“If you put money in a vending machine and got two items instead of one, would you put additional money in for the second item?”
No, I fucking wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t like to work for anyone who wouldn’t hire me because of that fact.
KDE and Gnome already have toggles for it, though Gnome’s is in gnome-tweaks because Gnome hates exposed settings.
I’d support unifying behavior between toolkits and apps to provide users with a single point to set their preference, but I use this feature a hundred times a day. I’d also like it to remain the default; *nix desktops should have their own flavor instead of just copying Mac OS or Windows, and middle-click paste has been a part of that flavor for 40 years.
That sounds like a very negative experience, pretty much opposite to my experience with the same model.
She got 50 USD back. Not worth it at all.
50 USD was one of the compensation options Google offered; a battery replacement was another. The latter might have been wise if she wanted to keep using the phone.
Be sure to give it a one-star review.
So far, Magisk and Play Integrity Fix have been sufficient for apps that don’t like it.
Messaging, web browser, podcasts, navigation, a couple services that require a phone to access. I tend to not install apps that could be websites.
Hardware drivers are surely dated. Android, on the other hand is 15, and I assume getting updated to 16 soon. I think I’m pretty good with regard to the sort of zero-click exploits I’ve heard of used for targeted attacks. If somebody slipped a trojan into a software update, I could have a problem, especially if it was a privileged app like AccA or Adaway. Of course, updated drivers wouldn’t protect me from that.
The entire smartphone industry.
I use five year old smartphone (Pixel 4a). I can afford a new one, but I don’t need a new one, and it would be worse in ways I care about (bigger, probably without a headphone jack), without being better in any way that really matters to me, so I don’t want a new one.
Official software updates ended a couple years ago, but I’m running LineageOS and I got an update this week. Google has intentionally made it hard for most people to use LineageOS or any other Android distribution not blessed by Google as their primary phone by allowing app developers to check whether it’s Google-approved. For now, I can usually work around that, but it would be too big a hurdle for most people.
The kernel is getting pretty old though; it’s 4.14 when I’m up to 6.17 on my laptop. This is because SOC vendors don’t release open source drivers, nor maintain the proprietary ones for very long.
Finally, there’s the battery. Mine is in great shape because I use AccA to limit charge to 60% most of the time, but charging to 100% as most people do would have greatly reduced its capacity by this point. Replacing it requires melting glue and some risk of damage. Most phones are like that now (though that’s changing due to EU regulation).
If you are trying to get the Wordpress software and install it on a server you own or web hosting account you pay for, yes.
If you’re trying to do something else, like sign up for blog hosting from a privacy-respecting service provider without having to administer software yourself, then no. If you want recommendations for services like that, you should probably make a separate post asking for that, with as much detail about what you want to do and whether you’re willing to pay for it as possible.
Edit: I see you did make such a post. If you’re “not tech savvy” as your post says, I don’t recommend administering Wordpress yourself. While it’s something nearly anyone can learn if sufficiently motivated, it’s much more effort for someone without a technical background.
Wordpress the software is open source and isn’t known to do anything shady. Wordpress.com the hosted CMS product uses tracking pixels.
Google has partly backed away from this plan, and it was only announced for “certified” Android devices, which yours isn’t after rooting.
It does affect you indirectly though. If open source on Android gets harder, fewer people will do it.
media.wmf.zero-copy-nv12-textures-force-enabled
This option is Windows-specific.
I haven’t moved to a privacy OS on Android yet because of money.
That’s entirely reasonable. You can still block most ads if you want to:
“But personalised ads are really convenient!”
Not seeing ads is really convenient, and I have trouble understanding why anyone wouldn’t block ads aggressively on every device they spend much time using in 2025.
To cover a couple common objections:
It’s a corporate/institutional device and I can’t
Then it’s the institution’s IT department I’m puzzled by. If I was running corporate IT, ad blocking would be part of the standard install. The FBI recommends it for security.
The device is too locked down for that
Why would you buy such a device, or continue using it now that you know better?
I’ll expand this question to my entire social circle.
I haven’t found that anybody cares about my email provider. It doesn’t affect them because email is federated. Nobody has ever asked me why I’m mailing them from a domain I own rather than a service provider they’ve heard of.
Where I do run into a lot of resistance is trying to get people to use Signal. Some people seem to find the concept of having multiple messaging apps objectionable, which has never made any sense to me as long as they have basic computer skills. On occasion, I’m on the other side of that conversation when I’m unwilling to use Facebook Messenger for reasons that should be obvious to anyone in this community.
If he disappeared, people would pursue him. Given the compromising material on other wealthy and powerful people he likely had access to, it wouldn’t just be western law enforcement, but potentially intelligence agencies of adversaries, criminal organizations, and the compromised individuals themselves.
Epstein didn’t kill himself. He might not even be dead.
No. ClamAV can, for example scan Linux ELF executables and its database contains signatures for malware that could affect desktop Linux. The most common use case is servers that are distributing files, but it can be used to scan local files.
The local use case is fairly rare because malware targeting desktop Linux is rare. That’s partly because Linux users tend to have a better understanding of computers on average than Windows users, and partly because the sort of attack vectors that work well against Windows users don’t align with Linux workflows (e.g. if you want to execute a file sent as an email attachment, you’ll have to save it and set it executable first).
I suspect the appeals are also largely handled by an automated process. It’s the same kind of experience people have when they get banned from Facebook or Youtube.
I think they outsource the sitewide moderation, and much of it is automated, relying on signals like your IP address and the behavior of your web browser (assuming you were using it on the web). It’s more likely their bot thought you’re a bot than a human didn’t like your opinions.
I imagine you can figure out whether you are banned from one subreddit, or the entire site. That will tell you which category of moderator did it.
I’ve used several iterations of Gnome, several iterations of KDE, Mate, Cinnamon, Hyprland, XFCE, LXDE, Fluxbox, and several other things I can’t be bothered to remember. I can be productive on any of them given some time to set them up.
I do have preferences though, and I like KDE on a laptop/desktop and Gnome on a tablet. I just wish Gnome would do something about its horrid onscreen keyboard.