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smileyhead

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smileyhead , (edited )

Google Play Services and Google Play should be denominated to a normal, installable apps.

“Choose your web browser” should include “I’ll install different one myself”, as it also forces using Google Play for updates.

Webview should be installable.

Default messaging app should not have fixed links to Google’s proprietary RCS servers (btw, RCS should be just build in to base Android).

smileyhead ,

Maybe Google done it because of that, not saying it was a bad thing, but there should be a choice.

Also a much personal opinion about the whole RCS thing, because I love to rant about it. A chat protocol that rely on phone operators to work is such obscure and obsolete idea overall in the age of phones with internet connection.

smileyhead ,

Or a problem with all things that needs mass change: “Some smart people are working on fixing this, no need for me to do anything”.

smileyhead ,

Another episode of “trying to contact people behind some big company app because they haven’t heard what an Internet is”.

smileyhead ,

Beeper, Telegram, Signal, Pidgeon, Wire, Session… Every word related to sending a message.

smileyhead ,

The rest is unfortunetly still using SMS for notifications or to text people not using the same app proprietary app or not using standard Internet messaging.

smileyhead ,

The year of privacy websites on the desktop.

smileyhead ,

It’s always about the minority. Just because something fits 99% should not mean this is the only thing in existence, when other ways do not disturb. And one not fulfilled minority there, one not fulfilled there and soon we realise that almost everyone fit in some unfulfilled minority that is not dealed with.

smileyhead ,

Still having to buy completely another device to switch operating systems… Not because the system was not adapted yet, but because of software locks and purposful roadblocks.

smileyhead ,

As shown with Android, even if you have root it’s not enough, as it won’t let you indefinetly support the device when the firmware and drivers are still secret. Freedom of choice for whatever OS you like (meaning that any OS can make a port) would be safer and more liberating, I thing.

Also, to hell with Android, I want to install Linux on this thing and finally be able to backup all apps, configurations and files via simple “rsync” command or when the screen/touch/battery die install TV-centric OS to at least repurpose this expensive device as new smart TV box :).

smileyhead ,

And I thought buying an iPhone was crazy…

smileyhead ,

I understand limiting application source to the official one by default. Heck, even on Linux systems the default is always to have just the official repositories enabled, with the exception of Flatpak which is quite sandboxed. And who else Apple would trust to bare the default source than Apple themselfs?

But user must be able to choose otherwise if wants, period.

Alternative github frontends?

Github has become more bloated, slower and more user-hostile with each update (just like all other big corp platforms). SPA navigation slow like hell, the “new” file viewer/browser is hardly usable in my opinion, code search does not work without login, etc. So are there any good alternative FE where the following work (read...

smileyhead ,

codeberg.org/gothub/gothub

smileyhead ,

No. Document the device for PC-like lifetime software support from first and third party. Long security update support for phones, great, but we still have a stupid thing when people buy whole new phone for little software feature.

smileyhead ,

On a device that gets replaced every 1-3 years? 🤔

Who says the devices are going to be replaced every 1-3 years after we solve those problems like today’s non-replacable short-lasting batteries?

smileyhead ,

Smartphones are almost perfected now, the only “parts” that are making them obsolete after 2-3 years are batteries and operating system, both should be regulated to be changable and available for third-parties to make replacement.

smileyhead ,

Monkey into NPC

smileyhead ,

Mankey -> NPC

smileyhead ,

Until they publish the schematics and drivers for device components for usage in making the device software last as long as possible, those are just empty words. Yeah, sure I can finally replace the broken camera sensor, as I should be able for years, but I must buy whole another phone if I want something slightly different in the OS image.

smileyhead ,

But I guess it would be really hard to write it into strict law without loopholes.

smileyhead ,

Companies like Fairphone would love to open their drivers so distros like PostmarketOS could add support that then mainline Linux can be ported. But they can’t somehow.

I guess Apple would have a much better time in that having their own design and being much bigger in influence.

smileyhead ,

That’s really basic and not even the minimum for actual long-term support. Remember those ROMs needs to hack together pices of binary blobs and drivers scattered around stock ROM and do many patches. Basically any new Android version is doing the work once again, that LineageOS and other projects automated. And after the end of official updates they are stuck with untouchable firmware package.

What should be done is adding the support to the upstream Linux kernel itself. Like AMD and Intel are doing on desktops, thanks to that we can have almost lifetime updates, multiple choices of OSes and have one image for all devices instead of doing seperate builds. Or at least provide documentation and drivers so the community can do it.

smileyhead ,

Recently I read that Xiaomi new “HyperOS” won’t allow bootloader unlock at all unless you have max level of support on their community forums and even then only 3 devices a year🤦

smileyhead ,

I would love to see alternative operating systems, not just app stores.

smileyhead ,

There’s hardware we don’t know how to write free software for, because they won’t tell us how to use the hardware. That’s shocking. They want to sell you the product and they won’t tell you how to use it. They say “Here’s a non-free [proprietary] program you can use. Run it and shut up.”

Some time ago this was only about the peripetials and drivers, now this is about all phones, tablets and smart things…

smileyhead ,

No web browser can be called minimalistic if you want to actually use it everyday.

But if your goal is to avoid WebView usage, Bromite or anything based in Firefox (Fennec, Mull) is a way to go.

smileyhead , (edited )

Another argument in the style of “Linux cannot be used by the common public, because Linux is not used by the common public”.

Windows is super annoying to help someone with it, as you can barely do anything. Let’s say that after the update the graphical interface is not starting, what can be done? Because you cannot Ctrl+Alt+F3 to get into a console mode. Or that for remote help I can a dictate command that sends me the info or open SSH to me instead of recieving blurry photos of the screen. Like Android, easy to help if they just don’t know where a thing is, super hard to fix deep system problem.

smileyhead ,

I think that Linux is the worst for middle-tier tech people.

For elderies, kids or someone that just visit social media, listen to music on Spotify and edit photos from vacations this it is perfect. They might learn where the app store is, how to open up menu and that’s all.

For tech saavy, programmers, engineers I… don’t really get how you can use Windows at all until you are forced by your environment. Going from Windows to Linux to do work is just like going from ChromeOS to MacOS.

But the worst would be the midtier, a friend who does a joke in “ohshit.exe” style, but don’t know what is an executable. That has multiple free games from Epic Store he never plays but must be installed and work. That have bought Photoshop and “original” MS Office licence years ago for outdated version but keep it, because “original”. And that has some amateur audio eqippment that even if Linux have build-in drivers for, would complain the .exe installer from that “download for free” website does not work.

smileyhead ,

It’s not because it’s not used by the common public, it’s because there aren’t normie-friendly resources and or a company help desk that average people rely on when they need assistance.

And why there aren’t normie-friendly resources and or a company help desk? :)

smileyhead ,

Personally I haven’t heard of anyone getting support from Microsoft or finding Microsoft help pages useful. MacOS and Windows are making money on the support for corporate users and for manufacturers preinstalling the system (Apple being it for themselfs). Nothing that Linux cannot also do.

We are talking about going mainstream, then do you think that if Linux would have ~80% of the desktop market, there won’t be any commercial support companies and normie level help? There certanly is for the server space, even home servers like NAS devices.

smileyhead ,

Yep, don’t even dare to advertise it to a midtier person. There are just going to download random .exe and find out how broken it is and have no idea how to get back and uninstall the software.

smileyhead ,

Agree, a lot of Windows weirdness is taken as like it’s like computers work overall. An example I give is when program freeze everyone knows Ctrl+Alt+Del to get the task manager. On Linux mostly there is Ctrl+Alt+ESC and click on the window to kill it.

smileyhead ,

Yes, I agree!

Who would want to enable cycling through application windows on the taskbar via graphical settings in KDE Plasma, when you can just press Win+R, enter regedit.exe, get administrator privilages, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced and add a new 32-bit DWORD named LastActiveClick with the value of 1 in Windows.

smileyhead ,

This is how people saying they “hate feet” see them.

smileyhead ,

Now we need this in the bondage muzzle version

smileyhead ,

Good! One proprietary Electron app less on this world.

Seriously, for generating one-time codes do we really need whole web engine underneath, a network connection and whole company based on it? Those things should not weight more than a couple of kilobytes plus a vector icon.

Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing (www.bbc.com)

Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing::In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, “streaming anxiety” is making people buy more DVDs, records – and even cassette tapes.

smileyhead ,

But there is a regulation prohibiting breaking the DRM. And obtaining a program that can decrypt the disk and save the file while having keys to latest disks is hard.

smileyhead ,

Notesnook is great. Not yet self-hostable (server is open source), but they are working on it.

smileyhead ,

Something like Wallabag, but modern and not only for article content? 😁

Honestly it looks cool. Also I so much love to see an open source app with fully managed straightforward paid hosting option! Myself I am going to self-host it anyway as I have time to learn and manage my servers, but it is great when trying to recommend app for others or have an option if I get lazy.

smileyhead , (edited )

Ah yes, let’s welcome one device - one operating system myth to the desktops, with people choosing hardware because of software feauture that could be installable. Welcome the expiration date on computers called “years of software support” and welcome overall unfriendlyness for alternative systems.

Performance and efficency is one side of the coin. But let me remind you that Qualcomm (among with Google) is the reason we cannot have lifetime updates for our phones, ROMs build needs to be specific for each model and making a phone with anything but Android is nearly impossible.

I’ll take ARM over x86, but I’ll take AMD/Intel over Qualcomm thousand times more.

smileyhead ,

Just another reason to avoid it as much as possible.

smileyhead ,

This is the reason why we encurage more people to ditch Chrome, because sites starts to only support this one browser?

We don’t force anyone to everything, we just want more usage so we cannot be forced.

smileyhead ,

I have had multiple websites just don’t work with Firefox regardless of whatever add-ons I put.

The exact reason why we encurage to ditch Chrome.

smileyhead ,

This is what the regulation was all about. The law did not said anything about cookies, they are the core web technology, just that you must be asked for personal data processing.

smileyhead ,

If a service wants to proccess your personal data they must get a consent. What’s useless about that?

smileyhead ,

Yup. What most people do not get. Wikipedia, Lemmy and others only need consent when they start processing personal data, like in the registration form.

Clicking “agree” on a banner on first visit is like creating an account with IP address acting like a login.

smileyhead , (edited )

Switching to Linux: “I don’t know how to do something”

Years after, being forced to use Windows: “I cannot do something”

(Then someone join the conversation with Adobe or MS Office argument, but I am talking about OS vs OS)

smileyhead ,

Android already runs on 1 Billion devices which is basically Linux…

At which point? It takes only the Linux kernel. But kernel is the least important part from practical usage perspective. Everything else is different, the bootloader (no GRUB or systemd-boot), screen compositor, sound system (not a Pipewire or PulseAudio), package format, init process, shell, even the standard C library (Bionic instead of glibc).

There are projects to run Linux on phones (see: wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Devices), but it takes huge about of reverse engineering and work.

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