Google, Apple and Microsoft.

[GuiGuy]

How would MX users rank them in order of evilness?

My own opinion is that Google takes the top position; followed by Apple, then Microsoft in bottom place.
In spite of that I use Google search and Android phones every day .

[Sparky]

For me Google takes the top position, MS 2nd, and Apple 3rd.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Both Google and Microsoft are Platinum members of the Linux Foundation[1] and therefore qualify as good.

Apple are the scum of the Earth, anybody who buys their products is a [expletive deleted].

[xali]

hard to say which one is the most evil. But i think google is...

@ Head on a stick or whoever wants to answer, ok the platinum members help with their money to improve the code, but if the code is improved to be more suitable for commercial use, why is that to the benefit of the community? The community is the important thing, not the code, as i see it. Is it not?

[GuiGuy]

Yes, Google contributes to Linux and makes extensive use of it. But that use includes the Android system which is abominably tied down: MSwindows machines can accept other operating systems whereas Android ones do not even allow you to remove their nasty in-house applications.

[dreamer]

It's an "evil" world and those corporations are part of it just like Red Hat and Canonical. They do some good, some bad. Money talks is an accurate expression and when you reach a certain level you either accept the rules or step down. Many well-meaning individuals working for these companies, though.

One of the reasons I'm a little disillusioned is that I think the world of tech is a lot darker today than 10 years ago. The number of data points collected in Windows 2009 is probably just 1 % compared to Windows 2019. So I would say Microsoft is the company that treats its customers the worst: telemetry, forced updates/upgrades, crazy release model etc.

Microsoft basically has a monopoly because Apple doesn't want to compete. Inferior hardware (thermal design, keyboard, T2 "security chip" lock-down) and higher Apple tax than ever. Apple seems to only keep Mac around for iOS development. If you live outside US a Mac is twice the price of a comparable Windows machine.

So pretty sad state overall. It's discouraging, because it's like I have seen it all before and 10 years ago I thought that tech would evolve in a more democratic way. UEFI, soldered RAM and SSDs and non-replaceable batteries. Lots of craziness today.

[rootetsy]

This is a fun topic!

My list would go like this: Google, Microsoft, Apple

Google is definitely the most "evil" in my eyes simply because of the vast amount of things they track. Since GA is on almost every single site on the net, they basically get to track everything that everyone does on the net whether they have a Google account or own a Google device or not. Doesn't matter because you're still getting tracked. Unless you use a good tracker blocker which even then may still not be enough depending on certain things. Like if the site uses Recaptcha and it happens to load on all pages of their site which I have seen before, LOL.

Oh and if you use Google Chrome it probably doesn't matter whether you're using a privacy plugin, they are still tracking things I bet.

Now that I think about it, maybe Facebook should be in this list somewhere.

[Sparky]

This is a fun topic!

My list would go like this: Google, Microsoft, Apple


Now that I think about it, maybe Facebook should be in this list somewhere.

FB should be there, and in my list would come in second to Google.

[KBD]

If you are asking: Which one can I trust? The answer is: None of the above.

Putting everything else aside, I don't like Apple because it's such a closed system, and I don't use any Apple products as they always seemed over-priced for their hardware and software.
Google used to be golden, but then it seemed they became obsessed with swallowing every bit of info on every human being possible. I say truthfully, "only God knows more about me than Google".
Microsoft to me is the least threatening, surprisingly. I first of all think that like many things at Microsoft, they are so bad at spying it probably doesn't amount to much. Indeed, awhile back I went to see what they had collected about me and I kind of felt sorry for them compared to what Google had collected.
If Microsoft hadn't been an ass about Linux for so long I'd probably feel a lot better about them. But we know what they want, money for MS Office, and to leverage Windows into driving a variety of customers to their services. I'd have to say Microsoft is least bad of the three.

[Artim]

Facebook would be Number Two on my list behind Google, then Microsoft, then Apple. I dumped Farcebook two years ago and use Diaspora (macroblogging, kinda like Farcebook) and Mastodon (Microblogging, kinda like Twitter) instead.