11–20 of 168 posts
"Google prohibitions on bloatware hurt bloatware deal, claims bloatware vendor"
Now of we we're taking about carriers we'd have a different conversation but as someone who's seen a lot of the mobile industry OnePlus is pretty decent on the bloatware in my book.
"Google prohibitions on bloatware hurt bloatware deal, claims bloatware vendor"
Do you have any idea how much utter garbage Google forces vendors to ship with a phone simply to have access to a web browser and the Play store? Or perhaps you're one of the lucky few who haven't been woken at 4am to an urgent notification: "YOUR PHONE HAS TOO MANY MEMES. WOULD YOU LIKE TO DELETE MEMES?" Prohibitions on bloatware, my arse!
Reminds me of how Microsoft would make deals with OEMs to only sell PCs with Windows on them, and how that, among other things, was used against them in their antitrust suit 20 years ago.
And because of the great effectiveness of the American government, MS lost their dominance in the PC operating system market and rank nowhere near the top five most valuable companies in the US like they did 20 years ago.
It's hard to say for sure what would have happened without the antitrust case, but from where I sit, the government accomplished exactly what they set out to do, and just about everyone has benefited as a result.
Reminds me of how Microsoft would make deals with OEMs to only sell PCs with Windows on them, and how that, among other things, was used against them in their antitrust suit 20 years ago.
And because of the great effectiveness of the American government, MS lost their dominance in the PC operating system market and rank nowhere near the top five most valuable companies in the US like they did 20 years ago.
Had the suit came earlier, we would not have been blessed with the decade of security vulnerabilities that plagued the desktop because Internet Explorer was tightly integrated with Windows, and perhaps Netscape would still be around, along with Be Inc.
I know that decimate is a colloquialism nowadays but I feel like a publication should know better. Unless Google asked for ten percent of the proceeds or something, as a headline it makes absolutely no sense.
"to kill, destroy, or remove large parts of" is the modern usage. the usage is hyperbolic; it is not nonsensical.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And because of the great effectiveness of the American government, MS lost their dominance in the PC operating system market and rank nowhere near the top five most valuable companies in the US like they did 20 years ago.
Because of the effectiveness of the US government, MS wasn't able to behave anti-competitively and other platforms were able to take root. Today, MS is still one of the most valuable companies in the world, but the overall technology landscape is more diverse. It's hard to say for sure what would have happened without the antitrust case, but from where I sit, the government accomplished exactly what they set out to d…
A) Facebook becoming a dominant social network? 10 years later?
B) Apple’s resurgence with first the iPod - it’s not like MS didn’t try repeatedly to compete (Plays4Sure, Zune) and then the iPhone? Again nothing that the government did stopped MS from losing its early lead in smart phones.
3. Google from becoming the most popular search engine.
4. Amazon from becoming dominant?
As far as the landscape being more diverse, Microsoft and Apple still have about the same split in PC operating systems, Google and Apple have about the same split in mobile operating systems as MS/Apple. And now instead of IE being dominant and Netscape being an also ran, now Chrome is just as dominant and Firefox is an also ran - funded mostly by Google.
Meet the new boss...
Reminds me of how Microsoft would make deals with OEMs to only sell PCs with Windows on them, and how that, among other things, was used against them in their antitrust suit 20 years ago.
And because of the great effectiveness of the American government, MS lost their dominance in the PC operating system market and rank nowhere near the top five most valuable companies in the US like they did 20 years ago.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have any idea how much utter garbage Google forces vendors to ship with a phone simply to have access to a web browser and the Play store? Or perhaps you're one of the lucky few who haven't been woken at 4am to an urgent notification: "YOUR PHONE HAS TOO MANY MEMES. WOULD YOU LIKE TO DELETE MEMES?" Prohibitions on bloatware, my arse!
Which apps specifically do you classify as "utter garbage"? Looking at my OnePlus, I can't see anything I'd call that. The most annoying part is that I can't completely uninstall Duo and Chrome, but neither one is on a garbage level, I just prefer alternatives. Otherwise... I think I used pretty much every other default app.
- Chrome: privacy related, not necessarily garbage, but if the OS were Chinese we'd effortlessly call Chrome's behaviours spyware. I use Firefox
- Photos: random single-touch dialogs offering to enable sync. This is upsell and another opt-in data grab. Also the source of the aforementioned ITS 4AM WAKE UP AND HAVE A DELETE MEME PARTY notification. I use f-spot but I'm not a huge fan of it
- Messages: can't remember. Probably another notification thrown up without warning. I use Pulse now
- Maps: where to even begin? The app has about one UI element left that actually relates to navigation and the rest is some disguised Google Shopping link. I use the paid version of OsmAnd where possible
- Gmail/Accounts: phone book data-grab. I use Outlook
- Gboard: still using this. Still very aware its forwarding my keystrokes to the mothership for "contextual prediction" or whatever you call it. If Gboard were published by TikTok rather than Google we'd have sent some folk to the electric chair over it already
- Play Services: mandatory back channel to the mothership with root access on your phone. Can wake it up, force install something that listens to you, or update itself to force you to click on WHO adverts^W^W^W^W participate in informational and beneficial COVID-19 contact tracing, so much more
Probably forgotten quite a bit. Mandatory Games app IIRC? That would have been disabled on the first day
I know that decimate is a colloquialism nowadays but I feel like a publication should know better. Unless Google asked for ten percent of the proceeds or something, as a headline it makes absolutely no sense.
"to kill, destroy, or remove large parts of" is the modern usage. the usage is hyperbolic; it is not nonsensical.
Decimate means quite specifically to remove or destroy a _portion_ of something, rather than simply to destroy something, even in most modern usage.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And because of the great effectiveness of the American government, MS lost their dominance in the PC operating system market and rank nowhere near the top five most valuable companies in the US like they did 20 years ago.
The suit wasn't about their dominance in the PC operating systems market, it was about anticompetitive behavior to maintain that advantage against competitors, and anticompetitive behavior to gain advantages against competitors in other markets. Had the suit came earlier, we would not have been blessed with the decade of security vulnerabilities that plagued the desktop because Internet Explorer was tightly integrate…
It was also about the the productivity software market and the lack of interoperability
And browser bundling.
And the lack of interoperability with MS’s network stack.
MS had to make minor concessions on all four fronts.