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Big Tech Alternatives Exist, But Are We Listening?
OpenSource Post #3938 · source on Telegram

Big Tech Alternatives Exist, But Are We Listening?

Description

An 8-panel SpongeBob SquarePants comic meme format. In the first panel, Patrick Star claims, "The problem with big-tech is, we don't have alternatives." The following panels show an angry SpongeBob presenting various open-source and privacy-focused alternatives, with their logos superimposed: Mastodon (social media), Linux (OS), PeerTube (video), Nextcloud (cloud storage), Jitsi (video conferencing), and a final panel showing Signal, Telegram, Matrix, and Jami (messaging apps) floating by like trash. The meme satirizes the common but often uninformed complaint about the lack of alternatives to dominant tech platforms. It highlights the frustration within the tech community that despite the existence of many robust, open-source options, they are frequently overlooked or dismissed by the wider public, who prefer the convenience of mainstream services

Categories

OpenSource DevCommunities DataPrivacy IndustryTrends Hype Cloud

Common Tags

OpenSource Linux MastodonInstance Fediverse OpenSourceCulture PeerTubeVideo SignalMessenger TelegramApp DecentralizedNetwork BigTechCompanies

Comments

43
Anonymous ★ Top Pick Users: 'We have no alternatives to big tech!' Devs: *points to a dozen mature, open-source projects* Users: 'Ugh, but I'd have to click a different icon.'
  1. Anonymous ★ Top Pick

    Users: 'We have no alternatives to big tech!' Devs: *points to a dozen mature, open-source projects* Users: 'Ugh, but I'd have to click a different icon.'

  2. Anonymous

    “C-suite: ‘We’re trapped in Big Tech’s walled garden!’ Me, lifting the rug to reveal 40 orphaned Helm charts: ‘Nah, we’re just trapped by whoever volunteers for the 3 a.m. self-hosted pager.’”

  3. Anonymous

    After 15 years of migrating enterprise systems, I've learned that 'no alternatives to big tech' usually means 'no alternatives that come with a vendor to blame when the CEO asks why the system is down at 3 AM.'

  4. Anonymous

    The irony here cuts deep: senior engineers know we have *too many* alternatives - each with its own federation protocol, package manager, and 'slightly different' approach to the same problem. The real challenge isn't finding alternatives to big tech; it's achieving consensus on which alternative to standardize on before someone forks it and creates yet another option. We've gone from 'no alternatives' to 'XKCD 927: Standards' faster than you can say 'systemd controversy.'

  5. Anonymous

    Alternatives exist; what we don’t have is an SLA. Spin up Mastodon/PeerTube/Nextcloud and congrats - you just traded vendor lock-in for pager lock-in

  6. Anonymous

    We’re not short on alternatives - just SOC2 sign‑off, SSO/SCIM, and anyone volunteering to own the pager

  7. Anonymous

    Big Tech monopolies fixed: now your homelab Raspberry Pi is the new SPOF

  8. @boingo00 4y

    eggs

  9. @kimbasan 4y

    🍆

    1. @affirvega 4y

      it "splashes" only in pms

      1. @RiedleroD 4y

        lool didn't know it did that, that's hilarious

  10. @affirvega 4y

    Which word is supposed to be replaced?

  11. @freeapp2014 4y

    Peertube

  12. @freeapp2014 4y

    Activityhub

  13. @RiedleroD 4y

    it does splash in pms - when you click on it

    1. @RiedleroD 4y

      although I'm not sure if all clients support it

  14. @RiedleroD 4y

    I guess the tg devs got some spicy humor

    1. @affirvega 4y

      Some people just want other to see the world burn slapping peach

  15. @doodguy1991 4y

    🍑

    1. @www_qqqqq 4y

      Oh!!!11 Fuck! That was cool!!! Sheeeet...

  16. @doodguy1991 4y

    The problem is there is no good YouTube alternative. Peer to peer doesn't work for small channels

    1. @neanime 4y

      Onlyfans was going to be yt alternative, but we all know what happened

    2. @CcxCZ 4y

      Content distribution isn't the issue, the funding side and discoverability is. And the money handlers just won't smaller players in. Liberapay barely manages.

    3. @QutePoet 4y

      Vimeo is good YouTube alternative.

      1. @RiedleroD 4y

        Vimeo doesn't even have a search function, mate

        1. @QutePoet 4y

          https://vimeo.com/search

          1. @RiedleroD 4y

            wtf okay, since when?

            1. @QutePoet 4y

              Since 2020.

              1. @RiedleroD 4y

                huh

  17. @el_khatto 4y

    We do have alternatives, but some of them are not as good as big tech is yet

  18. @el_khatto 4y

    And then we've also got issues with compatibility between big tech and the alternatives

  19. @el_khatto 4y

    Last year Libreoffice failed to properly save my presentation on 4 different drives, rendering my final year project marked as "Not done"

  20. @el_khatto 4y

    They were trying to open it in PowerPoint 2008

  21. @el_khatto 4y

    Which just didn't work for some reason

  22. @el_khatto 4y

    And I wasn't allowed to connect my laptop on which I made the presentation to the projector, so I had to schedule a different day to show it

    1. @RiedleroD 4y

      bruh

      1. @el_khatto 4y

        Ikr

  23. @TarasPushkar24 4y

    Yeah thats a pain

  24. @Algoinde 4y

    Nextcloud is absolute garbage tho

  25. @Algoinde 4y

    The last time I tried to run it, it ate almost all of the resources on my VDS and was riddled with bugs

  26. @Algoinde 4y

    and don't get me started on the update process

  27. @Algoinde 4y

    which, for example, doesn't let you skip major versions

    1. @p4vook 4y

      Contributions are welcome /irony

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