In my latest blog post I suggested that even "bird site" may not have come into existence if we did not have net neutrality. Is this a fair statement?
@cc Good point. I forgot just how bad it used to be in the 1990s. I mean, I remember having to welcome all these AOL users to this mythical "rest of the Internet", just didn't make the net neutrality connection until now.
@skquinn Perhaps luckily for me, I grew up in a small town and my first internet connection was through a small local provider, as opposed to a large corp like AOL.
So the result was that my small company didn't offer any extra services. They just provided a dial up number to connect to and the rest was up to you to figure out.
Granted, the "figuring out" was a big frustrating at the time, but in hindsight I am grateful for it.
@cc That's how I started out as well. By the time AOL had begun flooding the market with their infamous Frisbees-with-an-installer-on-them, I had dumped Windows (at the time, for OS/2, but later for GNU/Linux). AOL on OS/2 was a non-starter; AOL on GNU/Linux was a definite no-go. So I had no choice but to use alternative local ISPs.
@skquinn I've always been a conformist, so I used Windows for a long time because everyone else did. Also, as you mentioned, it was a lot easier for compatibility reasons.
I never really loved Windows though. It was like being stuck in a loveless marriage.
Now I own a Mac because it's "pretty"
@cc Especially now that Apple is pushing this "walled garden" nonsense in iOS, and has made it impossible to buy a Mac without MacOS X on it, I feel uncomfortable giving Apple my money. That, and I value freedom a lot more now than I ever did (it's what I was after when I first had a desire to quit buying new versions of Windows and other Microsoft products, I just didn't realize it at the time).
@skquinn I become paralysed by the paradox of choice when I have too much freedom. When I had an Android phone, I wasted all my time downloading launchers and icon packs. That's probably why I lean towards conformity because it's less stressful and I can leave the burden of choice up to someone else.
Jony Ive knows what's best for me.
@cc When I wanted to dump Evolution for Thunderbird (many reasons, but the last straw was the lousy way Evolution insisted upon handling GnuPG integration; Enigmail for Thunderbird is much better), it was a relatively painless switch. I think Apple makes it impossible to use an alternative email app on their phones on purpose ("duplicating existing functionality"). The Play Store has K9Mail even though Android has an email app already (two, in fact, if you count GMail).
@cc For whatever reason, though, I never fell down the rabbit hole of trying out new app launchers and icon packs. That's just not my style for some reason...
@cc My state-of-the-art-for-circa-2010 Toshiba laptop isn't ugly, but would not stand a chance at winning a laptop beauty pageant if they existed. My friend's new System76 laptop, and to a lesser extent, my System76 desktop as originally received, are a bit better in the looks department, but that's another story. In general, I would rather get computing performance for my money when buying a computer. I save appearance reasons for why I buy clothes, shoes, haircuts, etc.