:None of them.

[TheRaven64]

I have an Apple computer, but almost everything I use could run on another system (though needing something that runs *NIX dev tools and Microsoft Office would probably leave me using some form of virtualisation). Of the others on the list: Facebook? Don't use them. Google? Don't use them for search, do have an Android phone but most of the Google code is replaced by other things, wouldn't mind if they went away. Microsoft? I use MS Office, but if they went away then that wouldn't be too sad (though none of the PowerPoint competitors have an equivalent of SmartArt, which is a shame). Amazon? They're convenient, but they're just a retailer: there's nothing that they sell that I can't buy elsewhere (I suspect that some things I use run on AWS, but they could probably migrate away).

Re:None of them.

[cayenne8]

You know...I lived a good portion of my life before any of these companies existed.

Ok, I guess I heard of Apple in my teens, but they weren't the behemoth they are now and didn't have that much influence on society.

But seriously, I grew up in a city, with a family, friends, and normal life....without any of these companies and I can tell you, I never felt back then my life was lacking in any form.

Today?

Well, I do appreciate and use the resources of many of these companies...but I do find that some of them also creep me out with the data mining and surveillance they have on my and everyones' lives.

I find that FB and other social media, while being helpful in so many ways, is also seeming to increase the divisiveness in society, especially in the US. I know there are underlying problems, but I think FB and other social media are compounding these problems.

Google has some great stuff, but I very much dislike their data gathering on me, my life and preferences.

So, I could (and have) lived without any of these companies.....and did just fine.

I don't use FB, never have...so, no loss there. I could probably get by without Google, but the one thing I'd miss is YouTube.

I do use Amazon a lot, it's my primary purchase destination, but ever since they started collecting tax a couple months ago on their direct sales to my state, I've been using them less. If they clamp down on the 3rd party sellers on Amazon and make THEM also start collecting tax, I'll likely drop using them as often. Might as well buy local at that point.

So, I guess my answer to the question is "Meh"....I've lived without them before and life was just fine.

Re:None of them.

[Maritz]

This whole thread will be a fanboy shit-slinging-fest.

Re:None of them.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think YouTube is the only thing I would miss as well. I was never one for drama or entertainment but YouTube is an amazing resource of educational videos. Sure, I used to watch those on PBS but I really enjoy some educational YouTube throughout the day.

I am disappointed to see PiedPiper is not on the list. I would miss pipey.

Re:None of them.

[GPLHost-Thomas]

Same over here. I haven't used Windows since 2004 and never used any Apple product (and use Linux since it existed), I barely use a Facebook account to read an article (yes, article, not stupid "posts") once a year, I use OpenStack and not AWS, and I could well shop somewhere else on Amazon (I already shop on taobao.com / alibaba). The only thing I use is Google search and maps, but really, I could go with duckduckgo and OSM. I wouldn't miss any of these these big companies if they stopped.

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

Google routes to null here, along with lots of other Alphabet domains and any I find.

You think you need googleapis, but you don't.

Nor do you need any of the rest of them. It's all in your mind.

But then, you can get away without using sugar, tobacco, booze, petroleum-based fuels, and quite a bit more. Just depends on how industrious you are.

Re:None of them.

[cayenne8]

I think YouTube is the only thing I would miss as well. I was never one for drama or entertainment but YouTube is an amazing resource of educational videos. Sure, I used to watch those on PBS but I really enjoy some educational YouTube throughout the day.

I agree, I really do use YT as one of my primary sources of how to learn something new.

It was a fun thing before Google bought them....and with Google's attempts at making everyone on YT a Google+ or whatever they are doing now member...they have actually made it worse in some respects.

My YouTube account is old enough to pre-date the Google buy. I've refused to join G+ when they wanted that, and to this day, while I have my account and can post videos, I cannot comment on even my own videos, much less others.

I live with it.

I read what hoops I would have to do to enable my posting ability again, and it just seemed too complex and I read it might actually, if done incorrectly, cause my account to be disabled or even dropped....

So, I live without comments on there.

Re: None of them.

[TheOuterLinux]

DuckDuckGo.com and they don't bubble your searches either. There's nothing worse than showing subjective results and advertisements pertaining to your personality. You can turn cookies off, but they get more intimate with your computer than that; it won't help. No wonder assholes keep getting into office. Facebook is guilty of the same exact thing with their news articles. Anyone feel free to humor me; find a conservative and a liberal and tell them to google the same topic at the same time and see what happens. DuckDuckGo keeps things objective and private. It also doesn't need JavaScript to run and they have a .onion version for Tor users. So, no you don't need Google at all. When in doubt and need an alternative, ask a Linux user.

Re:None of them.

[gfxguy]

But you're looking at it through historical context - we've lived without internet, without cellphones, even without cable TV, and managed to actually survive! But if you're looking at it in the context of today, you've likely started relying heavily on one or more of these companies and it would likely be extremely inconvenient, if not impossible to do your job, without one or several of them.

I'll agree that facebook is the most useless one there, and if facebook disappeared from the face of the planet, the lives of hundreds of millions of users worldwide would actually likely improve.

I've come to rely on google for a lot of things. Certainly searching the internet is one of them, but gmail, google voice, sharing calendars and documents with my family has been extremely useful. So, on a personal level, losing Google would hurt the most - although I'd manage.

As far as work goes, we work with proprietary software (and I'm not complaining, as it includes great API access for us programmers); it only runs on Windows. I would love to see a port somewhere else, but that's not likely. We also rely a lot on Microsoft's cloud services and office products to share things (the way I do in my personal life with Google). If MS were suddenly to cease to exist, we'd switch to products on Linux (we've evaluated them, and they just weren't ready for prime-time yet, but we'd learn to live with them if they were the only option).

I also use Amazon a lot - I have prime, and I've never looked back. I'll take free two day shipping over wasting gas, causing extra pollution, adding to the traffic problem, and spending a couple of hours going to the local big box store and choosing something from a much more limited selection. I don't care about sales tax. I'd be paying that locally anyway. Prime videos and music are a nice added bonus.

So there's none of these companies I couldn't live without, but I don't think that's really the question. We use the word "need" very loosely these days, and it depends on context. I don't "need" internet service at home... but I do "need" internet service at home if I want to work remotely. But I don't "need" to work remotely, it's just a perk. I don't "need" any of these companies. I "need" them to do some specific things that I don't really "need" to do.

And slashdot actually has polls, so WTF would someone go offsite to take this survey? Unless, of course, you like being the product. Wondering how many ads are on the linked page.

Re:None of them.

[ctilsie242]

Apple? I like macOS for bread and butter computing, but I won't be destroyed if I wind up using a Dell or Lenovo.
Microsoft? There isn't much out that will scale as well as AD, so perhaps someone (Novell?) would put out a good LDAP offering that can handle things. Other than that, a good Puppet infrastructure could replace SCCM.
Amazon? Azure and OpenStack items could replace AWS, and someone could make an API interface to map all AWS calls to the other cloud providers.
Facebook? Easiest to replace. If they disappeared, G+, VK, WeChat, could step in. Eventually MS or another big company would fill that gap with a very usable offering.
Google? I'd say the hardest to replace, but the search engine could be replaced with Bing, the cloud services with AWS or Azure, Gmail with office.com, the Play Store with Amazon's Android store, and perhaps MS could make a variant or fork of AOSP.

The real company that would be a pain to replace would be ARM, even though they don't make any chips themselves.

Re: None of them.

[TheOuterLinux]

I use Linux as well. Matter of fact, I got a nine year old laptop right now running 32-bit PAE kernel 4.11 with up to date software just fine. It's really sad how businesses really on these companies for communication and don't even realize the privacy concerns workers may have. Also, everything is cloud and AI now, which just places even more dependency. If these companies disappeared tomorrow, economies around the world would collapse. There are FOSS alternatives to everything. I also personally don't need any of these companies for work or play.

Re: None of them.

[gfxguy]

Tell me about duckduckgo's email service, and calendaring system, and cloud document services. I'm interested in switching. I could easily live without Google's search service.... I could live without Google at all, but we're really talking about current levels of reliance on any of these companies, and I don't think you get as much "for free" from anyone else (I know it's not free, I know I'm the product, but I'm OK with that trade off to the extent that I use the service).

Re:None of them.

[TWX]

I've actually started migrating-away from Amazon. They have a local presence and I get charged local sales tax if I buy from them. It makes more sense to buy from other vendors that don't have such a presence if I'm doing catalog purchases, especially if those other vendors also offer free shipping.

Re:None of them.

[TWX]

And how is this different than any other thread?

Re:None of them.

[TWX]

I used Altavista.digital.com back in the day, I used mapquest, I used Yahoo maps.

I switched to using Google for a search engine when Altavista's results got bad or when it closed, can't remember which at this point. I switched to Google's maps because they were easier to read than Mapquest's or Yahoo's.

Should a truly better competitor for these kinds of functions come along then I would consider them. I'm not exactly thrilled with Google/Alphabet's direction, they seem to be getting a little big for their britches.

Re: None of them.

[gfxguy]

It's not worth it (for me, anyway). That's the point. I realize what the trade off is, and it's worth it to me. It's not that I don't value my privacy, it's that the kind of information Google is getting from me is fairly innocuous, and if I had anything important; data I didn't want shared, proprietary things I need for work, for example - then I wouldn't be using Google.

Re:None of them.

[iMadeGhostzilla]

In other threads you are more likely to learn something useful.

Re:None of them.

[Merk42]

But then, you can get away without using sugar...

I hope you're only referring to refined sugar...

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

Read The Case Against Sugar by Taubes if you have question. Sugar is addictive as opoids, perhaps more so, and dietary overconsumption leads to horrific results. Read the book.

Re: None of them.

[gfxguy]

Like I said, it's a trade off, and I've not given them any information that I'm not comfortable giving them. Why do I care if they scan my email for keywords? I don't care if they know what restaurant I'm going to... in fact, I happily set my home and work locations to make things even easier. If someone wanted this information, it'd be fairly easy to figure out anyway. Like I said, I wouldn't put financial or personal medical information in a gmail.

I have comcast for internet service, and when their DNS went down I switched to google. Someone from comcast contacted me (through their forum) and said "you know google tracks where you're going?" and I responded "1) I'm not going anywhere without DNS, and 2) so does comcast."

As I stated, I know this stuff isn't "free," and if there was something I wanted to keep private, I wouldn't be using these services, but otherwise Google is far more convenient than paying for, setting up, and maintaining a handful of alternatives that "promise" to protect my privacy, but also with no guarantees.

Re:None of them.

[rholtzjr]

I already do, it's called No Script with the addition of Disconnect with Google added to blacklist. If the site does not render, I do not go there. Problem solved

Re:None of them.

[registrations_suck]

Not only do I not need Facebook, I would actually pay money toward making it (and similar sites) go away forever.

Re:None of them.

[Merk42]

Given the image, that does seem to be refined sugar.
Also, overconsumption is the key word. I don't think having a diet completely free of sugar, in any form, is good either.

Re:None of them.

[ewibble]

I would do fine, there are other companies that provide the same thing, and if there wasn't a company would soon come in and fill the gap. The question was not do these companies provide valuable services, they clearly do. The question is could you live without them, and the answer for me for all of them is I could live without them. In fact at worst it would be mildly inconvenient.

I think for most people if you removed Apple, Google, and Microsoft you would l loose smart phones (or the operating system they run on) (I suppose you could go with blackberry) but since I don't own a smart phone, that wouldn't effect me at all, and most people can live with without a cell phone, people have done it for thousands of years.

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

There are several genotypes that are more susceptible to sugar and carbohydrates. Until you know which one you're a member of, you're in a grey area. By the time you find out, you're pre-diabetic, have high A1Cs, or may have already stressed your pancreatic beta cells.

Most individuals living today consume 10x-3000x+ the level of carbohydrates that their GGgrandparents did. '

Without a doubt, you can live very very well on a diet of protein and fat-- remember that excess protein is converted to carbs, and dietary fiber renders a reasonable amount of energy as well. So, yeah, zero sugar is fine. It's incredibly addictive. Look at the next ten people you see for any questions-- especially if you live in the USA.

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

There's several ways to interpret the poll question. Does "giving up" one of the tech giants means that you personally simply refuse to use their products, but everyone else still does? Or does it mean that the tech giant magically disappears from the face of the planet, and everyone relying on them is left in a lurch?

So, for instance, I'd be happy to give up MS products forever. However I can't easily do it any time soon because my job, and almost any other job I might apply to and be qualified for, uses MS products in some capacity, usually for Office, Outlook, etc. So refusing to use MS products at all will make it very hard for me to make a living, even though my "real work" involves programming on non-MS platforms. However if MS the company magically stopped existing tomorrow and everyone had to either live with existing MS software with zero support (let's assume all the source code for MS-ware disappeared in the process, or somehow MS decided to commit suicide and refused to sell any more licenses or allow anyone to use their source code for anything), or start looking for alternatives, that'd be a great day for me, even if there's some short-term pain at work.

And yes, "need" can be interpreted in many ways. You don't "need" internet service at home at all, you can just do work stuff at work and use a coffee shop for surfing, as many people do. You don't "need" internet outside of work either, you can just not use it at all for personal stuff, as some people do (particularly old people). You don't "need" it at work either; even if your work depends on it, you can get another job that doesn't need it, like stocking shelves or digging ditches or flipping burgers. You don't "need" to work at any of those jobs either; you can just become homeless and live on the street, as many people do. You don't "need" to live on the street or at all, you can just die, as many people do voluntarily.

Anyway, back to the original topic: this could really be re-done as several different questions: 1) Which tech giant would cause you the most pain if they and their products magically disappeared all of a sudden? 2) Which tech giant would cause you the most pain if you alone were forbidden from using their products, while everything remained the same for others? Which tech giant would you miss the most (because of personal preference/opinion) if they 3) magically disappeared or 4) you weren't allowed to use them? And also, which tech giant would you be most willing to give up if 5) you could will them to magically disappear or 6) you alone had to give up their products?

For me, #1-4 would be Google, #5 would be Microsoft, and #6 would be Apple. I'm not completely ecstatic about them, but Google stuff I actually use a lot (esp. Android--phone), so losing them would affect my life the most. I'd love to see Microsoft magically disappear, but I can't afford to refuse to use their products ever as they're used by too many employers. But Apple I could refuse to use right now, because I don't use any of their stuff anyway. Facebook is a close #2 to Apple, but I occasionally use it with family members, and Amazon I do buy from sometimes, though not as much these days because the counterfeiting problem has gotten so bad and their prices aren't that great any more, their shipping times aren't great, and I refuse to sign up for Prime.

Another factor is: in the above scenarios, how do various open-source products they've released factor into it? If I refuse to use Apple stuff, does that mean I can't print any more since CUPS is owned by Apple? I would think that open-source stuff that's "in the wild" and not directly generating profits shouldn't be affected, but again this just shows the question is complicated. If this stuff were included, I'd have to change my #5 answer to Facebook since I don't use Hack, HHVM, etc. But wait, what if they've contributed to some other project that I do use? Can I not use that project, even if their contribution is small? Does their contribution magically disappear?

Re:None of them.

[thegarbz]

You know...I lived a good portion of my life before any of these companies existed.

People used to live before the invention of a telephone. Now try getting a job without uploading some PDF document to some website along with your email address, LinkedIn details, and right for people to pry into your life.

Times change. We did a lot of things in the past we wouldn't be able to do anymore. You may not use google, you may not like google, but if you block google you may find your life needlessly difficult e.g. just today I asked the address of a restaurant and I get as a response a google link with a maps reference.

Sure you can get around it, just like sure your friends will consider you that annoying guy who's hard to communicate with.

Re: None of them.

[Grishnakh]

Microsoft is the next easiest to eliminate from my life. The only Microsoft products/services I really use are Office and Windows. Windows I don't need at all, I only use it because others do or demand software specific to it (Office being the key example).

Yeah, but what if the scenario is that *you* have to give up all Microsoft software, but no one else does? So that means that if your employers uses Windows, Office, Outlook, etc., you're no longer allowed to do your job, and you can't work any place else that uses these things. This is a very different scenario than *everyone* suddenly not being able to use MS software.

Personally, I'd love for the latter scenario to happen, but the former is pretty untenable for me because most jobs use Windows/Office/Outlook if they don't involve software development on Windows.

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

See, this really shows how bad these poll questions are, because people interpret them differently, and small differences in interpretation result in huge differences in responses.

You talk about these companies "disappearing", but that's not exactly what they're asking, is it? It's vague. Is the company disappearing altogether, or are you just required to not use their products any more? If the company magically disappears, do all their products disappear too from the face of the planet, or is there just a smoking crater where their offices were, with all their assets gone, but everything that's sold still out there? (i.e. can you still continue to use Windows if MS disappears tomorrow, but you won't get any more updates? Are other entities who have the Windows source code allowed to make their own version of Windows now?) What about open-source stuff? Does all that stuff that was contributed suddenly disappear?

You mention ARM. If the company itself disappears, that's not a big blow because the chips are all made by other companies and the designs are already out there; the only problem would be future designs, but surely someone else would just start making derivatives of existing ARM designs (unless that's not allowed somehow even though the company no longer exists). But if it also means all chips based on ARM IP suddenly disappear, then that's something altogether different because suddenly most modern technology will stop working.

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

Great, I'd like to see how you get along without any sugar in your bloodstream.

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

Not really listening or reading, were you?

You absolutely can. Your dietary intake of veggies (not starchy ones like potatoes), give you sufficient quantities of carbohydrates to live all day long. You fuel on the fat. Your body knows how to burn fat instead of the raw carbo-power of sugars, even "complex" carbohydrates.

Read the book, mentioned up-thread. It will open your eyes, then look in the bibliography to understand its sources. It's called science, not industry hype.

Re: None of them.

[Grishnakh]

You don't need GMail; there's lots of other email services out there (but many require payment), or you can set up your own on a server. You really don't need "cloud document services"; just use LibreOffice if you don't want to use MS Office. But the calendaring system I'll admit is very useful because of its integration with Android IMO, since it results in reminders notifying me on my phone when I'm out. That can be replaced too, I'm sure, probably with some other 3rd-party app and web calendar service (which would probably require payment), but unless such a thing already exists (I don't know, never checked), it seems like this would be the hardest to replace if you use it a lot.

Going without Google search is easy these days though. DDG works quite well for me, and even Bing (as much as I hate MS) works OK most of the time.

The Google product I'd probably miss the most, once I safely transferred all my email out of GMail, is Google Maps. (And don't say "switch to Waze" because that's owned by Google too.) IMO, this is probably their most useful thing of all these days. Being able to search for businesses in the area, then with one or two taps being able to get turn-by-turn navigation there, including routing around traffic, is very useful and not easily replaced by any other service I know of. Sure, I can use the nav system in my car, or some other 3rd-party app, for GPS navigation if I know the street address of my destination, but getting that address is half the challenge, and Google Maps makes it really easy.

Re: None of them.

[Grishnakh]

Newer laptops have better CPUs with lower power consumption. You should upgrade to something that's 3-5 years old. It'll still be dirt-cheap on Ebay, but a significant upgrade from what you have now.

Re:None of them.

[Frederic54]

About the same... I never had an apple product, I am in Canada so amazon sucks, facebook is useless, I am using linux, but I must say google is pretty useful...

Re: None of them.

[gfxguy]

I know I don't "need" anything Google is offering, I'm saying it works good for me, it's convenient, and I already realize that I'm "paying" for it. Having it all in one package makes it even better/easier. My problem is in offering an alternative search engine to show that you don't need Google - choosing a different search engine is the easiest part of giving up Google.

Re:None of them.

[gfxguy]

I'm pretty sure you understand what "pedantic jerk" means, though.

Re: None of them.

[Grishnakh]

Yeah, I do agree even if it didn't quite seem that way. I use their stuff too a lot: Android, GMail, Maps, Calendar particularly. I try to use DDG for search but frequently go back to Google depending on what it is. It's convenient, but I'm just pointing out how many of them wouldn't be *that* hard to do without, and that for me at least, Maps is probably the one I'd miss the most (assuming I have time to pull all my email out of GMail; I really should do that sometime just to have a backup anyway).

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

You need to take a biology class. No, you can't survive without sugar, unless you're some kind of alien or something. Your body converts everything (carbs, protein, etc.) into glucose in your bloodstream to feed your cells, and your cells convert it all to ATP. Your body's energy source is literally glucose, a sugar. You can't survive without it.

Since it appears that whatever shitty school you went to didn't teach you any biology (I learned this stuff in public high school bio in the US, not exactly world-class education), here's a Wikipedia article for you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re: None of them.

[TheOuterLinux]

I use Protonmail for email (uses two passwords; one for logging in and another for that actual email box; they cannot recover if you lose it). I also have this rare material called paper for schedule keeping; it works everywhere. I gave up letting Google know what I am up to when I realized its security is only as good as it is convenient for them and whomever has the authority to say otherwise. And, I like to keep my documents printed or on a hard drive. It doesn't make any sense to rely on cloud computing when there are FOSS software like LibreOffice. Heaven forbid you can't do something on your phone other than use it as a phone. IF I do need cloud storage, I use HubiC; 30GB for free and not based in the U.S. or U.K., just how I like it because their privacy laws and practices are a joke if nonexistent (talking to you UK). If you need more security, Tresorit works really well too. For web browsing, Chrome could disappear and we will still have enough developers for Firefox (add-ons are much better anyway) and Chromium. Widevine might disappear, but so long and thanks for all the DRM. For DNS, there are plenty of other options, including DNSCrypt.

To "someone1234": I usually run NoScript and uBlock like a boss and I can tell you that I block most, sometimes all, of Google's scripts and the Internet still works fine for me. You can even curl or text-browser your way into your email if you know what you are doing. Most server maintainers don't even use GUI at all. So in a way, Google doesn't even need Google to manage Google.

Most people look at Google as a search engine and not an enterprise, even though in our social circles it may not seem that way. As a search engine, no one needs them but lucky for them and investors, it has become a household colloquial expression for "internet search." There isn't a single service that Google provides that there isn't a FOSS or non-API alternative to. They are the masters of developer convenience and created a platform to get people dependent on them much like Micro$oft is doing with their cloud services. I will miss YouTube, but still say good riddance. Though if Google does go, Facebook and Micro$oft need to leave too. They already have too much power as it is.

Re:None of them.

[drinkypoo]

You should add google.* to your banned host list, and see how far you get on the "internet" :D

I block all that googlesyndication crap and the like and it's far fewer sites than one might think. Any site that won't load at all if you block that stuff can die in a fire anyway.

Re: None of them.

[TheOuterLinux]

One of these days when 32-bit is no longer a viable option, I'll think about it. But by then, I will probably just run Linux on my 2014 MacBook and get another 4-5 years out of it. Though, I can tell you right now, you won't notice the speed difference with the custom Linux distro I made, so a better CPU would only make a few things "smoother," but that is usually because newer laptops have better GPU for graphics and 64-bit allots for better graphics processing. The laptop I have only has 128 MB of video RAM. But, I can still use Blender with up to 150K faces before the lag gets too much and GIMP and Inkscape haven't given me trouble yet. I'm not a computer gamer beyond a few emulators anyway. A PAE kernel allows a 32-bit user to have more RAM access, but I have had Firefox, GIMP, LIbreOffice, PCSXR, and Kodi opened at the same time just to see what it would do, and it barely went over 2GB of total RAM. I did roughly the same thing to a 1GB of RAM laptop I had and it got up to 800MB; thank god for swap. The load averages were fantastic too.

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

Dude, you and your source are very far behind the actual physiology of nutrition. You get more than enough carbs eating veggies. Excess protein converts to carbs. To diet, read about ketosis, as it's the basis of Adkin's, Paleo, and so many other successful diets. Why? Because they cut carbs to a very reasonable amount. Notice now: I didn't say eliminate them. But the amount of one Cliff Bar is more than you need for TWO DAYs worth of carbohydrates. Really. Look.It.Up.

Very seriously, you need to get the update. Start with Dr Bernstein's The Diabetes Solution, or any book by Gary Taubes. You'll be glad you did.

Then, start to understand why your body stores fat (it burns it) and how insulin works. You'll be miles ahead, and highly enlightened.

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

Wow, you're really dense aren't you? I don't care what you eat, if it's an energy source it'll be converted to glucose.

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

Please, please, before you embarrass yourself further, get the update. Yeah, it takes work and takes reading what the fat/protein/insulin/glucose(other sugars, too) cycle is and how your pancreas deals with the aforementioned. Your cellular biology is but a discrete datum within a larger but understandable algorithm. Really. I'm not joshing, and I've been a deep researcher for 20yrs. Read the aforementioned material to understand it algorithmically, instead of as a binary, discrete component. You get glucose for your precious cells, but eating carbs and sugars is also contained in aforementioned information. Then you'll know: You can drop carbs, and be healthier for it. You get all the nutrition you need from veggies and protein consumption and fat. Read it. Please.

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

You're entirely missing the point. You said way above that you don't need sugar, so I quipped that you can't survive without it in your bloodstream, and then you went on a rant about diets and nutrition, which is entirely beside the point. Your body synthesizes glucose (a sugar) from your food, and that's how your cells are fueled; this is Biology 101. That's the whole point of my silly quip. You can eat nothing but protein (which is basically what my cats do, they sure as hell don't eat any sugary foods), and if you're a mammal your body will convert that to sugar so your cells can use it. It's that simple. It was meant to be nothing more than a joke, not a debate about nutrition and dieting.

Re:None of them.

[postbigbang]

No. You have your fingers in your ears. Or eyes. Your body survives more on fat and protein; synthesizing glucose is as you say, bio101. But you don't need to eat sugar, or consumer carbohydrates by mouth. You'll get mightily constipated if you don't eat some fiber, but that's another thread.

Sugar is horrifically addictive. I'm sorry I misidentified your quip. Sometimes, deep in the depths of defocusing to watch a slashdot rant, my humor escapes me. I'm caught instead in the morass of diffusing industry propaganda, and sometimes my finger is itchy on the trigger. Bad excuse, but it's the only one I have.

Re:None of them.

[Grishnakh]

Yeah, this definitely isn't the first time I've seen a joke fly over someone's head on here :-)

Re:None of them.

[chihowa]

I'm pretty sure that glucose is a kind of gluten, so he's right that you should avoid it. Especially the GMO glucose because it's full of chemicals.

Re: None of them.

[xokapuz]

Don't put all eggs in one basket ;) Use something else for calendar/email/cloud. I'd even suggest self-hosted solution, like Nextcloud.
It won't solve the email problem, but it's easy to install calendar/contacts/cloud storage on your own server

Re:None of them.

[cayenne8]

Now try getting a job without uploading some PDF document to some website along with your email address, LinkedIn details, and right for people to pry into your life.

Hmm....I've yet to, in my entire professional life ever have had to be on "linkedin" or upload some PDF to a website in order to get a job.....?

(I'm not on any social media, hasn't been a problem to date.)

Re:None of them.

[thegarbz]

Don't get hung up on the specific company I mentioned. The point is the same. Saying something was fine in the past is not a validation that it will be fine in the future.

Did you manage to get a job without a phone number or email address too?

Trends are certainly changing with regard to social networks. Maybe you'll be lucky and out of the workforce before shit like that actually starts being considered mandatory.

That's an easy one...

[__aaclcg7560]

IBM

Re:That's an easy one...

[hij]

I was more excited to see Oracle absent from that list. I *wish* I could do without them. Unfortunately, management feels otherwise.

Re:That's an easy one...

[ArhcAngel]

None of these companies would exist without IBM. I'm pretty sure all of the major banks and exchanges still run big iron (Mainframes). Try and buy something from Amazon without money/credit. Just because they aren't consumer facing doesn't mean they aren't relevant.

Re:That's an easy one...

[Creepy]

DEC had some inroads into banking as well, but yeah, IBM AS/400 jobs are still out there because banks are reluctant to move off of their expensive servers they bought in the 1980s. I know a guy making over a million dollars a year maintaining an AS/400 installation and he previously worked on a DEC banking system (both ran COBOL). He lives in Silicon Valley and his cost of living is absurd, too. When he took that job they offered him $800000 a year and 20% down payment on a house to move there and that was barely worth it.

Re:That's an easy one...

[__aaclcg7560]

Valve.

Not Valve. Where would I buy $60 video games for $5 each during Black Friday weekend?

"Caste your vote"

[Stormy Dragon]

Here's a poll where you can caste your vote.

Anonymous Coward's votes are clearly Dalit.

Re:"Caste your vote"

[DickBreath]

Don't be so critical. It was obviously a typo of only one character. Give 'em a break.

> Here's a poll where you can caste your vote.

Should have been:

Here's a pole where you can caste your vote.

Alphabet

[McGruber]

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.

Re:Alphabet

[godrik]

Same here. I haven't used MS products except for some basic compatibility with MS users in over 10 years. I don't have a Facebook account and I am very happy not to have one. I have never used apple products nor anyone in my family.
Amazon and Google are the remaining ones. I probably could do without Amazon, as I mostly use their retail business and not really their cloud business. And retail has dozens of competitors, maybe not quite as good, but up there.

Google is a harder one to live without. Their search engine really works well; I haven't seen a good competitor. Their mapping app is also pretty good, and much better than OpenStreetMap (despite I love them). Android has its flaws, but it works and allow compatibility across many devices, so it is hard to pass. I am no fan of youtube, but it also get the job done.

The Only Answer

[mfh]

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.

Re:The Only Answer

[the_skywise]

*blinks*

A TWO DIGIT USER?!?

It's like meeting a celestial! :)

Re:The Only Answer

[caferace]

Makes *me* feel like a youngster.

Re:The Only Answer

[rholtzjr]

I was going to say that they left an option out of All of the above., but I think your post pretty much covers that.

Re:The Only Answer

[Anonymous Coward]

He died like, four years ago. You are replying to his /. post-generating app, which is prepaid to run for another six years.

If that response was auto-generated, then I'd say we have proof that AI is quite advanced.

Re:The Only Answer

[Rick Schumann]

Hear, hear!

Re:The Only Answer

[c]

It definitely puts things in perspective. If only you'd signed up a few hours earlier...

Re:The Only Answer

[Frederic54]

and me an old fart

Re:The Only Answer

[Areyoukiddingme]

It definitely puts things in perspective. If only you'd signed up a few hours earlier...

Hours? It was 1997. A new site that had a signup option was lucky to get a signup per day. I sure didn't. I'd been on the Internet four years by then. I wasn't about to sign up for some random site that would probably be gone in a few years. Besides, FreshMeat was much more pertinent to my interests.

Re:The Only Answer

[T.Hobbes]

Don't I know it.

Re:The Only Answer

[c]

Hours? It was 1997. A new site that had a signup option was lucky to get a signup per day.

Slashdot was already extremely popular by the time they added user accounts, and they went pretty quickly. I don't think I waited more than a week, and look where I ended up.

I got a short user name as a consolation prize, so I'm not at all bitter. At all.

Re:The Only Answer

[pkphilip]

Yes, slashdot was quite the rage. Sad to see that it is now reduced to clickbait articles surrounding US politics

How about Food?

[sinij]

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.

Re:How about Food?

[sinij]

Sure, but you could equally argue that if, for example, Google went under, Microsoft and Bing would take over. The idea behind "do without" is unlikely scenario that somehow it disappeared and no direct replacement is possible.

For example, without Facebook would mean that it disappeared and somehow people forgot how to create social networks and entice people into narcissistic navel gazing online.

Re:How about Food?

[DontBeAMoran]

Does masturbation count as sex? Otherwise most slashdot readers are left out.

Re:How about Food?

[epine]

Sure, but you could equally argue that if, for example, Google went under, Microsoft and Bing would take over.

FTFY.

Re:How about Food?

[Grishnakh]

Humans can survive without sex. It's not even necessary for reproduction (and never has been; you could always inseminate artificially, with a turkey baster if nothing else). And with the way most American women look these days, I can understand why many American men wouldn't want to bother....

In the poll I asked others to explain votes

[mykepredko]

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.

Re:In the poll I asked others to explain votes

[Kjella]

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.

I wasn't very surprised, except for Kindle, Echo and a few other unremarkable products they're 99% just an e-tailer and some other company would fill the void. I also like my local grocery store, but it's quite obvious I'd find another even if I wouldn't be that happy with location, selection and prices.

You've got to move

[PopeRatzo]

American Standard

https://www.americanstandard-u...

Middle Age Minority Immigrant Professional I think

[Brigadier]

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.

None

[corychristison]

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.

Visa/MasterCard/AmEx

[bigdady92]

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.

Re:Visa/MasterCard/AmEx

[sinij]

This is just not true. Without credit card companies we would still have bank exchanges, wire transactions, debit cards and so on. Actually, without CC companies retail economy would grow 3% overnight, or about how much these companies suck up in transaction charges.

Re:Visa/MasterCard/AmEx

[bigdady92]

debit cards are tied to one of the major vendors. You COULD get one from your bank as an ATM card but that's getting harder and harder to do.

There's no way in hell to manage any form payment system without having one of the big 4 as a vendor and support. Paypal is getting closer.

Re:Visa/MasterCard/AmEx

[will_die]

Yea there is, plenty of other countries to it with bank transfers. The problem is international transfers can still be a pain and you have to deal with no instant validation.
Or we just switch back to writing checks.

Re:Visa/MasterCard/AmEx

[sinij]

In US, credit cards dominate. In the rest of the world - not so much. Actually, credit card companies are the key reason why US lags behind in adoption of CHIP + PIN and TAP to PAY.

Re:Visa/MasterCard/AmEx

[Misagon]

I need a debit card only because the banks in my country are trying to kill cash.
I was doing fine without it for many years.

Bank transfers for paying bills: Internet banking works great. Most of them are automated, under my control.
Bank transfers for buying stuff from people on the Internet: works great as well.

Re:BIC

[cayenne8]

Société BIC S.A.

I have NO idea what this means.

Anyone with a translation?

No MS, Google, Facebook, Twitter etc

[RotateLeftByte]

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.

Apple

[goombah99]

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.

Smartphones & Apple vs Alphabet/Google + Faceb

[Zocalo]

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.

SCO

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Oh my.

[Gravis Zero]

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?

Re:Microsoft

[diesalesmandie]

Let's be honest, the world runs on Windows and Office. Linux simply isn't capable of meeting the needs of most users.

Maybe not at the moment, but when Linux gains more traction (and it probably will eventually, more games than ever are being developed to be Linux compatible, to give one use case example) there will be more reason to develop those "must have" features. Remember, programmers are giving up their precious time to open source; there has to be an incentive for giving up that time, increased adoption is definitely an incentive IMO.

From least to most used.

[91degrees]

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.

Re:From least to most used.

[91degrees]

True. Was really looking at my own usage - taking the title literally. Business usage is different, and even where I am, the UI guys use Macs. I suspect facebook (and maybe Amazon?) are less important to businesses.

Only Microsoft

[iampiti]

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.

Re:Only Microsoft

[DontBeAMoran]

Not to mention that first-person shooters just plain suck with a controller. Keyboard+mouse FTW!

Life Before the Internet

[Roger W Moore]

Even if it blocked the entire internet I'd still manage to live. You do realize there was life before the internet right?

Re:Life Before the Internet

[Cro Magnon]

There was life before indoor plumbing too.

Ask any country where they are all banned

[Gabest]

Are they still alive I wonder...

AOL

[ichthus]

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

Re:AOL

[sinij]

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

Dear Sir,

I hereby notifying you in writing that your post is defacing and infringing on my "no carrier joke on computer" patent. You will be shortly hearing from my la`+#$%NO CARRIER

Mostly just Inconvenient

[blueshift_1]

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.

None, not even one not on this list.

[Thanatiel]

I need air, water and food, in that order.

Next stupid question.

Re:None, not even one not on this list.

[Frederic54]

yeah, the rule of 3 :)
3 minutes without air, you die
3 days without water, you die
3 weeks without food, you die
but 3 years without facebook or microsoft? nothing happens

The cementary ...

[houghi]

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?

Facebook

[Cro Magnon]

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.

Re:Facebook

[Creepy]

Also my answer. Work supports Android (Alphabet/Google) and iOS (Apple) mobile apps and we have both Azure and AWS cloud backends (Microsoft and Amazon, respectively). That means Facebook is the odd man out. We use Facebook, but losing it wouldn't kill any products or services we offer. The same information is on Twitter and other sources.

Re:Apple

[gfxguy]

The problem is with the word "need," which we use far too loosely. If we "need" cellphones at all then we are a pretty sad society. Just because something is extremely useful doesn't mean we "need" it. If apple never existed, if google never existed, if we only had the cell phones of 15 years ago, we'd somehow manage. A better question would be "the loss of which one of these companies would be the most disruptive to your life?"

Microsoft

[DogDude]

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.

Tech giants

[DontBeAMoran]

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.

reality most make my life better

[netsavior]

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.

All of them?

[irrational_design]

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 poll doesn't match the article post.

[waspleg]

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.

I need the ones that start with "A"

[rbeezo]

*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

Tech Giants aren't just companies

[Anonymous Coward]

The tech giant that I cannot do without: Richard Stallman

Google

[campuscodi]

Google

None of them

[GameboyRMH]

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.

Which One

[tquasar]

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

Cue Richard Pryor: NONE OF THE ABOVE!

[Chas]

I could do very well without any or all of the above companies.

None of them offer any services I'd particularly miss.

Depends on your definition?

[KozmoStevnNaut]

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.

Re:Microsoft

[Spacelord]

the world runs on Windows and Office

That may have been true in the 90s but it hasn't been the case for a looong time. The web runs the world these days and it's easy to get by without Windows and Office. There are plenty of alternatives. People just stick to Windows out of laziness and because it's what most other people have.

If Office and Windows were to disappear tomorrow, people would just standardize on something else and they would get by just as well.

Decisions, decisions....

[theendlessnow]

I'm torn between Digital Equipment Corporation and Sun Microsystems.

I can live without all of them

[JohnFen]

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.

Apple is by far...

[rcharbon]

... 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.

Google, Microsoft

[SoftwareArtist]

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.

4 out of 5, but not critical

[xokapuz]

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

Amazon and Apple are optional for businesses

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

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.

Re:Hydro Quebec

[JcMorin]

Maybe one day with solar panels you may be able to be free... but Québec winter is soo harsh that's it's almost inconceivable.

Nobody can duplicate what Google does

[Tony Isaac]

- 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.

Re:Nobody can duplicate what Google does

[swillden]

Now that google is dominant, websites are written with Google-ability in mind.

How does one write a website for google-ability? What would one do differently to write a bing-able web site?

Re:Nobody can duplicate what Google does

[xokapuz]

Sad, but true. Google search is #1, but there are wrappers, like startpage.com.
Can't agree about the maps. Google Maps is getting worse and worse. I use it only when I can't find some organization in OSM. Apart from that, OpenStreetMaps are wonderful and a good replacement for Google's product

Re:Nobody can duplicate what Google does

[toddestan]

Google was amazing when it first came out, but I find their search rather poor nowadays. Pages and pages of irrelevant results because Google thought I wanted X despite me searching for Y. Sure, there are ways to trick Google into searching for Y, but it seems like Google likes to break those tricks whenever they become popular.

I much prefer Duckduckgo, as it seems to consistently provide better results than Google. It's not perfect, and if you ask me it's not as good as it once was either, but it's worlds better than Google. One nice thing with Duckduckgo is that if there only only a few or no pages that match my query, Duckduckgo isn't afraid to tell me so. Try the same search with Google, and you'll get thousands of off-topic hits, with the handful of pages Duckduckgo found buried in them. Almost like Google feels they have to inflate their numbers or something.

Even Bing returns better results than Google nowadays, and Bing isn't even all that good.

Re:Nobody can duplicate what Google does

[Tony Isaac]

It's interesting to me that your experience with Google seems so different from mine. I almost always find what I want in the first 5 results. Bing, not so much. Haven't tried DuckDuckGo, mainly because I have no reason to try something else.

Re:Middle Age Minority Immigrant Professional I th

[Brigadier]

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.

Re:Boycott the cloud

[gfxguy]

I disagree.... they still make things, but a profit driven company (which is pretty much all of them) cares about getting people to give them money, that's the way it works, and that's the incentive for making things. I fail to see the problem.

I don't use Facebook or any MS product

[swillden]

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.

Google - The Father of All!

[aluck19]

I can't live without google. Its father of all the companies for sure.

That was easier than expected...

[thevirtualcat]

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.

Re:That was easier than expected...

[SeaFox]

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.

Sounds like you're doing it wrong. The condescending comments should be from you.

"Oh? I didn't hear that celebrity gossip. No, I don't use Facebook."
"Yes, I've heard Facebook's site is slow. I can't say if I feel that way, I don't have a Facebook account. No, I just don't have any interest in it."
"I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you how to change that on Facebook. I don't use Facebook myself."
"No, sorry. I can't give you my Facebook info. I don't have an account. I just would rather do other things online"

Re:That was easier than expected...

[thevirtualcat]

Most people respond well to "Oh, I don't use Facebook." While a follow up question of "Why not?" isn't enough to elicit condescension, a good condescending remark shuts down people who want to push it.

Over the last half decade or so, my friends self-sorted into two groups: The group the makes having Facebook a prerequisite for friendship and the group that does not. Surprisingly, most of them ended up in the latter group.

The real problem is my extended family. "Well, you'd KNOW that if you were on Facebook." is a common refrain. Comments like that make me glad I live three timezones away from them.

Re:Apple

[dgatwood]

Least disruptive to me: Microsoft. As a Mac user, I haven't used any Microsoft products for any nontrivial amount of time since I took an assembly language programming course before the turn of the century. They could disappear tomorrow, and I wouldn't even notice apart from the uptick in friends asking me to recommend alternative office suites.

Most disruptive to me in the short term: Google. If Google Analytics suddenly went away, it would literally bring the Internet to its knees with stalled connections, no matter what platform you use.

Most disruptive to me in the long term: Apple, because eventually I'll need new hardware.

I don't want big IT companies.

[dweller_below]

The question presupposes that Big IT is desirable. The real questions are: Have I benefited from the lack of competition and choice? Is the slowness of innovation created by Big IT in my best interest? Have powerful corporations EVER served and protected me and mine?

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.

Back in the 1900s, I got along without any of them

[Applehu Akbar]

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?

Just two

[jader3rd]

I don't use Apple, Facebook or Alphabet.

Take stock of your techsploitators, but for real

[varmint jerky]

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).

hungry....

[magarity]

Monsanto :(

Personally or Professionally?

[Actually, I do RTFA]

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.

Facebook

[RoscoeChicken]

Useless ... except they have some cool PHP VM tech that will outlive them.

cue the snobs....

[smithcl8]

So glad so many people here don't use any of those company's products. (yeah, right)

Google/Alphabet is the

[The Cisco Kid]

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.

But you can live without banks

[Solandri]

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.

Re:Microsoft

[Grishnakh]

Oh bullshit; you're an idiot.

Linux works just fine, and much better than Windows in fact for most cases, the problem is software and document compatibility. Document compatibility with LibreOffice is good, but not 100%. And so many important 3rd-party applications run on Windows (which may or may not work in WINE). That's why most users stick with Windows, along with sheer laziness or apathy.

If MS suddenly disappeared tomorrow, and for some odd reason everyone was somehow given 1 year to migrate everything they had to non-MS software before it all magically stopped working, people could easily switch to Linux for their desktop OSes (and servers too of course), and to LibreOffice and Google Docs (and others) for their office software. There'd be some pain in the transition of course, but companies would spring up to aid in the transition for a price, and all the 3rd-party Windows-only software would very quickly be ported to Linux and/or Mac. There'd probably also be a lot of work put into improving document compatibility with MS-OOXML by some companies seeking to profit by selling converters.

The main thing that'd really suck about a future with Linux on the desktop is that so many distros push Gnome3 instead of one of the better desktops like KDE.

nun of em really

[JackSpratts]

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.

This comment says...

[fatp]

Slashdot!

Intel and Nvidia

[AHuxley]

They are the few brands than make things that work. Placing ads and OS can be replaced.

First? Facebook. Last? Microsoft.

[grimfate]

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.)

The bold look of Kohler

[tepples]

If American Standard went under, more people would buy Kohler toilets.

Re:The bold look of Kohler

[PopeRatzo]

I've had both, and there's nothing like an American Standard.

Re:The bold look of Kohler

[PopeRatzo]

When we redid our downstairs bathroom, we replaced a Kohler with an American Standard, and now it's my go-to for going.

Prism break

[NewYork]

https://prism-break.org/en/all...

Javascript requirement

[Compaqt]

> 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.

Re:Javascript requirement

[TheOuterLinux]

For me, using Google without JavaScript breaks the ability to preview images.