skarn @ skarn @discuss.tchncs.de

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2 yr. ago

But by that standard, Windows isn't ready either...

What you read is true, and also total nonsense.

There is not too much point in discussing privacy and security without a threat model.

So once you put your threat model into focus, you can discuss how to mitigate those threats and pick the right browser for you.

There is surely a tradeoff at some point...

But noone says you can't lose both!

Last time I had a PC with an optical drive, I used the built-in features of Dolphin, and using a different software for metadata. If you use KDE, it's hard to find a good reason to do otherwise. It will usually get metadata from CDDB, but on the other hand for metadata It's really hard to beat Picard or Beets.

Beets will also scrape the lyrics and add them to the metadata, beside acousticbrainz goodness, multiple genres from Last.fm, and more. Picard will do most of this as well.

OK, now I get it. Yes, my experiences with Linux have been ridiculously good for a long time, but that is indeed also due to being careful with what I buy.

Nowadays it's generally gotten pretty easy compared to a few years back, but there are still rough edges there.

I also expect this is more of an issue with cheaper solutions? Because nothing I touched in the last 10+ gave me any real problem. With maybe the exception of getting NVidia Optimus to work?

For a company it wouldn't be so unreasonable to say "we'll transition to Linux over this period of time" and replace incompatible hardware as you progress. The hardware replacement will be a small fraction of your switching costs.

The company I work at has decided to be Linux centric a long time ago, and basically all laptops are years old refurbished Thinkpads that run just fine with no intervention and no hacking.

But the university where I worked at before had a framework deal with Dell, and while I was one of the few people using Linux, I never had trouble with hardware compatibility on those Optiplex and Latitude. To the point that when I was getting a new machine, I would clone the old partition and just boot into a perfectly working system.

I use Arch, BTW.

investment in stabilizing Linux enough to make it a feasible alternative

Do you care to elaborate? If I had to write a list of reasons why Linux might not be ready for your average cubicle... Stability wouldn't be one of them.

And those are the night for beans n tuna.

It's almost enough to look at his account name...

I understand that Brave is a very good browser, from a technical standpoint, but it just feels annoying. For one, the constant crypto advertisement is a real turn off.

Firefox is also the only real mobile browser that lets me have extensions, so I can use stuff like uBlock or BypassPaywall.

Most Europeans don't hate Americans and those who do are not worth being around anyway.

On the other hand... Yeah, your leadership's right now really sucks.

But if I had to wait for presentable leadership of my country to show my face abroad, I'd still be living at my parents...

Source: am Italian, grew up during Berlusconi's heyday.

I can decide to not use Google (I have indeed stopped), but it becomes harder to avoid all websites that run google stuff.

Resistance is obviously not futile (or Google wouldn't be doing this). But resistance will have to update.

At least there's a chance this crap is illegal where I live. And if so, there's a small chance they'll care.

Except, it is irrelevant whether or not you decide to use Google.

Observation 1: we are seriously here discussing which big tech platform people use to listen to the maybe the last truly decentralised media.

Observation 2: the discussion makes sense in the context.

We really fucked up this internet thing, didn't we?

Correct

I personally have an Instinct 2.

It basically has most features of a smartwatch, but it has no color or touchscreen. I get notifications, I can stop my podcasts, check the weather forecasts, track my sleep or heart rate, it even has a moonphase complication.

It's all handled through the buttons. The UI is brilliant, considering the limitations, the sensors are great, and battery really lasts me longer than two weeks.

It gets all information from the phone (though Gadgetbridge, via BT). I install the official app to manage the Garmin Pay features, and uninistall right after.

The payment function does not even depend on the phone. It just copies some of the card data inside the watch.

Every now and then (at least once a day) I need to enter a 4 digit PIN, which is annoying to do using the buttons.

Great watch.

Do bear in mind that not all banks and/or cards are supported. Out of my 6 payment cards, over 3 banks (I know, ridiculous), only 3 are compatible. One bank is not compatible at all, the other one supports the debit card on Garmin Pay but not the credit card.

I knew that before hand. Garmin has a list... Somewhere.

Only thing I could figure out (except maybe looking into Chinese payments systems which... No. Just no) is Garmin Pay.

Once set up, works with the smartwatch and does not use the phone, or the internet, at all.

I know it's not exactly what you asked, but its what I managed to do. Garmin watches also work pretty great with Gadgetbridge :-)

AFAICT currently Tolino is just a rebranded Kobo.

I can empirically say, that just switching from stock to a degoogled ROM gave me a significant battery boost. I have no idea what that thing was doing in the background, but it's already doing a lot less of that.

For microG... Until UnifiedPush becomes more widespread the choice between having your notifications go through FCM and halving your battery life is going to be a tricky one.

And you think degoogling offers no obvious benefits in terms of privacy?