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The tech monoculture is finally breaking

jasonwillems.com

121–130 of 349 posts

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#121

Call me a pessimist, but I don't agree with this blog post at all. The author's views seems a bit biased and narrow based on their social circle perhaps. > VR is no longer experimental Till it has practical everyday uses and is at least semi affordable, I would categorize it as experimental still > Meta shipped a wearable that normal people actually use, thanks to a clever Ray-Ban partnership (and associated equity s…

> * iPhone and Android being the only 2 choice when it comes to phones

Not exactly true. Sent from my Librem 5.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#122
post #29

I think the author is correct to a point but I don't believe the examples they've chosen provide the best support for their case. Gen Z buying iPods and people buying N64 games again is not evidence of the monoculture breaking apart - it's a retreat into the past for the enlightened few because their needs are not being met by modern goods and services. You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software po…

Yeah, I guess this take is tempting for a technologist, but Gen Z is buying iPods and walking around in wired headphones because it's cool and nostalgic, not because of usability. Cycles of nostalgia are well understood to be getting smaller. The creative industry is creating new things less frequently and referring back sooner (the old 20 year cycle of fashion repeating itself is contracting). There is an element of disenchantment, of wanting to disconnect from the present, but that has always sort of been there as people reached for vintage cameras, record players, and old clothes in the niche cultural movements that have preceded the current Gen Z 2000's obsession that's happening.

see https://www.npr.org/2022/03/01/1081115609/from-tumblrcore-to...

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#123
post #51

> Antitrust pressure has slowed consolidation, opened app distribution, killed the anti-competitive iMessage and AirDrop moats, and made big tech cautious about horizontal expansion. Huh? In what reality is this remotely true? It certainly isn't in the one I live in. The Big 6 control all media in the US, and mergers happen all the time (WBD->Netflix->Paramount?). Google owns web search and web browsing; Amazon owns…

> The Big 6 control all media in the US, and mergers happen all the time

Media has not been in a healthy state for quite some time. For a long time that had little to nothing to do with tech. With streaming these days and tech companies buying studios, that's unfortunately no longer the case.

I didn't call that out directly in the article, but I agree there's cause for concern and there's probably good reason to strike down the HBO acquisition.

> What I think the author is referring to are the minor concessions Apple has made in some territories, mainly the EU

Government moves slowly, and I think a lot of it is still in flight, but Apple is fielding cases globally.

Apple pay was hit with anti-trust cases in Korea and Japan. Epic has had success against Apple, and they've been ruled in contempt of court for not adhering the verdict (with the CFO referred to the DOJ for possible criminal prosecution).

The EU has been the most heavy-handed. I think these are just the beginning

> Anti-competitive moats are still alive and well, and growing larger.

For the last few years big tech has been more cautious. Very few acquisitions (though an insidious loophole was created in which founders are acquihired, license their IP and then effectively kill their old company). So that'll require another look.

> What a silly article. I don't understand how anyone can consider the current state of the tech industry "fun"

Well, I'm having fun! And that's good enough for me ;)

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#124
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the key, and I’m basing this on people in real life, is that these are all different people, and the person toying with Linux desktop is not also buying an mp3 player and paper notebooks and that person isn’t the one who’s building a DVD library. But what he’s onto is the thing that unifies all these weird little niches: they’re motivated by a bone deep annoyance with the most popular big tech offerings. None…

> is that these are all different people, and the person toying with Linux desktop is not also buying an mp3 player and paper notebooks and that person isn’t the one who’s building a DVD library. Hey! That's (almost) me! My desktop has been Linux for multiple decades. I buy paper notebooks and write with pen. Always have. mp3 player: You got me on that one. Although I did buy a Yoto ( https://us.yotoplay.com/ ) and p…

Your DVDs are most likely still working fine, just rip them with Handbrake and add them to Plex (which is what I do).

Disc rot seems way overblown it seems, at least for DVDs. LaserDisc does have this problem, though.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#125
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> growth and momentum behind Linux and self-hosting as better evidence that change is afoot. Linux is still not user friendly enough. Products from two decades ago are more user friendly than modern "mainstream" disros. Look at Matrix and other OSS that wants to be mainstream. It's got awful UI/UX. And it's never taken off. Gimp is an ugly beast with a bad name. Nobody's using that unless they're a Linux nerd. I do s…

Gimp and on the other side Adobe itself, are a special kind of sad story IMHO

Unless Adobe creates AI models that act as a strong differentiator, I think the accessibility of AI may actually put a lot of pressure on their business model. And the world will be better for it.

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#126
post #29

I think the author is correct to a point but I don't believe the examples they've chosen provide the best support for their case. Gen Z buying iPods and people buying N64 games again is not evidence of the monoculture breaking apart - it's a retreat into the past for the enlightened few because their needs are not being met by modern goods and services. You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software po…

> You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software polish and quality of life that an iPod had in the early 2000s I could see how many people would assume this, but it’s actually false. There’s actually a big selection of dedicated audio players that do the job very well now. The battery life and audio quality are extremely good because there’s a niche market for them with a lot of competition. If you th…

I like Alan Moore’s take: A culture retreats into the comfort of nostalgia in especially uncertain times.

I feel retro fad of this generation is precisely this.

Edit: I’m sure that observation has more refined roots, but I’m far from well-read or well-cultured. But if someone happens to know, please let know!

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#127
post #29

I think the author is correct to a point but I don't believe the examples they've chosen provide the best support for their case. Gen Z buying iPods and people buying N64 games again is not evidence of the monoculture breaking apart - it's a retreat into the past for the enlightened few because their needs are not being met by modern goods and services. You cannot buy a dedicated MP3 player today with the software po…

> Gen Z buying iPods and people buying N64 games again is not evidence of the monoculture breaking apart - it's a retreat into the past for the enlightened few because their needs are not being met by modern goods and services It's simpler than that - retro is an (a e s t h e t i c) Those of us who are Zillenials, Gen Z, or Gen Alpha were still in elementary school or not around when those products were mainstream. I…

> It's simpler than that - retro is an (a e s t h e t i c)

I think I agree. But I also think a second order consequence of this is chipping away at the standalone ecosystems (Apple, Google, etc). Even a small contingent of user demand spins up new (or renewed) categories, and that fuels a healthier tech environment

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#128
As other people have pointed out, the trend towards "retro" tech is like vinyl being popular - it's a nostalgia throwback, not a massive wave of consumer preference. There's a small but profitable niche of enthusiasts who want old electonics. Call me when a major consumer electronics company is making it a selling point that their devices are "dumb".

The Rayban-Meta partnership is such a funny thing to shoehorn in? Two giant monopolists creating a new surveillance-tech product which nobody likes. It couldn't be more "monoculture".

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#129
post #96

I'm not sure I agree with all of that - that single-purpose tech is making a real comeback. But I do have one example in my daily life that supports this: A Garmin watch. Unlike "full" smartwatches (arbitrarily defined as: You can browse the web on them in some fashion) Garmin devices are intentionally limited but in return, what they do works very well and seems fully debugged. I spent several years recording outdoo…

The OG smartwatch is better https://repebble.com/

I still have my old pebble (the metal one they made between the original and Pebble Time). The battery has finally died, otherwise I'd still definitely still wear it from time to time

Re: The tech monoculture is finally breaking

#130
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RCS is Google's iMessage with the same vendor locking — not actually cross-platform.

RCS is an open standard that Apple now uses as well. I think there's a legitimate concern about having essentially two phone platforms, and how anything can really be "open" in that environment. But it's definitely a step forward. And Google has built proprietary things on top of the standard, which is indeed concerning.

It requires you to have a whitelisted private key to make devices that use RCS
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