baltakatei

If the operating system is FOSS, I'd be willing to pay 50% the cost of a Windows license but to the FOSS maintainers and the upstream distros they rely on. Gotta close the causal loop.

Most problems people have with Linux, I think, come from trying to be Linux power users from the start by performing very advanced techniques beyond their time and patience: dual booting multiple operating systems (so they don't have to buy Linux-dedicated hardware), using any graphics card (the latest and greatest GPUs are all closed source and developers who work on Linux do so because they despise closed source), using the least expensive hardware (which are typically closed source and buggy with anything except Windows), and emulating Windows apps so they don't have to learn new workflows or abandon their favorite games (technically, Proton with Steam allows Windows games like FFXIV to be played, but it's a neverending journey to get it working and keeping it working.

If you switch to Linux, accept that for a smooth experience you'll have to pay more than you would for a Windows machine (e.g. System76, Framework) And if you want graphics card support for your emulated Windows games on Steam, you're going to have to use the specific flavor of Linux the manufacturer supports.

That said, if you value free/libre open source software, then making the switch from Windows is totally worth it.

Reminds me of a quote from Hogfather (1996):

Maybe someone said, hey, how’d you like to hunt this evil bastard of an eagle with his big sharp beak and great ripping talons, sort of thing, or how about instead you hunt this wren, which is basically about the size of a pea and goes “twit”? Go on, you choose.

Which website gave you those instructions? Name and shame.

Promise him eternal life if they let us freeze him in a cryonics facility and then let his loyalists maintain the freezer with his disembodied head in a jar figure out how to make him their God emperor or whatever.

As a member of the Navajo Nation, I prefer leaders who believe in rule of law. They're the ones least likely to try and nullify peace treaties on a whim.

It only takes one person to make 1 cubic meter of black hole to destroy the biosphere by ripping Earth into an acretion disc.

The direct counter to enshittification is interoperability: the ability to pack up your content (likes, followers, messages, uploads) and import it into another service provider.

Since Signal is open source and mostly FOSS, you can theoretically create a Signal fork that can import Signal backups. I know because this program can read such backups and convert them into other formats. Ideally, the Atlantic reporter could have exported a Signal backup with the offending group chat messages before they expired.

Donate if you regularly use Syncthing. Help close the causal loop.

Oh Lordy.

Metaphorically, the US does this every election cycle, hot swapping elected officials peacefully, usually without replacing incumbents. However, the problem is that your kid brother insists on trying the same corroded cartridges again and again because he loves seeing you squirm in frustration more than actually having a functioning system. Also, you don't get to play until he gets a game over while you, in contrast, are on a set time limit.

Tech bro billionaires are the only geniuses on earth

Relevant excerpt from The Internet Con (2023) by Cory Doctorow about the folly of thinking tech CEO monopolies are justified due to merit. Later in the book, Doctorow explains how the recent (since the Reagan presidency) appearance of big tech monopolies was instead due to failure of the US DOJ and FTC to enforce anti-trust laws after Robert Bork successfully lobbied to have the Chicago School of economics's consumer welfare doctrine (monopolies can be good if companies pinky promise to lower prices for consumers; see Bork's 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox) adopted by the US Supreme Court.