Here’s a scary privacy issue. I subscribe to several excellent independent journalists who publish on Substack. W. A. (Wendy) Lawrence is one of them. Heather Cox Richardson is another. Here’s a recent post from Wendy. It has to do with the clandestine use of the Location data and other online activity in your phone.
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Hey it looks like you’re writing a letter!
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Or:
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Clippy is my avatar in Teams for work 
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Passive aggressive, are we? 
Microsoft Bob! I had never seen this. What a crazy idea!
My best friend during University once had two roommates, both named Bob. One was cool, the other a complete moron. We called cool Bob “Bob with one O”. We called the moron “Bob”. He thought “Bob with one O” was hilarious. He never, and I mean NEVER, figured it out.
Since English is probably not your first language, here’s the humor. If there’s a “Bob with one O”, the other must be “Bob with two O’s” or “Boob”. Yes, boob is slang for a female body part, but it’s also slang for a goofy moron. Fit him perfectly, it did.
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OK, I’ve abandoned the LINUX migration project, at least for my notebook!
Findings:
- In principle, it is possible to migrate to LINUX (of course!), but
- the installation effort is considerable in some cases, not only with regard to the OS, but especially with regard to some apps (e.g. due to dependencies and configs). I want to be a user, not an administrator!
- I spent a lot of time in the terminal and configuring things. Without Perplexity, it would have taken me a few days (or never?) to get anything done.
- WINE emulation is hit and miss. More miss than hit. VST installation was not very pleasant.
- The KVM VM is okay, but the performance is not good enough. I also have to reserve space on the SSD for the VM, which I could use better for other things.
What’s next?
- I’m going to reinstall Windows 100% now – but I’ll migrate everything that isn’t the OS to a non-Big Tech version. Step by step.
- Also, I’ll set up one of my Dell Optiplexes as a ‘shadow’ system, and on days when I’m feeling masochistic (rare!), I’ll put a red rubber ball in my mouth and replicate my Windows system on LINUX, just to be prepared.
- And actively participate in this:
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The best jokes are the ones that need to be explained! I have always big fun, explaining jokes to my friends, even when told in their native language
I am not very good in telling jokes, as I prefer situational comedy or cunning word play, but I remember a colleague of mine telling a dirty/silly “Umberto” joke to another colleague during lunch.
The other colleague did not get it, even after us explaining it to him for about two hours. The look on his face, priceless!
Since that day, everybody called him “Umberto”. I still have to giggle, thinking about it, even after five years…
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That’s hilarious!!!
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Have you heard of Tuxedo computers? It’s from Germany, and they come with Linux.
I have been watching videos about getting rid of google/android, and about alternatives to Android. There are some “good” alternatives, but the biggest issue is that most banking apps won’t work on it. I read that the EU is planning a solution for digital payments that would work without Visa or Mastercard as the middle man. The EU is researching alternatives to American cloud services etc. I wish the EU would also consider supporting mobile phones OS that work without Google, especially enhancing their security, such that someday banks would allow their apps to run on de-googled systems.
I thought this video was interesting:
So far I think I’m not ready to move away from Samsung. At least not until banks will accept e/OS, Graphine or Sailfish. The Fairphone is an interesting concept: a sustainable phone that has a removable battery, and practically any part of the phone can be replaced by the user, even the display! But the camera seems subpar and buggy.
It would be nice to have an alternative to saving contacts elsewhere than Google (it is possible to save them physically on the phone instead, but it would demand a backup). But, even if we would do everything to keep our information (phone number, address, etc) safe from Google, most of our contacts use Google, Apple, or WhatsApp, and our information end up with these services anyway.
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The problem is not to install LINUX in general. My laptop was somehow “special” though it has common hardware.
Still, I expect - from a user point of view - that an OS install flawlessly on common hardware. Windows (11) never gives me issues on any machine I own.
The real problem is installing (non-common) apps on LINUX. Of course, something like LibreOffice can be installed easily. But installing Fender Studio Pro was hell - cause of all the dependencies that had to be met. And Tonelib Jam was even worse. I don’t even know how I did it, cause I tried every method (and there were many) to install it. And still, VST plugins would not run properly.
So even if you buy a machine that has LINUX pre-installed, it just give you all kinds of pain later, depending on what you want to install.
If you’re happy with LibreOffice and a browser, LINUX is ok. If you expect more from life, LINUX s#cks … if you want to be a user, not an admin!
This is a clear indication of where we are with LINUX, in my opinion. Not ready for broad acceptance (for users).
I expect that technology adapts to the user, not the other way around. This is what LINUX fanboys don’t understand.
So, all the back and forth was good in a sense: I now know what does not work (yet) and what I don’t want (ever)…
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Yep, Linux can’t replace Windows or Mac OS. Hopefully someday there will be more alternatives.
Same thing with degoogled phones.
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If it’s only about degoogling, LineageOS is really great!
Unfortunately, Samsung made it impossible (hard?) to install on newer phones. But on older Samsungs - S20 and below- it’s easy. And for features/performance it is really excellent!
Finding alternatives to Google Android Apps/Services is harder. I am working on that too - stay tuned…
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In my opinion. LINUX could be great. Look at OSX. I hate the UI, but many people like it. It’s very stable too, but of course this is due to supporting specific hardware.
Also, it’s based on UNIX, so you can go a long way with UI/UX on that platform, as OSX shows. It just needs to be done.
As long as LINUX is a techie-driven project, I don’t expect any real progress with UI/UX.
But with the EU pushing Open Source, I hope that somebody will see the light and maybe create an EU funded UI/UX initiative: E/UI/X…
In the end, governments serve the citizens - what better way to serve than giving the people a better life through a better user experience??!
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