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Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

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Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#61

Post by roenxi »

stavros wrote: post #30
Vampiero wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey, you want a monopoly on information while at the same time operating the largest ad network in the world? Then don't complain if people block your stupid ads and count yourself lucky that the government didn't split your megacorp into several tiny companies The only morally wrong thing here is NOT blocking Google's ads

Why doesn't the government split the megacorp into several tiny companies? All this collusion between these otherwise unrelated companies is only good for Google.

Because breaking companies up seems to be more theatre and less useful outcomes. People call for it freely and usually don't have a theory of how it will actually help. And nobody seems to bring up evidence from past corporate breakups beyond "we did it ergo it was good" (which is suspicious logic).

On paper it looks something like a choice between one company with one shareholder or two companies with ... the same shareholder. It isn't clear what has really changed; the company was only ever a legal fiction anyway. If there were incentives to collude then they haven't gone away.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#62

Post by ProAm »

roenxi wrote: post #6

I'm torn. I'm not a huge fan of Google and I don't have a lot of respect for the YouTube selection algorithm. However this culture of expecting Google to host the data then freeloading off it by blocking the tracking and ads is also a bit ugly. There is an unwritten social contract here. Google is willing to host and organise a vast number of videos because that'll attract an audience for ads. If there are too may fr…

. There is an unwritten social contract here

It's not a contract though, its a dictatorship (which they have the right to do) but it's been getting worse and worse for the consumer, and is just another loss leader until who have consumers trapped and then start charging, abusing, etc... I'm with you in spirit, but google is not a good participant in this agreement as of late.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#64

Post by jeffbee »

miah_ wrote: post #58
jeffbee wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People always say this but what is the practical way this would come into effect? Unless the intention is to simply kill either YouTube or Google, or both, how do you separate out YouTube in a way that is meaningfully "breaking up" with Google but that the separate entity could afford?

There already was a time when Youtube was its own company. Google bought it. Maybe they didn't do great on their own but it was also ~2005 and things are very different now.

Yes but before Google bought it, it was a money incinerator.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#65

Post by VogonPoetry »

jeffbee wrote: post #28

Let's try it. 20 seconds to first start on a M2 mac mini, not amazing. Search takes about 3-5 seconds. Navigate to video another 3-5 seconds. No 4k. No casting. Can't change the playback speed. Can't jump on timeline with 0-9 keys. Doesn't sync to my other devices. Doesn't know about my membership perks, of course. After a few minutes I would say this is easily the worst way to watch YouTube short of printing the vid…

The 20 seconds first start is because it is only an x86_64 binary -- no native Arm build.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#68

Post by mopsi »

roenxi wrote: post #6

I'm torn. I'm not a huge fan of Google and I don't have a lot of respect for the YouTube selection algorithm. However this culture of expecting Google to host the data then freeloading off it by blocking the tracking and ads is also a bit ugly. There is an unwritten social contract here. Google is willing to host and organise a vast number of videos because that'll attract an audience for ads. If there are too may fr…

Google itself is the leech and parasite. It has embedded itself into private correspondence, discovery of internet resources, and a ton of other things, going as far as vacuuming up offline credit card transactions to spy on people. Google and honor do not belong in the same sentence.

Hosting videos costs a lot of money and alternatives to Youtube will see only limited success as long as Google can subsidize the service with the money from the massive spy machine.

Causing maximum drain of resources for Google while providing as little as possible for their spy machine is the ethical choice. Let them bleed. Youtube is the largest obstacle to honest businesses that provide video hosting and viewing in exchange for money - instead of making money from spying on users in ways they are unable to fully comprehend and consent to.

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#69

Post by [deleted] »

roenxi wrote: post #6

I'm torn. I'm not a huge fan of Google and I don't have a lot of respect for the YouTube selection algorithm. However this culture of expecting Google to host the data then freeloading off it by blocking the tracking and ads is also a bit ugly. There is an unwritten social contract here. Google is willing to host and organise a vast number of videos because that'll attract an audience for ads. If there are too may fr…

[deleted]

Re: Freetube is the best way to watch YouTube

#70

Post by hackit2 »

ruthmarx wrote: post #53

It definitely is. I switched to it primarily because the main website just takes up so much memory, needlessly. I have no moral issue with this either. If Google wants money then they need to be more legitimate in their business dealings. No ignoring DMCA abuse, no ending user accounts with no appeal, no dark patterns period.

When I made a comment on one video about the Ukraine war, Google instantly deleted my Youtube channel (that had nothing on it), citing the comment was against their community guidelines. After that I'm hesitant to use any of services that I pay Google for in the future, and taking steps to move away from them.
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