Yep. My work requires some Windows programs, and I run them on a separate Windows machine I got for cheap. The only policy I have is no personal computing on Windows, and I keep it disconnected from the internet permanently. That OS is creepy af.

I’ve found many startups are merely “investments” by some entrepreneur that were intended from inception, whether explicitly or not, to be grown to a sufficiently negotiable state and sold to the biggest buyer. That’s not to say that big tech companies don’t buy-out their competition, but many startups also dream of being bought-out.

I agree. I think for most the answer may be a mix of complacency, convenience, and conforming to the norm.

Free software and the FSF. When the Snowden leaks came out, they weren’t news to me – just confirmation.

This has been around for a very long time. I’m always surprised that more people haven’t heard of it.

Yes, this is the crux of LineageOS. There is a fork called DivestOS that is more libré and reduces dependence on Google services, as well as having bootloader re-locking for some devices.

Google does this time and again, and a workaround always gets released eventually. Then again YouTube has been steadily going downhill these past several years, so maybe it’s for the best.

Fedora users are just “beta testers” for Red Hat’s main distro, RHEL, and it really did feel like it. I started on Fedora and moved on swiftly after finding better distros.

One thing I like about Osmand for driving is that it tells you which lane(s) you should to be in for the next turn/junction/roundabout. It’s especially useful for large junctions and/or in busy traffic. I’ve had it do the “detour route” that you talk about, but it’s never been anything major like a complete square that’s lead to wasting time.

OSMAnd is very good, with a lot of features, but lately I have been using Organic Maps. It has fewer features but is SO MUCH FASTER when rendering maps.

I remember Sony forcing everyone to use their proprietary SonicStage software and proprietary ATRAC3 audio file format with their Mini Disc players. Nothing else would work on their products. Thank goodness big industries don’t influence governments worldwide, or we’d be heading into some kind of dystopia DRM-laden in every aspect of our lives. Oh wait…

Mysterium looks pretty interesting, being completely decentralized. All the mainstream VPNs are pretty shady to me, being run in a centralized manner and some heavily marketed by “influencers”.

You do realize that RHEL is open source, right? The “pirating” has already been done by RockyLinux (formerly CentOS).