I use Windows 11 – mildly modified – StartAllBack for a proper start menu and taskbar experience. I have it pretty much exactly as I want it without any annoyances.

I’m perfectly comfortable with Linux but I feel the same as you about using it on the desktop for all the same reasons.

In my family, everyone else has an iPhone and I have Samsung S23. So I can maybe give both perspectives. If you just want a phone to be a phone, it’s hard to go wrong with an iPhone. It’s always the best default choice. That being said, I personally can’t go back to an iPhone. Lots of people recommend Google devices because of the “stock” Android experience but I greatly prefer the interface, integration, and customization of Samsung devices.

Anyway, in no particular order why I like Android/Samsung:

1. The ability to just copy movie and TV shows files onto the device and play them with VLC. This is a must for me for travel. iOS is still a pain in the ass for this.
2. In screen finger-print reader and face unlock (both are useful)
3. Ability to cast a Dex desktop to my TV with one click for showing off content
4. Customized gesture navigation (swipe up middle - home, swipe up right - back, swipe up left - apps) – full screen is available no button bar
5. THE BACK BUTTON – every time I use an iPhone I hate hate hate the lack of a back button
6. Browsers with ad block
7. Customized YouTube with ad blocking (revanced)
8. Customized notification icon bar – hide icons that are always on (bluetooth, etc), battery percentage no icon.
9. Separate profile for Work and Personal – my employer has control only of the work profile and can’t remote wipe my entire phone.
10. Custom home screen apps (I use Nova 7)
11. USB-C – one single charger for all my devices (phone, laptop, tablet, buds, etc).
12. Ability to wirelessly charge my watch and my ear buds using the back of the phone (this is great for travel)
13. Open source console emulators

I can probably think of more but that’s a good start.

Honestly I think the idea of hundreds of tiny instances of Mastodon or Lemmy is not the way the fediverse should work. It probably won’t work that way because it doesn’t scale well. However, having a half-dozen or so large instances would give you almost the entire benefit without as many of the issues. Would Reddit be having a meltdown right now if there was even just one other instance of Reddit everyone could move to?

I think federation and centralization is the key to success.

I played the crap out this game as kid… abusing the track builder as much as possible.

The problem is the government has been protecting/supporting one group for a long time to the point that everything is now “too big to fail”. Government continue to create investment materials that can’t fail – and anything that can’t fail will create a bubble and destroy everything else. That investment in Canada was housing. Now it’s like over half our GDP is housing investment. And why invest in anything else? Nothing else is as risk free.

I feel like the collapse is never going to come.

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