Nah, that’s not what I mean. I’m not opposed to those things, I guess I just think that things should get the time and attention based on how important they are. I agree that these things would be nice, but I don’t think the developers are deliberately keeping these things the way they are out of a sense of honor and tradition; rather I’ve just figured they always have something that’s more pressing to focus on.

This drivel - okay not entirely, but I’m making a point - is all the wrong attitudes. “People like Windows, let’s make Linux more like Windows so people will accept it.”

We are not in a popularity contest. Linux is great - nay, extraordinary, phenomenal - because it has most of its shit together. Priorities, functionality, efficiency. If most people are not up to the task of learning something, that’s their problem. And yeah, that’s most people. In case the author of this article hadn’t noticed, the vast majority of people are, unfortunately, lazy and stupid. I’m not saying it’s always their faults but that’s not the issue. We don’t lower ourselves down to meet them where they are. If Linux remains only a tiny portion of the ecosystem, and needs to keep being the thing for only geeks (translation, got good grades in school, enjoy learning things, challenge themselves, etc.) then why does there seem to be this perception that that needs to change? Quite the opposite; the small bit of mainstream corporate elements that have become involved have only demonstrated they’ll immediately enshittify it, because that’s what they do.

Let Linux continue to be the fringe ecosystem for geeks. Why do we need morons to enjoy using it? Why is this a problem?

Interesting. I’m sure heat and battery life are noticeably affected. If not very noticeably, I think significantly anyhow I recently got some Galaxy Note 10" 2014 units, and I am trying to get the very best out of it. I hadn’t even known about them. The early Galaxy Note phones were terrific, but still a phone size. Then there are the Galaxy Tab models which basically deals with the size issue but not really designed specifically for what I wanted. This thing is just a very enlarged Note 4. On a couple of them, I put TWRP and custom ROM, while on one of them I kept the stock ROM with its last update, bringing it to Android 5.x. It runs the old school Adobe PS Touch, Snapseed, Sketchbook, S-Note, and a handful of other graphics apps. They all run beautifully and it’s my almost-perfect art device. Rooted and debloated, of course. I’m gonna see how these modified units do on eBay.

I think my long-winded rambling point is that rather than kill your battery and possibly cause severe wear on your device, maybe find one that can use a custom ROM, or at least Root and optimizing by shutting off tons of bloat.

That’s pretty cool. I will say that a little productivity is better than none.

Wanted to, but how many ppl actually did and were productive?

Horrifyingly, this is a valid point.

Wow, coding on the worst physical topology/topography for the kind of input you need to perform.

A programmer needs to type fast, navigate the cursor rapidly and with easily attained precision, and needs the information displayed on a large screen so that they don’t go blind working on the code. This machine is a friggin nightmare.

So you think Nintendo is fine with a device being sold that has tons of their games bundled without them getting a dime of it? Very odd, but maybe because it’s all “East” as you were saying it, maybe they let one-another do this kinda shit. I have no idea but it’s surprising. Especially if these devices get into the American consumer base. Shrug

But then why put the name on it if it’s got tons of unlicensed copyrighted games? Nintendo is likely to immediately start lawsuits, so why would Lenovo want to attach their name to this?

I get what you’re saying, but I think the strong objection is that implementing this now, right when these BS laws are being put into place, goes against one of the fundamental principles that Linux is built on. And doing this is a willful action toward capitulating to Big Brother - because we all know this doesn’t stop with just put your b-day in and we will just trust you. This is a stepping stone toward more and more control and verified ID. Any part of the Linux community that does not openly defy this and stand against it will invariably be looked at as traitorous and collaborator. And if you take a moment and think about what this community stands for (yes, there’s a philosophy it’s not just software; there are very distinct ethical principles represented by Linux, regardless whether you dismiss this or not), it’s clear that this adding of the field now, to accommodate this Big Brother shit, is dispicable in the extreme.

That Linux has to have this? B. S. There’s no way that could be enforced. Make every edition an alpha testing release. Make it not work. Whatever you have to do. Just don’t capitulate and immediately do their exact bidding.

Exactly. I don’t get it. No matter how you lean politically, if you’re part of the dev community not just making software but building Linux - there’s an inherent sense of freedom and liberty in your endeavors. So unless these guys are long-seeded poison pills, I just don’t get the mentality. Don’t do it. Let it be someone else’s job. A someone else who is theoretical.

It just surprises me is all. In Linux of all places. One of the last remaining bastions of truly open, free, transparent and cooperative, voluntary yada yada. All that. It doesn’t gel with licking boots and willingly doing this shit without being forced. Also, they’re literally spitting on their devoted users and encouraging them to change to a different system.

CPU??? Only the most important spec is omitted?

I have literally in the thousands of installations I’ve done, literally never once put any genuine information in there. Who does? Why would anyone? Every tech through the ages has asked for your name as a matter of convenience and formality. I don’t know if I have ever put my actual info into any such field in the 40+ years - jeez close to 45 now, that I’ve been using computer tech.

The masses submit; the vast majority submits. When they start to bind it at the hardware level - when eventually a government issued ID becomes required to literally enable hardware to work, then we are all screwed. You can always make your own software but not so much make your own CPU.

Then when they need to deal with the older tech aftermarket so they pass laws prohibiting older tech, it’s all fucked.

Could someone explain to me why numerous Linux development groups are jumping on board with this bullshit? This is I think the third such post I’ve read that a distro or however you call it, is integrating the age check. Since when does the Linux community get on board with Big Brother???

99% of YouTube nowadays is clickbait and AI generated sewage. Along with plenty of the rest of the net. Before it was AI it was done with bots and scripts; it’s infesting everywhere.Everything decent has to get ruined by bottom-feeders.

I know you were just being glib, but I feel compelled to point out that given its context, it was only used as one might say “AI is all well and good, but…”, like just using it to get to the real point, which is that in-and-of itself, without a person acting upon the AI’s results, it is actually not great at all. Like any tool, it has to be used to help you accomplish something and not just set about to do your entire job for you. So he was actually saying the opposite.

I think pretty much any of the mainstream distros can be trusted as long as you make sure to check for any “opt-in” voluntary things that many people choose to allow. It’s good to help the developers do a better job ongoing to keep the distros as good as they can be. So if you have a reason to not want any of it, just check the options to make sure you know they’re shut off.

There are probably some distros which explicitly make a point to have absolutely no data sent, but you need to take into consideration what the best distro is for your needs irrespective of this one factor, since none are going to do this behind your back to the magnitude of Windoze or ChromeOS.

I have an Lposed module that you can indicate which apps you want to block updates for so they don’t get updated, regardless what any given shop tries. Easier than toggling it off for all those specific apps within each of Fdroid, Droidify, and Aurora.

There’s also Obtanium that lets you do updates a different way as well.

As for removing apps you can do so on any brew as long as you have root privileges. Sometimes you can even without, via ADB unless they’ve prevented it.

So I mean basically Linux phone doesn’t really need to be used as a way of making this an easier thing to accomplish. Root is right away the ultimate solution, and a custom ROM even better.