The US is what happens if you push enshitification on a national scale for too long.
You start with a genuenly good setup. Then you reduce investment, cut corners and reduce spending as much as you can to squeeze out every possible bit of profit.
That works for a while, because you can coast along on prior investments, but at a certain point the game is over and all you are left with is a tide of shit that nobody wants anymore.
To even consider that projects carried mostly by volunteers and underpaid staff making a meager living off donations can rival the products of the world’s largest software corporations is laughable, and yet here we are.
And not only because FOSS alternatives have gotten better over the years, but mostly because big CSS projects have tanked in quality.
The US is what happens if you push enshitification on a national scale for too long.
You start with a genuenly good setup. Then you reduce investment, cut corners and reduce spending as much as you can to squeeze out every possible bit of profit.
That works for a while, because you can coast along on prior investments, but at a certain point the game is over and all you are left with is a tide of shit that nobody wants anymore.
To even consider that projects carried mostly by volunteers and underpaid staff making a meager living off donations can rival the products of the world’s largest software corporations is laughable, and yet here we are.
And not only because FOSS alternatives have gotten better over the years, but mostly because big CSS projects have tanked in quality.