[astrange]

Generally when you come up with something from first principles that appears to be "terrifyingly obvious", that thing is false.

Microsoft's mission in life is to do whatever its directors want, insofar as its shareholders don't get /too/ annoyed about this, and to not break the law. They have no actual "obligations" or "fiduciary duties" to keep increasing profits or anything like that.

[MonkeyClub]

So they have no duty towards the general public either, until the public’s too irritated with them, and calls for overview. How’s that better, or any different at all?

[astrange]

I don't understand what you're trying to say here.

[MonkeyClub]

They’re not your friends, they’re out to profit from anything they can grab from you, so on principle, DON’T TRUST THEM.

[astrange]

They’re not out to profit from anything they can get though. They’re out to do Microsoft things.

This is pretty obvious; most companies stay in their industry even if it becomes irrelevant. Furniture companies rarely switch to software and software companies rarely just start selling heroin. (Except for gacha games.)