Yep. My work requires some Windows programs, and I run them on a separate Windows machine I got for cheap. The only policy I have is no personal computing on Windows, and I keep it disconnected from the internet permanently. That OS is creepy af.

I’ve found many startups are merely “investments” by some entrepreneur that were intended from inception, whether explicitly or not, to be grown to a sufficiently negotiable state and sold to the biggest buyer. That’s not to say that big tech companies don’t buy-out their competition, but many startups also dream of being bought-out.

I agree. I think for most the answer may be a mix of complacency, convenience, and conforming to the norm.

Free software and the FSF. When the Snowden leaks came out, they weren’t news to me – just confirmation.

This has been around for a very long time. I’m always surprised that more people haven’t heard of it.

Yes, this is the crux of LineageOS. There is a fork called DivestOS that is more libré and reduces dependence on Google services, as well as having bootloader re-locking for some devices.

Google does this time and again, and a workaround always gets released eventually. Then again YouTube has been steadily going downhill these past several years, so maybe it’s for the best.

Fedora users are just “beta testers” for Red Hat’s main distro, RHEL, and it really did feel like it. I started on Fedora and moved on swiftly after finding better distros.

I don’t think it’s simply “left wing” being the problem any more, at least not the classical left. I’m generally left-leaning libertarian yet over the past few years (particularly since 2020) I’ve been called far-right, far-left, and every “-ist” and “-ism” in between, by people in various places. I think people in general have become “woke”, childish, and tribal – incapable of comprehending a point of view other than what is fed to them. One could see the mass downvoting without discourse as a minor form of “cancel culture”. These things are reflected in the general state of politics at large in many countries, also contributing to their decay.