And consumers will cry about it for about 5 minutes, then go back to reward the company.

When HP started making printer cartridges that expired even when they were still full, people complained—then bought more.

When Microsoft let the web stagnate with IE6, people complained, then turned around and did the same thing with Chrome.

When Apple deliberately put a bug in the iPhone that caused the Home button to fail, pushing people to buy the next model, people got upset—and then bought the next one anyway. I'm amazed nobody remembers that one; it was such a huge deal at the time. And there is not a single link to articles about it anymore.

When Adobe switched to mandatory Creative Cloud subscriptions, plenty of users protested, but most professionals stayed.

When Amazon remotely deleted books from people's Kindles (including 1984), it was a scandal for a month, and then... nothing.

When we found out PRISM existed, users were worried for a few months, then went right back to filling those platforms with their personal data.

When Google allowed fraudulent DMCA takedowns, shut down accounts with no appeal, and censored its search engine, there was a brief outcry, then it was back to business as usual.

When Sony put a bloody ROOTKIT on its music CDs (!!!!), people grumbled for five minutes and kept giving them money.

These companies have no reason to stop. We never make them regret anything.

I should make a website to save those for posterity, so that at least we have a track record of all the things they get away with because we let them.

We're screwed—and we deserve it.

The sad thing is that for many of these examples, people got a better deal out of it.

The HP printer ink subscription makes a lot of sense if you print a certain number of pages each year. Many consumers who only print occasionally are better off with cheap subscriptions for getting their money's worth, even if from an environmental point of view the cartridge DRM is absolute bullcrap.

Adobe switching from making people pay thousands and charging them again for updates was a lot more expensive than the ridiculous yearly subscription they charge (per month, to keep the advertised price down, surprising people who thought they could cancel after a few months).

IE6 was awful at replicating what other browsers did, but it introduced a lot of features that reshaped the web. The XmlHttpRequest that moved the web from static pages to basic interactivity was a Microsoft invention.

Many if these cases didn't work out of course, but for many business decisions that cause outrage on the internet, it's worth reconsidering the options on offer after the outrage has died down. Unpopular decisions aren't often the unbridled conspiratory evil that the internet would like you to believe.

Here here. 100% in agreement, people seem to have forgotten that the majority hold the bargaining power. You'll always have people who cross "strike lines", but by and large if the entire user base simply said; no, and walked; the world would definitely be a better place, in so many ways.

I don't hold France as a shining example of humanity; but by-christ if they get upset they actually take those feet, one in front of the other and fight tooth and nail against `$thing`. Even if they don't "win", they /don't go quietly/.

The Sony one led to legal action and penalties. Also Microsoft themselves released an update that kicked the rootkit out.

I never bought an HP product ever again. My laser is a Brother. Scanner is Epson. But yeah, for the most part all that is true.

Switch to Brother laser jet printers - I hear about them every time HP comes up, I've had mine for years, it is a lovely solution

Tons of people switched from IE6 to Chrome; IE is a dead browser. These days I'd recommend Firefox.

Is there something wrong with the iPhone as of today? It sounds like the bug got fixed in response to outcry, especially if they went and scrubbed all traces of the event - that seems like a good outcome?

Adobe stock is down almost 50% (42.24%) in the past year - I dare say a lot of people got sick of their shit. I have no clue what professionals use, but GIMP works fine for my amateur edits.

Like, c'mon, change very clearly does happen. It's just slow and uneven.

If you actually cared about change, I feel like you'd maybe list a few of the cool alternatives out there and actually help people make that transition. https://xkcd.com/1053/ - people do actually have to be taught about these things, not everyone knows what the alternatives are!

When Apple deliberately put a bug in the iPhone that caused the Home button to fail, pushing people to buy the next model, people got upset—and then bought the next one anyway. I'm amazed nobody remembers that one; it was such a huge deal at the time. And there is not a single link to articles about it anymore.

That one, I don't remember either. Are you sure you aren't confusing it with Batterygate?

But yes: point taken, these companies have absolutely no incentive to behave any better than they have in the past.