I learned it as: Why do seagulls fly by the sea? Because if they flew by the bay they’d be bagels.

I think the flow is nicer and leads the listener down the path “logically”. Saying bay in the question tips your hand and is less of a surprise.

But still one of my favorite classics.

Gamepad… I just use it wired because it was an easier solution. Like I said, sometimes things that should be settings become problems you need to solve.

That’s just part of the Linux game.

Its not really a deal breaker to me for the other benefits I get, but it really can be annoying. And more annoying that on average the Linux community doesn’t really acknowledge this.

I can completely understand an average person not wanting to deal with stuff like this, especially since its so inconsistent across distros.

Progress!

For me its the nuance of things.

Like quality of life settings. Turn Bluetooth on automatically at boot. Yeah, you can do it, but not by looking at settings and turning that option on. No, you need to recognize that’s a problem then search for an answer, determine which of the 2 or 3 answers you find are right, then do it. Is it a deal breaker? Absolutely not. But I don’t want to “solve problems” for every thing I want to do.

My other gripes would be lack of software support. As great as some apps are, others there are no support for Linux.

Ironically I miss Affinity. But se la vie.

Proper power management on my laptop is the biggest one.

There are many software applications that don’t support Linux that I would like to use.

I agree 100%. Nothing we do is good enough because it’s a game of cat and mouse. They do something, people react. They do something else, they react.

Right now I own a Hisense because it’s 75" and cost me $300. It has a decent enough picture and sound. Works for all of my uses.

It has never seen the internet nor will it. I use my 6 year old shield for apps, mostly of which is my own content.

In case they decide to use any subsidiary or or partner tech company to daisy chain internet (I don’t put it past any of these guys) I have a blacklist on my firewall that catches most stuff trying to go out.

I have done everything I can, but it won’t be enough at some point.

They won’t stop until laws pass that stop them (actually stop them and not slap on the wrist).

Yes, but controls on local WiFi networks does nothing if they use a SIM to bypass it. So both are needed. And then that doesn’t take into account public networks, so controls are needed there. It’s a layered approach.

that plays out like a douglas adams novel

It is a Douglas Adams novel series.

But yes, great show.

Right? Make a product that a majority of people could find useful and not have any backlash at all…but then again, they’ve never been a product company. They’ve always been a personal information broker.

I can’t imagine that a standard android version of the same phone would not also have the relockable boot loader. But I wouldn’t necessarily expect that feature to be on every phone series though.

I had the Nexus 6 and then moved to the V30. Both of those phones were awesome and I still miss them.

Linux does what I tell it to.

Windows does what it wants. Either what it thinks I want it to do, or what Microsoft wants me to do.

Considering I paid for my computer, I like having control over it. It’s that simple.

Well crap, that’s not a cheap solution but I’m glad you commented because I didn’t know these Autel sensors existed and that you could reprogram them. I mean, this threat is semi hypothetical right now (not like it’s been used in the wild by authorities or anything) but one day it might be. Continual reprogramming would be a valid solution.

Exactly. Today you can enter Jan 1 1800 and it will take it. That’s not the problem.

The real problem is the precedence it sets. An asinine rule gets passed and companies adhere to it, meaning they are enforcers.

Tomorrow when laws require real verification, like ID scan then they’ve already agreed to be the gate keeper for said asinine laws. It’s harder to back out at that point.

It’s all surveillance and it should be stopped.

See…the “problem” with this is that it’s work.

Its not work to say no. Its work for all the stuff leading up to that. You had to think about how you want your files stored, organized, and backed up. You had to think about how you wanted to access it all and from where. Then you had to set all that stuff up to work.

The vast majority of people don’t do this. Partly for not knowing how to but mostly for not wanting to try to figure out a system that works for them.

They just want things to work when they need them and not think about it at any other time. Gee, I wonder what could ever go wrong with that mentality.

And I don’t want to blame the victim here, because the root of this particular story still doesn’t change.

But there is a little bit of self responsibility that needs to be had. If you give big tech all the controls, you are at their mercy to what they do. But to have any semblance of control yourself, you need to take it. Then you have the power to say no.

This. I use LibreOffice at home and M365 at work. It’s definitely not 1:1 compatible like most people say. That’s not to bash on LO, it’s just the reality of it.

I still swear by Excel. While Calc is fine for essential spreadsheets, I run a VM just for Excel because there’s no alternative for the advanced tools.

Good to know about the odf extension though. That’s a good improvement.

And I’m not arguing not to.

But I tried to get everybody I know to contact me on signal or simplex. For a year. Only one person switched and they did so to signal. Because it was easier and more people were on it. I myself stopped using simplex because not enough people are using it that I know.

So where the rubber meets the road, if anybody wants to use signal I’m good with that because its good for 99% of all things.

If we (as privacy enthusiasts) want to promote the better apps, they need to be and appear less niche so they’re more acceptable.

I appreciate the comment on the matter. This is good information to know and consider.

People should know that Signal is encrypted and private, but won’t make you a ghost.

That being said, the majority of people are not interested in privacy so getting them to use Signal over WhatsApp or SMS is a 99% win.

There’s a lot of info in these comments and a ton of it is good.

I will say that the best advice is to boot from a USB and try out a system for a bit. You can easily swap around that way without a commitment.

I will also say that my opinion is to start with Mint. It’s similar enough to windows in layout/workflow to feel familiar and is “boring” in a stable, easy to use way.

Use it and learn Linux. I say learn, because it doesn’t matter what the OS looks like as much as how it works, and Linux (any flavor) works differently than windows. Learn those idiosyncrasies and then of you decide you want to try something else then you’re up to speed to move on and judge a different system with a baseline.