QOTW: Which tech do you boycott?

[malculator]

Another Apple avoider here. I find their iPhones too costly and too restrictive and their iMacs just too costly. Furthermore, I don't do Facebook either. If I want to contact someone I'll email, phone, text, or just visit them instead.

[Unique]

i don't really boycott anything. if i like something and can afford it then i may buy it, if i don't like it then i probably won't buy it unless i really need it and there's not a more appropriate alternative. i don't avoid things for moralistic reasons as if you wanted to do that rationally you would need to consider the same morals for all companies and you would encounter issues in that getting full and accurate information about each company to make such a decision would be unrealistic. so you may hear this or that company does this and that and avoid them and use another company that does the same or similar things, but you just haven't heard about it. companies are typically there to make a profit and many will do things that some may object to, but it's just not widely known. so you avoid company A and buy from company B because you heard what company A did, but company B could be worse and you didn't know it


the only thing i do avoid is online banking for personal use. i use it for business as i have to, but it's not my money. the reason i avoid it is simply because i don't trust systems yet, we do hear about bank hacks and people being scammed, and the banks haven't done enough to resolve the issue of phishing and email and internet scams. i get regular emails from banks, and many many more in my spam folder, and i know they are all false because i don't do online banking, but at times they can look convincing and make me think twice and wonder if it is really my bank. i'm also concerned that if i had a virus or spyware that my account could be compromised. i've been using online banking at work going way back to the 80s with this dialup thing that looked like ceefax, and generally pretty interested in technology and gadgets and improving life with them, occasionally with the latest stuff, but usually avoiding stuff unless it's fully baked, and i think virtual reality is one of these things that's nowhere near ready or realistic, and banking still has somewhere to go in regards to security. perhaps it could be something based on biometric technology, but it needs to be simple to use and convenient. i prefer to use telephone banking as i speak to a human, calls and details are recorded and i can clarify in plain english before they proceed, and there's a human in the middle to blame if things go wrong, rather than myself being responsible whether i make an error or it's the pc/software or a hacker that's done it

[JefUK]

Anything Apple!

[Hoonigan]

Anything Palit have made.

I bought an 8800GT from them, back in the day, which made a god-awful scream up whenever it was turned on. (This is the way it was designed and released!)
Wouldn't trust them ever again after that.

[Jaffo]

Atari, because of their IP trolling of Jeff Minter. Fortunately, they haven't produced anything decent for years, so it's not like I'm missing out!

[Ferral]

I wouldn't go as far as saying boycotting something. I try to avaoid certain things by all means, I never bought an AMD card after having 2 different models bought from different times (9600 Pro & X1950 Pro (HIS & Sapphire) - Around 2003 & 2007) and refused to buy any other card than Nvidia after that as they bacame faulty (ram on the 9600 Pro and the voltage regulators overheating on the X1950 Pro making it stop working, both of which were a dog to RMA direct back to the manufacturers), I always did state though I feel the color is way better on the Radeon cards. However, late last year was looking around for a mid / high card and went for the Sapphire Radeon R9 380 Nitro 4Gb, better value for money as the nvidia equivalents for the same price only had 2Gb ram on them, seeing as newer releases are requiring around the 4Gb mark.

There is also the Apple stuff, now don't get me wrong it looks nice, it is just I prefer to be able to tinker and set the OS up the way I like and have done since Windows 98, I like to tinker! With the Apple stuff it isn't as easy to be able to change things up, not forgetting the gaming side of things, not everything lands on the Mac, you do have boot camp available though. Same can be said for the iPhone, I have been a Sony Xperia user since the X10 which granted didn't have multi touch but it was an awesome phone, then I went HTC Desire and then back onto Sony with the Xperia T (still have it and love it) and then onto a Z2 but a few weeks back decided to go with an iPhone 6 as it just does what I need it to, yeah I do have a friend who has started developing small games for IOS and Android but i don't need to be tinkering wth preview builds of his work etc. I just need a phone that I can check in with my emails etc while I am out and about, not forgetting on the iPhone I can block me eldest daughter from texting or calling me while I am at the gym after a few taps if she is bugging me!

[lkarunan]

I advocate the use os FOSS wherever possible but am also pragmatic (hypocritical?). Windows 10 seems to be a warning to those who don't take software freedom seriously. Issues like Superfish also seem to be logical outcomes of using proprietary environments and low profit margins. Any companies who use software patents offensively I also try to avoid for related reasons. In general I try to support any company that promotes FOSS (e.g. I specifically bought a Dell XPS 13 developer edition, even though it is trivial to replace Windows on most laptops these days). Therefore some of the companies I avoid - boycott is probably too strong a word - for these reason and others are:

Apple - also a poor value proposition
Microsoft (I dual boot Windows 8.1 on my desktop for games but am careful which updates I install) - highly unethical business practices, poor value proposition
Oracle
EA (I support GoG wherever possible, I also use use Steam because of Valve's support of Linux, Vulcan etc.)
Adobe - cost
nVidia (I currently have a GTX 670, but plan to upgrade to AMD Polaris/Vega) - unethical business practices
HP - for what they did to Palm
Any non-Nexus Android device - security concerns

[c12038]

At this moment it would be AMD graphic cards They keep rebranding old stock GPUs and tell us they are new gpus that have been developed.... Would take alot to convince me to go back with AMD due to high prices and poor driver support

[quantasm]

Anything that won't allow me to simply replace a battery, SDD or memory. Apple users are being ripped off these days with component lock-in, better alternatives and extortionate pricing.

[jim]

Apple is by far the stand out name in this thread. I used to own a 3GS, and now have a Macbook Pro for work. To all those anti-Apple antagonists (it just came to me) :-

1) Why do you dislike the company or product?
2) Do you expect to make a difference? If so, what do you do apart from boycott Apple?
3) Do you use an alternative? Which one(s)? In what way do you feel they're a better choice?
4) Do you tell others about Apple and the alternatives?

Boycotting can help, but seems to work best with a mix of education, awareness and media coverage. Then lots of people can all rage against the machine together.

Interesting post, and some good points. As for your questions:

1) Because Apple have always represented what I despise about computing - closed systems that are designed with the intention of preventing customers from tinkering. If it was an OS that anyone could install, and they made some high calibre, OS-independent hardware, then I'd have much less of a problem with them. And of late, the massive smugness of their customers and brand overall has only hardened that line.

2) I don't. However, it would be hypocritical to criticise them and then also buy the products.

3) Broadly speaking, Windows and Android. More open platforms and better value for money, generally. I have recently used (extensively) an iPhone 6S and MacBook Air, and hated both, so at least I'm a bit more informed than I was before.

4) If people ask, I'll share my opinions freely. But I'm hardly briefing against them... I've got better things to do with my time, and ultimately if people are happy with their products then who am I to start telling them they're wrong?

[aramil]

I boycott Facebook. If it's important enough people can call me, not got time for constant updates about who's having coffee and where they are.

Yeah I don't do Facebook either. And apple mainly because it is overpriced for what it is and I prefer android.

[mrochester]

Google because of their anti-competitive and predatory business practices (ad-supported business model rather than paying money for a product/service).

Surprised at the number of people saying Apple given they are one of the most morally upstanding companies in the business. I guess some people just hate because it's currently cool to do so. I tend to avoid those sort of trends.

[LeetyMcLeet]

Apple need i say more

+ this

[Saracen]

Re: Apple

...

1) Why do you dislike the company or product?
2) Do you expect to make a difference? If so, what do you do apart from boycott Apple?
3) Do you use an alternative? Which one(s)? In what way do you feel they're a better choice?
4) Do you tell others about Apple and the alternatives?

Boycotting can help, but seems to work best with a mix of education, awareness and media coverage. Then lots of people can all rage against the machine together.

1) I don't boycott them exactly, but I regard their products as overpriced fashion icons, designed for a particular market segment. Rather like Rolex. Which I also wouldn't buy, for much the same reason.

2) No, I don't. I'm not campaigning or anything. Companies targeting consumers as Apple do know full well they're not targeting everyone and that people with my mindset aren't in their demographic. They won't care that I, or millions that agree, won't buy because they never expected us to in the first place.

3) Alternative? Yes, for tablets. Why? Do everything I need at about a third of the price.

4) Erm, not really. The subject of iphones rarely comes up in my life, except on here. For tablets, two friends did buy the same 10" tablet I bought because I told them about a very good (temporary) deal our local John Lewis had. But other than that, as for iphones, it's not a subject that comes very often. I'm sure most of my family/friends have smartphones and probsbly most have tablets, but I've never really paid any attentiln to which ones.

[pastymuncher]

Anything Apple, Ubisoft and EA sells. Also AMD cpu's until they are competitive both in performance and power efficiency again.

[Spreadie]

No surprises here:

Apple mobiles, mainly for the iOS/iTunes ecosystem - I've owned a couple of iphones and an ipad, so this isn't just hate speech. I haven't used an Apple computer in anger since the old Mac Color Classic (iirc), so I can't comment intelligently on their Laptops etc... I've had a play with newer models, obviously, but nothing more than a few minutes at a time.

Windows 10 - Even if you put the privacy issues aside for a moment, I just cannot get on with it. Every time I go back to it, it feels... hollow, without substance - I dunno. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I dislike it intensely.