Whenever people on the internet talks about a software or a software company that is reputed or have a large share of the market, they often use the term “Industry standard” while describing them. They describe it like being the biggest rat in the pipe makes you “Industry standard” somehow. But I highly doubt it.
*This article represents my own opinion, and may differ from others
See, hailing proprietary, big tech companies doesn’t bring you anything in return (except that monthly subscription bill).
Remember the time when adobe stopped their services in Venezuela? They recently continued their service on that country, but they left a question. Are you free to consume services you paid for? Can this happen again and irreversibly? Well yes. See how politics gets in the software business? It’s going to get worst. Describing the cause will result in this post turning in to a political article, so I’m not going to describe.
So being big, doesn’t mean the best. And doesn’t mean they are some sort of “Standard.” And the term “Industry Standard” is idiotic. People should just forget it and instead choose software based on preference.
Also, many creative industries uses custom, in-house software to comply with their own in-house technology. And if they are big enough, they choose any software, made them compatible with their workflow and train their workers, so they can just hop in the pipeline and start creating. It’s always been this way. So the term “Industry standard” can’t stop you from using free software.
Choosing software as a basic consumer is another thing. I previously wrote a post in this forum titled “Why people dont switch to Open source alternatives for creative works" and a beautiful member commented this :
What he said is true in some extent. Some open source devs focuses on the performance and backend rather than design. But things have changed. Blender 2.79 had the same issue but 2.8 completely solved the design issue.
Another wonderful member of this forum commented this :
He pointed out one of the main issue and result here. Which I definitely agree to. FOSS is behind cause profit makers targets … well, profit. They reach for the big market. And the reason is, users. Customer tends to choose software which have bigger back, support from other companies, big feature list and what their cousins are using. Some free software developers can’t give the same to the consumers. It takes lots of effort, time and money to make a software. It costs even to reach customers. So less customer means less profit and less ex poser. And it creates a loop, the chicken and egg loop.
How do you break this? And establish a good, independent software business with strong backing? Someone has to break this loop! Who would? There is lots of problems, theories and hopes here. But I can’t really answer this.
Fighting these big companies isn’t easy. Hoping some open source company to pop up and fight these companies are also like daydreaming. But still we users have options. We have to choose freedom over letting big guys provide our service.