Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 240 posts

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#11

Post by wslh »

aaronchall wrote: post #10
bureaucrat wrote: post #8

Regulate yourselves, FFS. I don’t want my paid operating system to send my private information constantly to your company.

Quit using software you can't control. --- > And what? Use ‘Linux desktop’? No thank you. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. My wife uses it. I've used it for the past decade. XFCE is fully featured, smooth, and very light-weight. Others have been great too. Want software? Just install it with the package manager. Games? I used to run them in a windows VM when I really wanted to.

That is naive. Organizations and people depend on specific software and there is not replacement for any kind of app that is spying on you.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#12

Post by JaimeThompson »

hd4 wrote: post #9

Why can't big tech self-regulate? Why must it always be a solution that depends on big government instead? Why should anyone trust the government given the last few thousand years of history?

Should we allow chemical companies, oil companies, and power plants to regulate themselves? What about drug companies?

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#15

Post by bureaucrat »

aaronchall wrote: post #10
bureaucrat wrote: post #8

Regulate yourselves, FFS. I don’t want my paid operating system to send my private information constantly to your company.

Quit using software you can't control. --- > And what? Use ‘Linux desktop’? No thank you. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. My wife uses it. I've used it for the past decade. XFCE is fully featured, smooth, and very light-weight. Others have been great too. Want software? Just install it with the package manager. Games? I used to run them in a windows VM when I really wanted to.

And what? Use ‘Linux desktop’? No thank you.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#16

Post by aaronchall »

wslh wrote: post #11
aaronchall wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quit using software you can't control. --- > And what? Use ‘Linux desktop’? No thank you. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. My wife uses it. I've used it for the past decade. XFCE is fully featured, smooth, and very light-weight. Others have been great too. Want software? Just install it with the package manager. Games? I used to run them in a windows VM when I really wanted to.

That is naive. Organizations and people depend on specific software and there is not replacement for any kind of app that is spying on you.

I've been doing it progressively over the past 10 years. I don't carry a smart phone (I'm looking at Linux ones now though). My wife and I use Linux on our laptops. I'm learning more every year about how to control it.

It's not naive, it's just difficult. But it's worth doing.

----

What worth do I get? I get expertise. I get knowledge. I'm a programmer. I don't have a OS sending my information to Microsoft. I don't have to worry nearly as much about malicious software. I don't have to run an Antivirus (AV) and AV scans constantly to feel confident in my computer's security. I get access to powerful open-source software. I get to keep learning about even more powerful software - repeatable environments and builds, that give me even more confidence in my ability to create value for myself and others. I get a lot of value for it.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#17

Post by foepys »

MichaelMoser123 wrote: post #13

Once upon a time public opinion was manipulated by TV and the big newspapers; now it is manipulated by new media companies. My stupid question is: where is the big difference?

Because newspapers and TV at least had somebody in the country. Facebook et al make it available to foreigners and despite what you may think, Western democracies are still a lot better than dictatorships or authoritarian leaders.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#18

Post by lesservehicle »

hd4 wrote: post #9

Why can't big tech self-regulate? Why must it always be a solution that depends on big government instead? Why should anyone trust the government given the last few thousand years of history?

The nature of the stock market demands that they never self regulate. Companies are incentivized to meet the demands of shareholders, which means more revenue streams, regardless of the effects on consumers.

Re: Microsoft President: Democracy Is At Stake. Regulate Big Tech

#19

Post by mugwort13 »

bureaucrat wrote: post #8

Regulate yourselves, FFS. I don’t want my paid operating system to send my private information constantly to your company.

If this is your posture, I am assuming you don't use Android, ChromeOS, iOS, MacOS, Fire OS, or even some no paid OSes like Ubuntu.
Post reply on HN