I’m a FOSS (free and open source software) contributor and enthusiast. So I prefer to use such products (Lemmy instead of Reddit, Linux instead of Windows, Firefox instead of Chrome, Signal instead of WhatsApp, you get the idea). Was just thinking that if everyone moved to such solutions, the tech and ad industry would lose billions of dollars. That would translate to governments losing billions of dollars in tax revenue. Would such a move ever be encouraged then by the governments?
The biggest problem is, nobody from the tech industry is going to fund an application specifically designed to be non-commercial unless they’re legally forced to. Which means that reach and development power are always going to stay behind the proprietary alternatives