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Comment by q-big | Hacker News Reader

> And increasingly, consumers have become resources rather than market participants.

By their buying decisions, they actively decide that this is what they want.

They don't decide this is what they want, they decide this is the least bad they will bear.

I don't like Android, I don't like iOS. What do I buy ? Not the one that is best for me, because I don't have a real choice, but the one I will hate the least.

> I don't like Android, I don't like iOS. What do I buy ?

Not buying is also a possible decision. You should of course choose this choice if all other available option have a negative net value for you. The fact that you decided for Android or iOS shows that both of these choices have a positive net value for you - so what are you complaining about?

If I don't buy anything, I'm out of the market system and the whole argument of "the market is best" falls down: it means the market hasn't solved my problem.

> The fact that you decided for Android or iOS shows that both of these choices have a positive net value for you - so what are you complaining about?

Android suits me more, but I would like to be able to run multiple VPNs at the same time. What do I buy ?

I didn't buy Android because this is what I want, but because it's the closest. But how do I drive the decisions to where I want ? Am I supposed to wait that a million alternatives are created and have the same level as Android, then only can I buy what I need ? This just doesn't work.

> If I don't buy anything, I'm out of the market system and the whole argument of "the market is best" falls down: it means the market hasn't solved my problem.

This means the vendor makes no money from you. If a lot of people decide this way, the vendor will have to adjust or go bust - this is called "market adjustment".

The fact that you did buy tells the market that what you bought is of net-positive value for you.

> The fact that you did buy tells the market that what you bought is of net-positive value for you.

This doesn't mean the market is efficient. It means the market misunderstands itself.

That's like an AI recognizing Bugs Bunny as a cat and not as a chair, at least it's an animal, it is a net-positive over the alternative. That's still not what I want.

Try Librem 5 or Pinephone.

I applaud the efforts, but it's not there yet and still, look how long it took to be where they are today. Look at the lost efforts of webOS, Maemo, Symbian, FirefoxOS. Most of those have working forks, but only commercial ones are still living and are still not what I'm looking for.

Indeed, it's very much work in progress, but in my opinion it's very far already and people who are concerned about having alternatives should support such efforts (I do).

I don't believe that's true.

As an example, I hate every option available for phones right now but I can't just not have a phone. I have no real choice.

Whichever decision I make will send the wrong signal to "the market" and won't influence it to improve.

You can buy second-hand phone to avoid giving more profit to the producer.

Except older phones will be EOL much sooner and will stop getting updates.

Thanks 'free market'.

Use LineageOS - and indeed, thank the free market.

Lineage doesn't guarantee security updates for your device, even if there are official builds.

Not to mention lineage means no verified boot

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