I feel like it's a long list of fairly standard complaints about Google, when really the objection could just be "the server-side code is non-free".<p>For example, He spends a lot of time talking about the You Tube JavaScript code, while not talking about the You Tube server code. Which seems backwards to me. It seems to me that the JavaScript part, while not licensed, is closer to free software (you can read it etc) than the server side.<p>The tracking of information, privacy issues and so on seem unrelated to Free Software and are just a laundry list of bad corporate behaviour, which aren't a secret (and can be easily sumarized.)<p>Frankly there are so many reasons to avoid Google that have nothing to do with the notion of Free Software, that the JavaScript license part is irrelevant. It's like saying that smoking kills you, and the packaging also sux.<p>So I guess his page covers all the bases, but if bad corporate behaviour is the new Stallman Standard, then I guess pretty much any company is off limits.
Hard to disagree with any of the points Stallman listed but this stood out as especially egregious and petty.<p>>Google cuts off accounts for users that resell Pixel phones [0]. They lose access to all of their mail and documents stored in Google servers under that account.<p>>It should be illegal to put any "terms of service" on a physical product. It should also be illegal to close an account on a service without letting the user download whatever was stored there.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/17/google-suspends-customer-accounts-for-reselling-pixel-phones" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/17/google-su...</a>
This is an interesting list of reasons. Even if it is long, I'd say it's still somewhat incomplete...<p>I was motivated by this list to stop depending so much on google. But it's harder than it seems. For example, if you purchase a fastmail account, you still need a google account to install the app in your non-google phone, because fastmail only provides the apk files via the google play store. There's so many such "roadblocks" in de-googlification that you inevitably give up at some point.
I am glad that Richard Stallman and Greta Thunberg live according to their principles and maybe their stances will eventually give me more alternatives to choose from. I am just not personally interested in doing the same. Corporations suck, governments suck, people suck. Constant quest for purity will just mean that I spend all my energy on that and not on doing anything productive myself.
It's too late to worry about Google having data on everyone. Every major corporation has all that data. The Corporation has it too. At this point, hope that when each of these Corp AIs wakes up...that they like who you've been as a person. They'll know who has been consistent and authentic and who hasn't.
Ah, Stallman. Even when he has a point, the sheer amount of wankery surrounding that point makes sifting through the pretentious bullshit not worth the effort.<p>Like, no, you should not use AirBnB. But not because it requires you to "identify yourself". So do hotels, my man. And if someone doesn't want to do business with you, they should be allowed <i>that</i> freedom of choice as well. Just because someone provides a service, it doesn't mean they should be forced to provide it to you if they find you to be abusing their service in some fashion.
I make a point out of excluding google out of mg workflow. I don't have any google devices and don't use any google services personally with the exceptions of searching stuff I know ddg isn't being good at or youtube. Haven't had a google account in several years.<p>I don't hate and despise google like I do companies like fb. Google to me, if it was a person would be someone that is incredibly and impressively smart and capable yet chooses to be a dick a lot because of poor social skills but also because he/she is so rich they can afford to harm you and not worry about their reputation or legal fees if you sue them. I suppose what makes it hard for me to hate them completley is that some of their products are actually impressive and they don't have any usable social media services which makes them less harmful to society at large which isn't the case for any fb or linkedin service.<p>The only other tech company that is like Google is Microsoft in my opinion.<p>I really hope laws catch up to address the scumminess of these companies and places like Google get a change in leadership and culture. It's like Google was great for like 2 minutes and then became a really modern and super innovative version of comcast lol.
Idk about Google but this website as a whole is so damn autistic, whoever the author is needs to be locked up in the room and tied to the bed for safety purposes.