Haha I’m just like you there, I liked 7 as well, 10 was the last one I was ok to use, I used 11 at work first and downloaded Linux Mint that same week. Using it on a laptop, being so bogged down is hilariously, a lot like playing with a month old $200 smart phone, despite how great the specs you paid for are.
you can’t tell me, anywhere in that comment, I said “stop voting with your wallet”? Is that all you got from that? How about this: once upon a time, we used to shut down a local cafe who made a racist/homophobic comment by not buying their food. Now, we have a big corporation everyone uses. Sure, keep telling everyone to choose an alternative, but this will never, ever, EVER be enough for Google to care because for every 1 new convert to Mailbox.org you make (generous), there’s 2 people in India, Thailand, Nigeria, who just made a gmail. Why do you think they care they lost you? This is never going to be enough. Do you also send complaint letters to Google? If no, why not? It’s about as powerful as you switching to Proton.
Of course, they are probably going to use something like duckduckgo - I am glad at least in 2026, search engines are still not monopolized. This is not the point.
I am still concerned of this precedent being set “we will punish you from everyday life if you choose to opt out”. For now we have Toyotas, and Fords, and BMWs. We have Lemmy as an alternative to the Reddit monopoly. In 50 yrs, the biggest companies will get eaten up, bought out, or become an illusion of an “independent company”, say how Hummer is now owned by GMC. One day duckduckgo will either shut down or be forced to be bought out by Bing. Starting your own becomes prohibitively expensive, and I dont refer to having a team building your search engine itself I am talking legal, red tape. Can you believe in almost 30 yrs, I cant have an open source linux mobile phone that passes cryptography checks required for banking apps? In this phone monopoly, when we lose a new personal right every month? Are you gonna tell me “just go into the branch in person bro”? For how long is that building going to be there?
To use another analogy, you’re pleased you have a packet of 100 bandaids to fix an open wound when we are actually hemorrhaging on the inside. We should not see the school to use a non-AI search engine as the end of the story, that’s bad strategy. Need to look whats NEXT from here
Exactly… that’s why I think this commentary “I vote with my wallet” is tiresome. I think we are long past that as something that can be weaponized against corps who are basically as powerful as the government now.
You’re one of the few. If I ask 10 people out on the street what they use, it’s Google. I’d sooner find a vegan than even a duckduckgo user. Also, veganism didn’t change the world either, meat industry going strong. This thinking isn’t helping your cause, you need to consider what would actually change things.
Just note that online life is so embedded in everyone, including your life, that taking away google search from a kid is like taking away transport that isn’t horse, just for the 21st century. Like wouldn’t it be funny if a company said that they won’t sell you a car you liked/could afford because you didnt want AI in it? You can’t board this bus because there’s an AI security bot in it? That’s what’s going to happen with this precedent. Be careful what you celebrate.
This guy might just be hamming it up to fluff up his resume for Grok AI or something