• roadkill@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    I hate, hate, hate that you’re making me defend Google here, but they’re the only smartphone, desktop/laptop oem that open source their os. They open source the browser, arguably their most important software. They continue to release their code under open licenses. Now compare this to how Microsoft was (and still is) in the 90s when Google started coming into prominence.

    “Don’t be evil” was a direct response to companies like them.

    Too often people comment as if the last five years of their experience with a company is all they need to know when remarking about something that was coined over twenty years ago. Context matters.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      11 months ago

      I agree not everything is black and white with this stuff, but good deeds do not absolve you from your bad ones. As we are currently seeing, Chromium being open source doesnt prevent Chrome from being changed in ways that is not in the interest of the users.

      Also while they do release many things as open source, the software that people end up using in the end (Chrome, Maps, etc) are not open source at all, which just further solidifies their market dominance because people cant accept even giving up one little feature in favor of a different app, service, website.

      Also comparing two big tech companies for their supposed upsides and downsides is pointless. They both suck and we should reduce our dependence on all of them.