👍Maximum Derek👍

Future winner of the Nobel prize in Minecraft

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 21st, 2023

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  • They way they marketed their VPN early on was the first thing I thing. The VPN seemed great but the marketing felt like virtue signalling, I don’t really remember the specifics so it could have been a me thing. Then the news broke they turned over user data to authorities. I kind of expected it but they pushed the fact that they were in Switzerland like it made them more shielded from that (again kind of a marketing distaste). Then this year there was them accidentally funding a french far right youtuber. A small enough thing to have been a mistake, but also it piles on to the bad feelings.

    So it’s not antagonism, but it’s an ick.



















  • A FOSS alternative would likely be missing or have meh performance from many of the streamers. All the big ones use proprietary codecs that are expensive annual licenses. And even then the streamer controls what various access methods are allowed to see and at what quality. I think netflix still limits web browsers to 720p, for example. And straight web access isn’t great, you want an interface that can ideally be controlled with about 6 - 8 buttons (4 directions, OK, and Back are the minimum) which might require API access to these services, which introduces more access control. Netflix (and maybe others) even have hardware installed at the ISP level that give them a lot of control over individual access as well.

    Basically for a full featured FOSS service you’d need to start with getting grants to buy to codec licenses, and then you’d need to hire people just to maintain your relationship with the streaming services to stay in their good graces while they know you’re working against their bottom line.