The other day I was listening to the Linux Outlaws podcast during my commute; it was a special episode to look back on the year 2010. At the end of the episode Dan, Fab and their guest Ade Bradshaw each picked something they will remember this year by, and Dan said for him it was the ” [...] year of mergers and lawsuits and aquisitions [...]“. Thinking back on these things it suddenly hit me: my life as a software engineer in Hungary is surprisingly strongly affected by large US-based corporations.
I’m making a living developing Java applications, and the current turmoil around Java worries me somewhat. Hopefully Oracle will learn from its recent mistakes that upset a big part of the community, and Java will continue to thrive. However, I’m actively looking at languages and technologies beyond Java, so as not to put all my eggs in Oracle’s basket.
I’m using several bits of Apple hardware: a home MacBook, a work MacBook Pro and an iPod Classic. Both laptops are running Mac OS X, and I haven’t hacked the iPod either, so there is definitely a strong link to Cupertino. However, I just couldn’t bring myself to buy an iPhone, when Android started catching up.
This brings us to the next West Coast company I’m relying on: Google. I have three Google accounts (two personal, one work), all linked to my Android phone. Although I do have a fairly up-to-date offline backup of my mailboxes, a disturbingly significant part of my online communication and identity relies on Google not being evil or not screwing up.
I could go on and mention Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and all the rest, but I think I have made my point. Part of me thinks it’s amazing, that we have all these great companies and services we can use to learn, communicate and create in ways previous generations would have never imagined. On the other hand it’s somewhat unsettling to think of the implications of placing so much of our data, money and career in the hands of executive committees thousands of miles away.
You’re not alone. Whether you are in the US or abroad, big corporations will never have your best interest. …but open source and open protocols are promising as long as more an more people stay active. Decentralization and community collaboration could prove to be very interesting.