How Corporations Hijacked the Tech World for Profit
From Dreamers to Profit Machines
The open-source community is built on collaboration, transparency, and freedom. We believe in software created by the people, for the people. But there’s an enemy in our midst—an enemy that’s bent on hijacking innovation, locking it behind closed doors, and squeezing every last penny from the hands of users. That enemy is the corporate world, and their lust for profit is destroying everything we stand for.
From killing the original Unix to tracking your every move and turning software into a never-ending subscription scam, the corporate world has waged a war on open-source ideals. And we’ve had enough.
The Death of Unix: How Corporations Murdered Innovation
It all started with Unix. Created by visionaries Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson, Unix was an operating system born out of pure passion. It was elegant, simple, and groundbreaking—a system that promised to push computing forward. But then came AT&T, ready to sink their claws into it. What followed was the commercialization of Unix, a corporate warpath that destroyed the very thing it set out to profit from.
AT&T locked down the source code, sold licenses, and turned what was once an open environment into a corporate-controlled cash cow. It didn’t stop there. Unix got passed around like corporate currency—from AT&T to Novell, and then to SCO—and with every handoff, the system’s freedom slipped further away. The SCO lawsuits against BSD and Linux were the final insult, as SCO tried to sue the open-source world into oblivion.
The corporate world didn’t just kill Unix; they tried to kill the spirit of open-source. They tried to kill us.
Microsoft: The Open-Source Extinguishers
If you want to talk about corporate hypocrisy, look no further than Microsoft. In the early 2000s, Microsoft was the villain of the tech world—slinging mud at Linux, calling it a “cancer,” and throwing money behind SCO’s desperate attempts to drag Linux through the courts. They were terrified. Terrified that an open-source project could compete with their billion-dollar empire. And so, they fought dirty.
Fast-forward to today, and suddenly Microsoft claims they “love Linux.” But let’s be real: this is the same company that spent years trying to destroy open-source. Their sudden shift is nothing more than a business move—a desperate attempt to stay relevant as the world embraces open-source. They aren’t part of the community. They’re still in it for themselves.
We see you, Microsoft. You can’t erase your history.
Subscriptions: From Products to Paywalls
And then there’s the ultimate slap in the face: the subscription model. Remember when you could actually own software? You bought a product, paid once, and it was yours to use. Not anymore. Now, corporations have figured out a way to suck every last cent out of your wallet: subscriptions. Instead of paying once, you’re now forced into an endless cycle of monthly payments. Stop paying, and you lose access. It’s pure extortion.
Adobe? Subscription. Microsoft Office? Subscription. What happened to buying a piece of software and owning it? The corporate world figured out it’s far more profitable to keep you hooked—constantly paying for access to something you should’ve owned outright.
This is the exact opposite of what open-source stands for. We believe in software that’s free to use, modify, and improve—software that isn’t held hostage by corporate greed. The subscription model is just another way the corporate world is tightening the noose around its users.
Data Harvesting: You Are the Product
Let’s talk about privacy, or more accurately, the lack of it. In the corporate world, your data is their goldmine. Whether it’s Google, Facebook, or some other tech giant, they’re all doing the same thing: tracking your every move, collecting your data, and selling it to advertisers. Your search history? Sold. Your preferences? Sold. Your entire digital life is up for grabs.
Meanwhile, the open-source community values privacy. We build software that respects user rights, that doesn’t track your every click, that doesn’t mine your personal data for profit. Corporations see you as nothing more than a product to be sold. We see you as a user—a person who deserves control over their digital life.
And don’t get me started on closed-source software. Behind those locked doors, you have no idea what’s happening with your data. Open-source? You can see the code. You can see what’s being tracked. You’re in control.
Corporate Takeover of Innovation: Crippling Progress
Corporations aren’t interested in pushing technology forward unless there’s a direct line to profit. They sit on patents, lock down innovations, and charge ridiculous fees for access to basic technology. They’ll even buy out promising open-source projects and then strangle them for every penny they can get. The moment something becomes too good, too powerful, they’ll either crush it or monopolize it.
Just look at the cloud computing world. Amazon, Google, Microsoft—they dominate the landscape, and they’re turning open-source infrastructure into their own proprietary, profit-driven playgrounds. They take free software, repackage it, and sell it back to the masses. We see this time and time again: corporations hijack innovation, squeeze it dry, and leave nothing behind but a profit sheet.
Conclusion: The Corporate World vs. The Open-Source Ideal
The corporate world thrives on control—control over your software, control over your data, control over your wallet. Their mission is simple: turn everything into a commodity, a revenue stream, a product that can be sold, locked down, and resold again. But the open-source community stands against this. We believe in software that is free, open, and built for the people, not for profit.
We’ve seen the corporate world try to kill open-source before, and they failed. But they’re still out there—tracking you, locking down your software, and forcing you into subscription hell. The war isn’t over, but the open-source community isn’t backing down.
In the end, the corporate world may have the money, but we have something more powerful: the passion, the creativity, and the unwavering belief that software should be free. And we’re not going anywhere.