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this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2025
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What I'm becoming worried about now is all these corporations now realizing that they can simply supply price the average consumer out of owning electronics or any kind of compute. And locking them into renting or leasing access to data center compute and keeping the power of information further consolidated in corporate interests.
Holy cow that’s a very real danger I hadn’t thought of! The industry needs a new trend to reuse all this capacity they built, because AI will likely scale back as many startups fail to reach profit.
Renting your home computer might be the next trend, and it could be gratis at first so people get used to it. Why spy on users when you can actually own their computers?
Username unfortunately checks out
“You will own nothing and be happy”
That out of context quote takes a lot of shit for something that was supposed to represent a futuristic socialist utopia.
The idea was that 14 years after that article was published, mankind would have such immediate access to services and those services would be free, that people would just sorta stop caring about owning things. For example, since food and necessities would be free, you could go home and print your dinner. If you wanted someone else to cook, you'd get something delivered. But, if you wanted to try something truly novel that most people don't do anymore in this society, you could rent kitchen equipment and it'd be ready as soon as you need it, and you'd use socialized appliances and utensils. Why? Because your home doesn't need that clutter. If you wanna cook all the time, you can own whatever you want. But most people will want to use that space for something else, so they'll just print their meals.
You would have quick and easy access to transport, so why waste the money and space to own a car? You wanna drive? Push a button in your app and a car arrives for free. Or take the free train or bus.
The essay isn't about "you won't be able to own anything," it's about "you won't want to own anything, but you'll have everything you could ever want or need."
And we're really headed in the right direction for this amazing future. Except, you know... Corporations are bleeding us dry instead of supporting us...
The link doesn't work for me.
Even if the initial intention is positive, I think this degree of dependency on external services is not realistic even if mega corps were not as bad as they are currently.
That does sound lovely, but like every other utopia it’s a fantasy. It’s got the same fatal issue as every other utopia - people. A person can be good and decent, but people suck. I’d say the modern use of that quote is more accurate to reality than the rose tinted view of its origin.
"To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem."
Aren't we already seeing that though?
The vast majority of people who surf the web don't use a computer to do it. People who do belong to niches. People over a certain age grew up with and still buy computers. People who game still buy computers or consoles. People who stream/create content still use computers and other electronics for that purpose, same with like. Engineers and hobbyists using CAD and other software in creative spaces.
But the smart phone has overtaken the computer as a personal computing device by quite a large margin now. And at every turn companies are trying to make cell phones a den of ad service, slop, and addictive content while stealing any user data that's not nailed down to increase their revenue and continue the circle.
I hope it means the return of old, old hardware and the software that comes along with it. This is why projects like collapseOs are important.
theyd have to all collorbate to make that happen though, which is really unfeasable on their end. a BUNCH of companies will go under if they cannot sell product. they arent going to willingly take losses for the sake of a different company.
Anybody hold onto all their old electronics just in case in spite of the financial/resource “waste”?
No but I do hold onto old electronics because I grew up with my grandparents and they had WW2 wartime rationing mentality about saving everything. Also my grandfather also an incredibly cheap bastards at times too
Wouldn't the chinese or whoever doesn't chose to do that gain market share?
I hope they do, it will just break stuff more and people will be more likely to go with Linux and open source software. My 10 year old computer still is super fast if it's not bloated.
Linux won’t make bullshit pc part prices cheaper. RAM, SSDs, GPUs are all rising in prices because of the AI bubble, used and new are all being affected. Can’t run Linux if the parts are too expensive to even get in the first place.
Software needs hardware Linux dose nothing but make it easier for them.
My point is that there is existing hardware already out on the secondary market for cheap, and can run most of what anybody needs. All those machines that aren't up to snuff for Windows 11 standards don't need to go into the landfill.