De-googled Android ROMs:

• GrapheneOS
• LineageOS
• /e/ OS
• Volla OS

Linux OSes that (allegedly) work on Android hardware (please suggest additions):

• UBPorts
• PostMarketOS

Non-android, non-apple smartphones:

• Pinephone
• Pinephone pro
• Librem 5
• Volla Phone 22
• Jolla Phone
• FuriPhone FLX1s

And pretty much every feature phone out there (way too many to list)

>inkjet

LED printers have been around for fucking ever, and the average person doesn't need the graphic fidelity that only an overpriced pigment soup, which goes bad in a month, can supply.

Oh, and literally every part of a toner-based printer is easier to replace/repair... so why would a printer designed around repairability and upgradability use ink???

Edit' And I almost forgot: toner is cheaper per page than ink! Whyyy???????

First and foremost: about 10-20 Exabytes worth of storage space, or roughly 4 Petabytes per day.

That's 4,000,000 Gigabytes of new video per day.

And of course you'd need an efficient way of loading all that video data and streaming it to the end users, so they don't experience major interruptions, even when hundreds of thousands of people are all watching the same video at the same time. Youtube does this with caching servers/proxies, and highly optimized data delivery algorithms.

Once you have all that infrastructure, just make sure it's free and ad-free for all the watchers and uploaders. It's not like you need to pay for all those servers and storage... right?

Credit to Existential Comics

Nobody wants to point out that Alexey Grigorev changes to being named Gregory after 2 paragraphs?

Slop journalism at its sloppiest. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this story was entorely fabricated.

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/android-developer-verification.html

I had very few issues with a GTX 970 and i7-4790k. The only issues I hear about with either any more is the linux kernel not supporting some of the features of newer GPUs (e.g. I know ray-tracing was a pain-point at one point).

I don't like recommending distros based on such a general use case, mainly because every distro can be tweaked and configured to exactly what you want. Instead, you should research the different mainline distros that have been around for decades—Arch, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo, Guix, NixOS, OpenSuse, Slackware—and see what they're about, what sets them apart from others, what the maintainers' philosophies are, and what kind of package management system they work with. Once one sounds better than the others, look into it and try it out.

#Dos and Don'ts:

Don't try a niche distro. They are harder to troubleshoot and less likely to be actively maintained.

Don't use Ubuntu. It's just a suckier version of Debian. It used to be user-friendly Debian, but now Debian is more user-friendly than it.

Don't dual-boot with windows. This just solidifies your reliance on windows, especially if you're the type to give up on problem-solving issues that you didn't have in Windows. It also can cause issues with making Linux unbootable.

Do try a live usb with persistence before you commit entirely. It's not exactly the same as a complete install, but it's close enough to let you know how the OS feels and what hardware will or won't work with it. Some people say try a VM first, but that won't have direct hardware access.

Do problem solve the little things. Anything that irks you or bothers you or just slows down your workflow. It doesn't have to be an actual bug or glitch, just anything that could be better. This not only solidifies the feeling of ownership over your OS—you no longer have to settle for anyone else's lousy design choices—it teaches you the resources for troubleshooting larger issues.

Do plan around things not being plug and play at first. Want to test if a game runs on Linux? Great, set aside a couple of hours beforehand: first to install steam and set it up, then to figure out Proton, then to troubleshoot the game not even booting up, then to fix any glitches or whatnot, then to get your controller working. This won't always be the case, but it will irk you a lot less when it is if you expect it. The more you make time for solving these issues now, the less time they'll take up in the future (either they'll be gone, or you'll immediately know how to fix them, or your troubleshooting will be more streamlined).

Do set aside time to learn about Linux "under the hood." You don't have to become a computer scientist, but it will save you a lot of headaches, show you cool things you can do, and make your computer a smoother experience. It especially helps if you take the time to learn as they come up: e.g. installer asks you what "bootloader" you want, but you're not sure what that is, what it does, or why it's necessary? Now's the best time to take a little learning detour.

Do ask questions on forums.

Don't listen to the people who shame you for asking.

Do listen to the people who try to show you a better way of doing things, even if it's not your way.

What about you? When did you choose stability over the rolling release?

This is such sloppy engagement baiting. If it was just a hot take shitting all over one of the larger linux communities, that would be one thing, but to follow it up with a "let me know in the comments" just makes it all feel disingenuous and like somebody is being sponsored by NordVPN or Incogni to post their ragebait

Services as subscriptions: fine. They are ongoing agreements that require an unspecifiable amount of labor, it makes sense to pay as you go.

Subscription goods? Fuck that. If I am in posession of it and responsible for maintaining it in a specific state of operation and quality, I basically own it anyway.

Charging me monthly for a pocket-sized computer with the added stipulations that the seller gets to dictate what I'm allowed to do with it, probably installs spyware on it (on top of the OEM and OS spyware), and if I break it (or otherwise violate the terms of use) I have to buy it anyway and they still get to keep it? They've basically reinvented a mix of payphones and library PCs, but more invasive and more expensive

A few answers say "they aren't private by design," but don't really go into the "why." There's the obvious "it's an electronic tracking device, duh" reason, but there's also a more nuanced reason:

Airtags are able to be picked up almost anywhere because they connect to the nearest bluetooth-enabled Apple device, and then send location info across the internet to you. Without this functionality (the ability of any and every Apple device to locate it), they wouldn't have any way to send their location back to the owner.

Your best "privacy respecting" alternatives are something that uses meshtastic (and hoping there's enough repeaters near you), something that uses cellular data and GPS (which is about as privacy-respecting as Airtags are), or just a key finder/beeper (which only works within a small radius)

At least some level of human review is going to be needed.

So... completely negating the point of a User Repository??? Introduce some kind of authoritative oversight, and it's essentially just another regular repository, erasing all the benefits of the AUR. The whole point of the distro slapping a huge disclaimer of "DISCLAIMER: AUR packages are user produced content. Any use of the provided files is at your own risk." at the top of the homepage is because these kind of compromises are the trade-off one makes

You fool, you absolute bingus. You have fallen for one of the classic blunders, for I, in my infinite wisdom, know that all states are bad. And all equally so at that. 😎

Reputable news source "GLOBAL FACTZ"

The worse the product is, the more desperate they get to shove it in your face. Good products don't need to pay others to pretend it's good, you just find out via word-of-mouth or free trials

Proxies and VPNs seem like the most obvious targets. They mostly prey on people who don't understand the technical workings thereof (had my mom ask if she needed to get a VPN bc firefox opened on ad for theirs, claiming it enhanced privacy), and serve little benefit to people who are doing the kind of illegal activities that make governments take notice. They serve as a single point of compromise for anyone, and they work worldwide so that all your traffic can be monitored even when you're on a different ISP/in a different country. It's like the perfect MITM, and people are even willing to pay to have themselves monitored.

The truth is that at best they benefit people who only don't want their network-provider watching, but don't care who else may be. It's the perfect setup for a 3-letter agency to just sit and monitor everything anyone does, waiting for someone who's just a little too careless to access illegal content thinking they're anonymous.

Chomsky after the leaks: "I'm an old, old man, and I'm so sickly and weary and probably on my last legs cough, cough" (looks around nervously to see if anyone's buying it)

I wouldn't go quite that far. It doesn't only protect their business interest; it definitely does achieve the goals they claim—like helping non-tech-literate users to avoid getting scammed with malware—it's just they're only doing it this way because it also aligns with their business interest.

To that end I'd contest the "Security Theater" label. All security measures are ultimately implemented in a way that defends the interests of the owners. It's just that people have forgotten or aren't aware that Proprietary Software means they're not the owners.

Of course if it was just about users' safety, the most effective way to help people avoid getting scammed is to educate them, but that would make people less dependent on Google and less susceptible to vendor lock-in, and people may even start having dangerous thoughts like "it sure is weird how many identifying traits of a scam are also just standard business practices for large corporations like Google."

You're using "ignore" wrong, not the other way around.

If you want to be a linguistic pedant, then we should consider that both "ignorant" and "ignore" ultimately comes from proto-indo-european *ǵneh₃-, which meant "to know", and a negation prefix. So really the words should mean "the act of not knowing" (ignore) and "the quality/state of not knowing" (ignorant). Not avoiding knowledge, just lacking it

Or maybe microsoft should focus less on gamifying coding and turning it into an activity done for social credits, and make github more of a platform for... idk, version control and programming?

There's "defeminize" or the more recent "defeminate."

If we take the other meanings of "emasculate":

In the sense of literal castration, there's "oöphorectomy"; in the sense of complete neutering (removal of penis and testicles) there's "spay."

In the sense of weakening or sapping energy... well, the meaning isn't gendered, but the morphology does follow the "male-as-norm" principle. I couldn't find a feminine gendered variation (at least, not in English), but this also doesn't appear to be the meaning that OP is referring to.