[dialamac]

In a fair society it should be taxed as an externality. There is a real environmental cost associated with software bloat.

[hobofan]

Then I hope we would also tax the bad UX of the competing 20-year old Frankenstein applications, which lead to slower business processes (= more resources used as well).

[pkalinowski]

People pay with electricity, uncomfortable temperature and fan noise, wasting time working on slow apps.

Apparently, they trade off still worth it, as many electron apps are popular despite these issues. Many times there is electron app or nothing.

[p_l]

Your last sentence hits the nail - many users don't have a choice in selecting the application, and due to industry fads can't expect to have a better option.

I can make a great chat system that uses fast native client, but it won't change the fact that Corporation A paid for a slack license and won't switch to mine.

[swiley]

In a fair society closed software would be illegal and people wouldn’t tolerate this kind of stupidity.

No need to hack it with taxes.

[CawCawCaw]

> In a fair society closed software would be illegal

What?