zlacker

>>pictur+(OP)
This enshittifcation is endemic. Corporations cannot just release a good product and support it. The better the product is and the larger the customer base becomes, the higher the likelihood that some business planner is going to see dollar signs and try to squeeze the product for everything it’s worth. And every time this ruins the product. And we’re here with a proprietary phone OS and proprietary apps. Proprietary firmwares on proprietary hardware. And we are completely at the whim of these companies.

And the option is what, buy a Zigbee dongle and a raspberry pi run some code written by unpaid enthusiasts? 3D print a case for it and mount it on the wall, running updates and fixing it ever few months when some package update breaks it?

I like the concept of lights that run from an app. I don’t have any of the physical Hue switches for my system and it’s fine. But I do not want an app that abuses me, and I do not want to maintain some fragile project made from slapped together code. I want robust open hardware with open source software.

I’m convinced that we can achieve this, but it won’t be with the current model of business and engineering we have today.

>>Taylor+We
I agree with you wholeheartedly. Philips' revenue was ~20 billion last year. Why must these people shit all over everything to squeeze out even more on top of that?

Where are all of the businesses with values that put humans first? Is it just necessary to be so ruthlessly destructive to make it at all?

>>mostly+Gh
HN is filled full of money and well-connected engineers.

There are hundreds of people on this site that can begin creating a competing company/product line starting tomorrow if they care to.

It's exceptionally difficult, expensive, with a high risk of failure. And it'll properly take years of your life even if it fails. No small order for sure.

> Where are all of the businesses with values that put humans first?

A lot of them start out that way, while they're still founder owned/controlled. The enshittification is a market opening, if someone dares to pursue it.

>>advent+Gi
Not only that, there are many of us that are contributing to the problem and are willing to hand wave it away because of the pay and the freedom that comes with it.

(Not you and me, though, we have principles, right?)