the author of that post was called out by the HN mod for engaging in vote manipulation in the past, and lying about several aspects of the GPT3 post [1]. I wouldn't put so much faith into that author
> Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how Google tends to follow Apple's better ideas
they just innovate in different areas. and they borrow from each other all the time. Android introduced multi-tasking, notifications, PiP, widgets, etc. iOS introduced the app screen, app store, gesture navigation, fingerprint unlock, etc. I think Android tends to cater towards power user features (like PiP and multi-tasking) whereas iOS tends to focus on UX (like gesture navigation).
Self-hosting on a reliable VPS is already $5+ per month. Github/Gitlab could easily undercut that. And frankly, users should start getting used to paying for software, at least it's better than having your data sold out. I'd be willing to pay $2/month to keep all my repos online.
While clearly bot spam is on the rise, we need to be very careful on how we choose to deal with it. Cloudflare has already introduced "proof-of-Apple" [1], where proven Apple devices get special treatment, bypassing captchas. Later we might see websites that are only accessible via Google, Microsoft, or Apple devices. If we continue down this path, we'll end up with a social credit system ruled by big tech.
I wonder why more computers don't use the simple boot model that devices like the Raspberry Pi use. From what I've heard, the RPi is effectively immune from persistent malware. Firmware can't be modified [1], and while the second stage bootloader can be flashed in the RPi 4, the first stage bootloader can't be modified [2]. What this basically means is that no matter what infects your pi, you can always just replace the SD card and restore it to a clean state. In contrast, I've heard so much news about how USB firmware can get reprogrammed [3], how PC malware can survive BIOS reflashing [4], how malware can live in external drive firmware, etc. Of course, if there's a bug in the raspi firmware, it also can't be fixed, but the attack surface is so small I'm willing to make the trade-off (and buy a new pi if it comes to light).
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24164749