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by GuiA 2838 days ago
Makes you wonder why smaller family or close-friends type social networks don't work.

Because they are run by for profit companies, operating in a capitalistic framework.

That is one of the core pillars of free software as envisioned by Stallman - software that can truly serve the needs of the people, because it is not subject to those pressures.

A world where your girlfriend’s family could painlessly deploy their own such service for just a few users and not have to worry about a company shutting it down whenever they feel like it would be wonderful.
1 comments
pikzel 2838 days ago
Yeah, I'm sure they would be able to deploy the service, have it secure and updated, having apps up to date on their new devices. Or maybe that takes time and effort, and people need to pay their bills.
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hrktb 2838 days ago
I think for people don’t mind paying for things they actualy own.

For instance grand-parents don’t want to pay for instagram but will pay premium to have great pictures printed and framed.

Or pay to have their own domain name.

People pay for Dropbox or Squarespace.

I’d totally see my parents paying for a Synology if someone could install it and maintain it for around 10$/€ a month. Currently they pay for one time install fees + maintenance hours for their windows machine for instance, it’s not a big stretch.

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TarpitCarnivore 2838 days ago
Synology is heavily business focused, but I do feel they're making steps towards competing with the bigger companies by offering smaller scale options. They now have Chat, Drive, and Moments which all do things like Slack, GDrive, and Timehop and with apps. Obviously the main caveat is they're not as refined/full featured.
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eberfreitas 2838 days ago
It takes much more time, effort and labor to secure high profit margins...
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fauigerzigerk 2838 days ago
The profit margins need to be high enough to justify investing in the product before you know whether anyone will ever want to buy it.

The margins of successful products also need to fund all the failed attempts at making stuff that ultimately no one wants.

I think innovation without speculation is impossible and speculation has a cost.

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