this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
266 points (95.9% liked)

Showerthoughts

29325 readers
1 users here now

A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

Rules

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

I'm a FOSS (free and open source software) contributor and enthusiast. So I prefer to use such products (Lemmy instead of Reddit, Linux instead of Windows, Firefox instead of Chrome, Signal instead of WhatsApp, you get the idea). Was just thinking that if everyone moved to such solutions, the tech and ad industry would lose billions of dollars. That would translate to governments losing billions of dollars in tax revenue. Would such a move ever be encouraged then by the governments?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It's a "parable of the broken window". We're wasting time and effort on proprietary software. You (OP) are now spending that time and effort on other stuff that you otherwise wouldn't have been able to. So somebody is still getting paid, it's just not the ad industry.