How to Kill a Monopoly

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Jun 26, 2025

Here's how to weaken and deprecate monopolies in 10 simple steps:

1. Identify the core lies they rely on (e.g. everyone chooses our products)
2. Confront the lies in (1) with simple facts
3. Repeat (2) until public consensus changes
4. Highlight alternatives
5. Build more alternatives
6. Watch the monopoly as it loses balance/inertia
7. Point out that the monopoly is unstable
8. Explain why the alternatives already replace the monopoly
9. Explain why those alternatives will inevitably become the new 'monopoly'
10. Wait for people top flock to the cool "new" thing

Before the iPod era many considered Apple to be "dead company walking". Then mobile appliances took off, as phones became more versatile - to the point where many were starting to change habits, e.g. using them for tasks previously performed on a laptop/desktop.

Apple is not Free software (it's an opponent of it), but it showed how quickly an underdog can get back on top. Before Microsoft Free software was "the norm". █