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Daily Linux & Open Source News - S01E156 - EU's new law might hurt FOSS

🕑 Added 2024-08-14 08:44:12 +0000 UTC

Comments

Clint Eschberger

100% agree! I am old enough to remember when many were pulling for Google to take down Microsoft. Now they are every bit as bad, if not worse. Sad how the times have changed. Apple has always been a wolf in sheep's clothing and Microsoft has always been a snake.

The Linux Experiment

Not sure if companies would pay for it, or would just move to proprietary vendors instead :/

The Linux Experiment

It would be huge, and would probably have a major impact on how the entire web works, with ads seeing more competition from other networks, their prices could rise, meaning websites maybe wouldn't need as many ads to survive, the web could become a much better place. Or, you know, people could keep stuffing ads everywhere and just make more money :D Also, some things like Youtube might not survive without Google to infuse cash in it regularly, not sure if YT is profitable these days or not. It would be a big change, that's for sure.

The Linux Experiment

Totally agree!

Stephen Linsley

Anything that can be done to minimise/remove unfair practices whether google apple or Microsoft is welcome in my book.

NotMyName

A Google breakup would be a historic event, and have big ramifications for the tech industry and internet. I wonder how the pie could be sliced, such that the individual pieces survive? Android | Chrome | Search | Drive + Photos + Gmail | Cloud | YouTube? Ads are their lifeblood, but the ads are fed data from multiple different sources. Any slices separated from that would have a high chance of dying. And there's a whole bunch of FOSS and internet health projects that Google manages too. If they don't share in the company-wide ad revenue, they could die, diminish, become paid etc., unless it's worth it for them financially to continue to collaborate and contribute. I've been using Flutter for App development, for example, and if it's killed (as opposed to downscaled) for cost cutting, that'll suck. Gmail could start to cost, Drive could reduce storage capacity, YouTube might get even more aggressive with ads (even if they were cut off from Google Search and web crawling data I think they'd have enough to survive) or push YouTube Premium harder, it'll be interesting. I wouldn't blame the DoJ for this, it's a consequence of too much dependency on one corporate entity, which itself has been too dependent on one revenue stream, you gotta rip the bandaid off at some point, but there'd be years of ripples for sure. I'd love to hear your perspective on this.

Jim Allen

That’s why I’m ambivalent about FOSS projects. They want the best of both worlds.. open source freedom yet escape the level of support necessary for corporate acceptance. Can it work? Sure. Look at the adoption of keepass and 7zip. Look at how WinZip dropped in usage once they started charging.

Rødgrød med Fløde

Don't you think the Cyber Resilience Act could have the possibility of companies actually paying for FOSS software? We see now some FOSS projects making money through support, but now important FOSS projects could also charge for the certification so that the company won't have to think about it, they could also begin contributing back code if they find vulnerabilities. Of course there is a very real possibility of companies just choosing to go with big-tech software