The Fediverse is not perfect, but it actually blew my mind a bit how much it lowered my blood pressure to not see the constant ragebait, and the calm of not being exposed and monitored at all times. I still have Snapchat just for one person, and WhatsApp which is Meta but still E2EE. Other than that, I'm all in on FOSS privacy approved apps and man does it feel great.

He isn't perfect but he represents what could work about capitalism if there were proper safeguards. With him, he's governed by his own choices or morals, so the current system doesn't work because most rich people don't care. Gabe:

Provides a good base product

The product is based on being ran on open hardware that you own.

Uses his own money to advance support for a true open standard (Linux) because Windows is going down the toilet for UX.

Creates his own hardware that works with the product to give a walled garden experience if you want that. Or you can install your own operating system on the hardware, or install his operating system on other hardware, he doesn't care.

Doesn't have anticompetitive practices with people that make a similar product, focusing on being the best product.

Incorporates ease of use for other products into his product (PlayStation controllers, adding non steam games that are able to use most of the same features via Steam including Proton).

Treats employees well.

Is generous with the refund policy.

And guess what? Everyone is happy. He's happy and rich AF, his employees are happy, his customers are happy, his competition is happy because he's not purposefully throttling them (though they probably aren't happy he's eating their lunch because customers don't want them). The system can work for everyone if it is fair. We just need to demand these safeguards because even Gabe could change his mind at any time.

You know, over the last few years, I've gained a begrudging respect for Apple. They really care about UX, Ui, build quality, OS efficiency, battery life, and they're even the best value proposition at several price tiers. I main Fedora and GrapheneOS at home, yes, but I enjoy macOS and iOS at work. macOS has some of those key professional applications that haven't made it to Linux yet.

Apple is a pretty easy 2nd place in most areas, 1st for laptops specifically. Windows & ChromeOS can fight for 3rd but they're miles below macOS and Linux.

Weird article. "I tried to explain to someone what Microsoft Copilot is. I couldn’t… because the name ‘Copilot’ now refers to at least 75 different things."

What? NOBODY is confused what Copilot is because it is integrated into Microsoft Paint. It's a shitty Ai agent that they shove into their previous products. End of story.

I have always been firmly against character/franchise assassination, but this one is especially disgusting. To literally strip the ENTIRE POINT out of THIS movie especially, which is still so relevant today. To make the stand-in for governmental oppression a comedic Seth Rogen character who makes quirky jokes and ultimately isn't a threat at all really and is defeated easily, in a time where extremism is rising more than it has been in a hundred years. I'd go as far as to say it is indefensibly evil. I have lost all respect for Serkis, I can't fathom what he could possibly have been thinking, unless he has completely sold out.

You're absolutely right about sycophantic Ai, and that brings up a really good point about society. Can I help you with an essay that lists the reasons Ai is harmful?

I have no data to back this up, but I would guess that no, they are not. It's not that racists are immediately disgusted by the actual skin color or features of other people. Racism is a learned behavior that "others" people that are not in your "tribe". You can also often tell if someone is a different race, by their accent, the way they speak, or the way they act. A lot of racism is based on stereotypes and tribalism, and the excuse of racists is that their dislike is based on their actions and culture, not their actual race. I also suspected that, though many blind people are very social and lead fulfilling lives, on average they are probably more used to being shut ins, or at least limited to a small amount of familiar areas. And the best cure for racism and xenophobia is travel. So yeah, I'd say that balances out the potential loss in racial discrimination based on not being able to actually see the person.

I don't code so correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the code have to be generally accepted, reviewed, and verified by other members of the project? Ai can fuck right off as far as I'm concerned, but this isn't a situation where a CEO just unilaterally decides vibe coding is the move. Unless I'm mistaken.

You should watch it, it is pretty funny. It's kind of like the Lego movie, where it is surprisingly good at capturing the ethos of why people like the product instead of just being corporate slop.

Ah yes, organic rage bait instead of Ai swirls fancy wine

don't let your memes be dreams

MAGA Starter Pack™️

I think you're missing the point. The meme implies that liking Steam is some kind of contradiction to being anticapitalist (or at least anti-status quo of ridiculous unchecked capitalism). It's not a contradiction because the way Gabe runs his business is good. It is the way all businesses should be ran: pro consumer, pro employee, pro competition/pro free market, and not caught up in the gambling fiasco that is the stock market. If other businesses were not so focused on fucking over as many people as possible, they could be just as successful as Gabe.

Should it be POSSIBLE to be that successful? You don't think so, and I tend to agree. But pulling for a 90% tax rate after a certain point is in no way in opposition to praising fair business practices. They're directly related.

If Steam becomes an awful experience, guess what? I won't sing its praises to people I know and I'll find something better. Loyalty goes both ways.

Sure there is, so you can put Linux on it!

"What could be worse than MICROSOFT overseeing open source software? Wait no! It was a rhetorical question!"

Plot twist: she's a "Dave wrote 'em all" truther.

Soon, but not yet! I needed to upgrade, can't wait until 2027 or whenever. But hoping it'll be one of their flagships, the new Razr is pretty dope specs wise.

And Arch is for trans people. Damn, when will they make a distros that straight people can use? 😔