Windmills in mini-golf but for real this time

In hindsight, this has been a downward trend since the proliferation of smart phones circa 2012. Google (android) isn’t the best choice, but it is much better being open source over other ecosystems namely Apple. There is also an issue I strongly suspect that wireless carriers wouldn’t allow open hardware/software on their networks because they have baked in restrictions in the major OSes on how you can access the network like tethering. I don’t expect that to change for the better either because even when net neutrality was a thing wireless was exempt from the rules. Kinda reminds me how back in the day ISPs had to be forced to offer naked DSL (internet from the phone company without requiring phone service). This all has deep issues that won’t be resolved anytime soon if ever. I’m putting my money on Linux becoming an actual threat to Microsoft and Apple in the desktop, laptop, handheld space and then that spreading into the mobile and tablet space. Depending on how Apple and Google antitrust situations are handled, we could start to see a shift by the end of the decade at best. This is why the tech sector will cozy up and do the bidding of whoever is in power. They won’t run the risk of drawing the ire of the government to break up their monopolies so long as the party in power believes tech companies are in their party’s pocket. This shift happened when Biden’s election was inevitable toward Democrat favored polices and it’s happening now for Republican favord polices since the last Biden Trump debate made a Trump victory inevitable.

My points are the tech sector is blatantly doing whatever it can to keep its power and change won’t happen quickly if it happens at all.

Self hosted Searxng for me

This will be a problem until a non-google open OS is adopted for mobile phones. Right now that list is incredibly short and nothing competes in the flagship department. I don’t see it changing anytime soon because gen x and millenials may be the last generations that have a signifigant portion of itself that has a grasp of how computers work beyond “tap app icon, app does things”.

Thing I took for granted like how a file system works is lost on my kids (late Z early alpha). Explaining what a file extension is like teaching a new language. I used to think “training wheels” for learning computering via tablets and phones and touch screens were a good thing but there is nothing that compels people today to shed themselves of them. It feels very reminiscent of my childhood and teaching my boomer dad how to right click. I think computer literacy needs to be required education, but I’m afraid that the definition for computer literacy might be meaningless nowadays if it doesn’t go beyond open app store, install app, run app.

Edison motors in Canada is getting ready to put out conversion kits for pickup trucks to convert to series hybrid (onboard generator, all electric drivetrain). It’s not for a short term profit, more for right to repair and a stance against planned obsolescence.

My point is that it empowers phone manufacturers to put us on this 2 year cycle and then further cripple phones beyond that scope

Because batteries aren’t easily replaceable by the user.

It’s the price. I want a truck, not a Cadillac with a bed. A truck is meant for work not be a pavement princess. $50k was already high and the truck market is still stupid on price with most trucks going over $60k and Cybertruck starts at $75.5k. If the price was what Elon said when he announced the Cybertruck, it would be flying off the shelves $40k

You’re welcome dumbass

To add on if you have multiple machines in your home, move one machine to something easy like Arch Mint now to ease yourself in. I dropped a 2nd SSD for Mint in main machine and haven’t booted my win install in over 2 years and even then it was unnecessary. Currently I’m up to the family computer on Mint, 2 laptops running Tumbleweed and Fedora, a server on Debian, 2 Raspberry Pis on Raspian, and a router on FreeBSD.

When Win 11 is such a hostile experience for privacy, yeah it still is out of spite, just for different reasons. I’m so glad to be rid of Windows in my home.

Hey! Man you disrespectin’ me?

I’d say that censorship when enacted by governments is violence and there’s no smaller minority than the individual. That said, if the UN Rights Chief wants to censor certain things, he should just say it. Besides, I don’t put much faith in an org who puts Iran as the chair of the human rights council. Stances like this and the OP’s link are reasons why there’s a ground swelling in the US for withdrawing from the UN.

Yeah, “purchasing” movies or shows comes to mind. When streaming services revoke access and never grant a way to download them, did you ever really purchase the movie or did you just rent it?

I don’t disagree with you. But calling it anything other than what it is is disingenuous and misleading. Like when you buy a movie and it isn’t available to download and the streaming service takes away access, did you really purchase that movie or did you just rent it? Words have meaning is all I’m saying.

No one said it had to be platformed, but call a spade a spade

Are we redefining words now?

Gigabit ethernet port sounds like an easy vector for a adding a cellular modem for an inexpensive phone

There’s also LMDE which is mint built on Debian instead of Ubuntu. The Mint guys had the foresight to prepare for a future when they’d get fed up with Ubuntu’s nonsense.