[datalus]

No, but all those people making "Netflix money" aren't really changing technology, are they? I'd argue FAANG is stagnating it, and telling themselves differently.

I guess if you want to make gobs of cash, fine. You could also just go into finance and make more than FAANG money if you're talented enough.

[umanwizard]

Facebook is a major contributor (sometimes the primary one) to many famous open-source projects: Linux, mercurial, MySQL, React, jemalloc, PyTorch, GraphQL, and probably several others I’m not thinking of.

They’re also one of the top AI/ML research institutions in the world with a huge chunk of the papers published at top conferences.

Similar statements are also true of Google.

[gibolt]

I'd argue that Microsoft, Google and Apple have enabled massive growth in technology. New uses for OSs, new places for them to run, and ways to make starting far more accessible/collaborative.

Even if there is 2 step forwards, one step back, the overall benefit of options available due to the vast number of people contributing their creativity is only possible due to these companies.

[selfhoster11]

They enabled new users for computers, and killed desktop computing in the process. I don't think the trade off is with it.