Sadly that's true, we don't usually look at the processes and economics that goes into the products we use.
The first step I believe is we should be aware of what's happening. We may sometimes not have a choice but to accept lock-in, but it should be an informed choice.
The second step is, as developers and creators who know better, we should strive to change the status quo as much as we can. Movements such as open-source faced an uphill battle initially, but now we see corporations embracing it. I remember a time when Microsoft was the model of an evil corporation, but now they embrace open-source and support the tools that enable it -- like Github and 3d engines like Babylon.js. Decentralization and Web 3.0 will get there!
Just now I found about the EARN IT Act (S. 3398) being discussed in the US Congress, aimed to ban perr-to-peer encryption under the excuse of protecting the children, not kidding, that's the excuse, I'm sure they took the idea from The Simpsons. I'm not an US citizen but sadly what they do, the rest of the world take as a good idea. Sets precedent and even tho most of us don't have a vote in the subject, we are all affected by it. We'll see how much people care. Coincidence that this is now, with everyone occupied with COVID-19?, well, probably, those things aren't written in a month, but paranoia seems to be justified nowadays.
Sadly I don't have that hopeful view of people anymore, they already know, they just don't care; years ago with: Edward Snowden, Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, etc. I thought people would wake up, govs would take action; corporation would peddle back with intrusions on privacy; later with Cambridge Analytica and the US and UK elections still had some hope, but nothing; FB still strong, doing exactly as before, Win10 steals even more data than Win7, people don't complain about it, just on how updates are annoying; MS probably just bought Github to appeal to devs that didn't had MS as "dev friendly" anymore; .NET was dying so they had no choice than making it FOSS. Google still collects data, probably even more than before. People just don't care, the negative effects are just too complicated, to complex or too long term. If doesn't take money of their banks tomorrow it doesn't matter to them. I would bet that over 70% of people reading this right now, are doing it from Windows. If users don't care, why would companies do?, if people will play my game even if run only on Win10, why would I spend money and time to making it work in Linux?, who has ever abstain to play a game because is not FOSS?, now people loves Office360 SaaS, and nobody cares, just a few of us do.
But is not all gloomy either, corporations are starting to see the perils of not owning, of the loss of control, govs too. That's why I'm not sure if Linux will ever take the desktop, most people don't care, but some do, and because of those few Linux and BSD are alive and well, not sure how well BSD anyway. I think we as FOSS people will have to settle for being the underground, the backend, the backbone, not the ones they deserve but what they need; but unlike Batman, they don't deserve more, because they don't care!, and we will keep doing maybe not because they need it but because it's too goddamn fun :)
For sure we need to be vigilant. Platform lock-ins happen because corporations are incentivized to do so, and the larger ones will have the resources to affect legislature. We need organizations like the EFF now more than ever.
It may be disheartening when most people don't care, but I think It's more important to reach out to those few who will actually listen and try to do something about it.
It also helps to connect with other people who are also trying to effect change. I was at EthDenver, a Web 3.0 conference, and was energized seeing all of the activists, entrepreneurs and developers. There are actually a lot of people looking at the underlying economics of industries and collaborating together on how they can fix them. That might be something worth looking into to bring back some of the hope! :D
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Sadly that's true, we don't usually look at the processes and economics that goes into the products we use.
The first step I believe is we should be aware of what's happening. We may sometimes not have a choice but to accept lock-in, but it should be an informed choice.
The second step is, as developers and creators who know better, we should strive to change the status quo as much as we can. Movements such as open-source faced an uphill battle initially, but now we see corporations embracing it. I remember a time when Microsoft was the model of an evil corporation, but now they embrace open-source and support the tools that enable it -- like Github and 3d engines like Babylon.js. Decentralization and Web 3.0 will get there!
Just now I found about the EARN IT Act (S. 3398) being discussed in the US Congress, aimed to ban perr-to-peer encryption under the excuse of protecting the children, not kidding, that's the excuse, I'm sure they took the idea from The Simpsons. I'm not an US citizen but sadly what they do, the rest of the world take as a good idea. Sets precedent and even tho most of us don't have a vote in the subject, we are all affected by it. We'll see how much people care. Coincidence that this is now, with everyone occupied with COVID-19?, well, probably, those things aren't written in a month, but paranoia seems to be justified nowadays.
Sadly I don't have that hopeful view of people anymore, they already know, they just don't care; years ago with: Edward Snowden, Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, etc. I thought people would wake up, govs would take action; corporation would peddle back with intrusions on privacy; later with Cambridge Analytica and the US and UK elections still had some hope, but nothing; FB still strong, doing exactly as before, Win10 steals even more data than Win7, people don't complain about it, just on how updates are annoying; MS probably just bought Github to appeal to devs that didn't had MS as "dev friendly" anymore; .NET was dying so they had no choice than making it FOSS. Google still collects data, probably even more than before. People just don't care, the negative effects are just too complicated, to complex or too long term. If doesn't take money of their banks tomorrow it doesn't matter to them. I would bet that over 70% of people reading this right now, are doing it from Windows. If users don't care, why would companies do?, if people will play my game even if run only on Win10, why would I spend money and time to making it work in Linux?, who has ever abstain to play a game because is not FOSS?, now people loves Office360 SaaS, and nobody cares, just a few of us do.
But is not all gloomy either, corporations are starting to see the perils of not owning, of the loss of control, govs too. That's why I'm not sure if Linux will ever take the desktop, most people don't care, but some do, and because of those few Linux and BSD are alive and well, not sure how well BSD anyway. I think we as FOSS people will have to settle for being the underground, the backend, the backbone, not the ones they deserve but what they need; but unlike Batman, they don't deserve more, because they don't care!, and we will keep doing maybe not because they need it but because it's too goddamn fun :)
For sure we need to be vigilant. Platform lock-ins happen because corporations are incentivized to do so, and the larger ones will have the resources to affect legislature. We need organizations like the EFF now more than ever.
It may be disheartening when most people don't care, but I think It's more important to reach out to those few who will actually listen and try to do something about it.
It also helps to connect with other people who are also trying to effect change. I was at EthDenver, a Web 3.0 conference, and was energized seeing all of the activists, entrepreneurs and developers. There are actually a lot of people looking at the underlying economics of industries and collaborating together on how they can fix them. That might be something worth looking into to bring back some of the hope! :D