They need to get some tech site like Arstechnica to write about it, like they did when neocities couldn't get ahold of bing. The only way to contact these tech companies to speak to a real human being and not a chatbot is if you know somebody who works there or if the media writes about it.

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perlgeek 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Isn't this Microsoft abusing their quasi-monopoly as a consumer PC OS vendor?

If it weren't for the current administration, I'd say it's time for regulatory action.

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riskable 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The time for regulatory action against Microsoft was thirty years ago and the need for it has only grown since then.

The FTC wasn't doing their job between 1980-2020 because of their ridiculous standard of, "if it doesn't raise consumer prices, it must be allowed." This lead to massive consolidation in many industries which of course ended up raising prices and hurting consumers anyway.

Recently they've had some wins but overall they're still failing to do their job.

	▲	3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		[deleted]

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newsoftheday 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> If it weren't for the current administration

Because the Democrats were better at keeping them on a leash? No. Clinton was in charge 30 years ago and blew it.

	▲	tremon 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		It was the Clinton administration that started regulatory proceedings against Microsoft, but it was GW Bush that was president during the conclusion of the case. And, true to form: > The Department of Justice, now under Bush administration attorney general John Ashcroft, announced on September 6, 2001, that it was no longer seeking to break up Microsoft and would instead seek a lesser antitrust penalty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor...

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klabb3 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's much worse than you think. Press coverage -> manual intervention is at best a bandaid covering up a major wound in a flaw that happens with independent software distribution.

The old model where the user decides which software or apps to run on their machine, is basically already replaced by a whitelist system that is managed by companies who have no interest or obligation to approve developers. Factors like ”being an individual”, an open source developer or god forbid reside outside the USA, you rely on a combination of L1 support doom loops, unjustifiable high recurring prices, kafkaesque and changing requirements, internal inconsistencies. Windows is the worst, but all platforms (except Linux) suffer from this and you can and will get hurt, delayed, and gaslit. If you haven’t, it’s just a matter of time.

I have been blocked for 6 months now with Digicert code cert renewal, for my app Payload, which will never get any media attention. The app doesn’t matter though, the approval process is per-entity (usually, a company). The point is that nobody gives a shit, because they have a monopoly/cartel and they start the validation process after they take your money.

If you are not an app publisher, the best way I can describe it is the ”pre-let’s encrypt” era of SSL certs, but more expensive, strict and ambiguous. In fact, I’ve never gone through any worse approval process in my life, and that includes applying for residency in two countries, business licenses, manual tax filings etc.

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bluGill 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Some countries (the EU in general) are already doing things about this. Owning the app store means you are a monopoly and now the only question is are you illegal by the local laws which vary.

You can/should write your congressman (or whatever they are called in your country) and get better laws in place.

	▲	klabb3 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You are not wrong that regulation is desperately needed, and that EU is doing good things. However, even the EU which are doing the right thing on an anti-trust pro-competition basis, they fundamentally succumb to the same misconception – that middlemen are necessary at all. The EU doesn’t care about the App Store model, they care about the App Store monopoly. They are right about that, but the solution isn’t alternative app stores - it’s much simpler: the solution is NO App Store. More specifically, it used to be feasible to distribute software between me (the developer) and my customers (the users) without a mandatory gate keeper that looks at me and decides whether I’m worthy, am from the right country, have good intentions etc. This is currently necessary on all desktop and mobile platforms except Linux. There is exactly 1 gatekeeper per platform (the platform owner who controls your device), except windows, which effectively have like 3-4 CAs that’s shrinking every year due to mergers and private equity ownership. Software curation and reputation systems can be good, either with whitelists (say steam) or blacklists (say antivirus). I can see some use cases for it, but they should be within user control. What we have now is worse than a fearmongering Stallman rant. It’s incredibly bad, both pragmatically and philosophically.

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CR1337 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I blew the lid on X today:

https://x.com/i/status/2041698657368703484

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bombcar 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The (new?) X link made me think for a moment you got the username @i

	▲	aaronmdjones 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The website formerly known as Twitter has never cared about the username part of the URI; it only looks at the status number and will redirect you to the canonical version if it wasn't.
	▲	yegle 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The /i/ links are not new, but they used to be for internal (?) links e.g. ads.

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zymhan 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[flagged]

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malfist 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

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john_strinlai 3 hours ago | parent [-]

1) its weird to disparage someone that is trying to help, no matter how small or large of an effect you think the help will have

2) they got 120,000 views, 400 retweets, and 1.7k likes in ~12 hours. that is a good amount of awareness. certainly more than i would get from a tweet. certainly more help than whatever you are doing here.

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malfist 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Their tweet was trying to help. Their comment here is bragging about how important they think they are.

	▲	john_strinlai 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		>Their tweet was trying to help. Their comment here is bragging about how important they think they are. ah, well thank god you came in here and set them straight. i am sure the veracrypt maintainer is appreciative of your service.