Sounds like you're not familiar with Oracle...

I've recently gotten to think that the company which made the basement for all these disgusting companies is usually viewed as not just not disgusting, but almost holy. Meaning Sun. So, maybe, judging the tree by its fruits, the most disgusting company was Sun.

I mean, I know that everyone who used their products and of course people who worked there are still in awe and remember it like a Soviet summer camp shown in the Everlasting Summer game.

But perhaps that's misguided. They've built the hierarchical systems, the infrastructure, for all the dystopia of today, and their code still powers much of it.

Also you know how the second competitor in an almost monopolized market is sometimes considered an accomplice of monopoly? Because they are strong enough to support some of its ways, while the rest are not. So they reinforce it. I'm also looking at Firefox writing this. Literally.

Perhaps we'd have a better environment office-wise if LibreOffice and OpenOffice were not a thing. They support MS formats, thus indirectly contributing to MS dominance. The network effects work in a few different ways, while were it different, those desperately needing MS documents would use MSO, at the same time those just needing some office suite would possibly not.

Perhaps that can also be applied to Unix and Unix-likes, Sun made a lot of momentum for Unix and Unix-like desktops when they contributed to TCL/Tk so that it became a tool for making Unix and Unix-like desktop applications easily. And when they created Java and Java applets in web browsers prepared the public for scripts in browsers and cross-platform applications served over net.

Yes, it all felt like heaven behind the corner, but perhaps they are to blame. What if.

After all, much of that was free or for the cost of a CD then, and free cheese usually is part of a trap. Perhaps if instead commercial competing platforms, like Amiga or even Apple, were to gain more following, we'd have a different world. All those development resources couldn't have been gifted (Sun in the 90s, I mean, and honestly many universities) out of nowhere, something made that worth the expense.

Or, if we want free and open, Lisp environments are somewhat easier to hack on (also again about TCL, it kinda approaches that in convenience for a non-programmer to make something simple, quick and dirty, but good enough), and accessibility to wider, eh, masses is meaningful here. So maybe GNU shouldn't have gone with a Unix-like system idea. I mean, OK, they do have a Lisp environment fit for everything, it's called Emacs.

BTW, about disgusting companies coming to mind first, I'm not disgusted by Oracle, in comparison to most other big ones they do honest business. I dunno why they are hated, uncle Larry says dystopian shit with enthusiasm and no remorse, but at the same time his company sells exactly what it advertises. It's all kinda open and straightforward, it's the "one rich asshole called Larry Ellison" company, which may not be what someone likes, but is certainly better than companies actively building worldwide digital fascism (it, of course, offers expertise and help to those who do in case they need it). Also he's really a self-made man. Unlike all those other types from good families, good environments and with good education.

OK. I just have that conspiracy theory brewing in my mind about Sun actually being evil. Sorry.