In my latest blog post I suggested that even "bird site" may not have come into existence if we did not have net neutrality. Is this a fair statement?
@skquinn Yes, most likely we would still be using "AOL keywords" instead of proper URLs and would be posting to some sort of provider sponsored, walled garden communities. We might not even be able to communicate internationally, considering most ISPs are regional.
@cc Good point. I forgot just how bad it used to be in the 1990s. I mean, I remember having to welcome all these AOL users to this mythical "rest of the Internet", just didn't make the net neutrality connection until now.
@skquinn Perhaps luckily for me, I grew up in a small town and my first internet connection was through a small local provider, as opposed to a large corp like AOL.
So the result was that my small company didn't offer any extra services. They just provided a dial up number to connect to and the rest was up to you to figure out.
Granted, the "figuring out" was a big frustrating at the time, but in hindsight I am grateful for it.
@cc That's how I started out as well. By the time AOL had begun flooding the market with their infamous Frisbees-with-an-installer-on-them, I had dumped Windows (at the time, for OS/2, but later for GNU/Linux). AOL on OS/2 was a non-starter; AOL on GNU/Linux was a definite no-go. So I had no choice but to use alternative local ISPs.
@skquinn I've always been a conformist, so I used Windows for a long time because everyone else did. Also, as you mentioned, it was a lot easier for compatibility reasons.
I never really loved Windows though. It was like being stuck in a loveless marriage.
Now I own a Mac because it's "pretty"
@cc Especially now that Apple is pushing this "walled garden" nonsense in iOS, and has made it impossible to buy a Mac without MacOS X on it, I feel uncomfortable giving Apple my money. That, and I value freedom a lot more now than I ever did (it's what I was after when I first had a desire to quit buying new versions of Windows and other Microsoft products, I just didn't realize it at the time).
@skquinn I become paralysed by the paradox of choice when I have too much freedom. When I had an Android phone, I wasted all my time downloading launchers and icon packs. That's probably why I lean towards conformity because it's less stressful and I can leave the burden of choice up to someone else.
Jony Ive knows what's best for me.
@cc When I wanted to dump Evolution for Thunderbird (many reasons, but the last straw was the lousy way Evolution insisted upon handling GnuPG integration; Enigmail for Thunderbird is much better), it was a relatively painless switch. I think Apple makes it impossible to use an alternative email app on their phones on purpose ("duplicating existing functionality"). The Play Store has K9Mail even though Android has an email app already (two, in fact, if you count GMail).
@skquinn I never use the Apple mail app. It's not very good. I use the Gmail app and Outlook for work.
The only time I encounter Apple Mail is sometimes when I share stuff, but you can send attachments from other mail apps too.