I recently finished a classic sci-fi book, Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It is part of The Foundation book series. I started the original first book about 7 years ago and have come back to the series every few years. They're pretty interesting and can see why they are considered classics.
Looming back it was probably Windows XP as the last time I used Windows as my main OS. I switched not because Windows was enshittified like it is now, but because the FOSS movement sounded interesting to me. I loaded Ubuntu on an old laptop, and once I got drivers working it covered everything I needed besides gaming. As I became more of a casual player I used Windows less and less until now where I only use it at work. It's been an interesting journey.
I don't really care about the real init war, but I like this conic version!
I daily drive the Librem 5 and am typing this reply from the phone. The honest feedback (and tl;dr) is that it is a good device for those who value privacy over convenience.
The hardware kill switches are a nice touch, especially on the camera/microphone. I don't have moments of suspicion that if I have a conversation about a toaster that I will suddenly start seeing ads about toasters everywhere.
It's nice not to be bombarded with notifications to review their app, accept TOS that my data will be used to sell me stuff, irremovable bloatware, and some of the other annoyances we got used to experiencing.
As a basic communications device it works fine. Phone calls (VoLTE) and SMS text messaging works, depending if your carrier allows you to BYOD and provides the network info. SMS can sometimes get "clogged" in the modem when there is a very active group text; but for me usually resetting the modem using the hardware killswitch, a 15 second process, fixes it.
Of course the downside is a more limited app ecosystem compared to Android. You will have to search for convergent apps and flatpaks, but I have found everything I need through Flathub.
The camera does not take influencer quality photos, but if you need to take a quick picture of something and share it, then it works.
Battery life is definitely something to be desired, but I can make it through a work day with automatic suspend doing some light web browsing and sending some messages throughout the day.
Since I mostly use a computer for web browsing, emails, and word processing, I dock my phone and use it in desktop mode. It's not blazing fast, but for my purposes it is more than fine. Its actually a cool feeling to sit at my desk, start typing an email, listening to music, and then undocking my phone and continue the email on the go from the same device.
I get what you mean, but the way you worded it makes it seem like you experienced dependency hell for 20 out of 25 years...
I'm not a programmer either, but I am a Linux and open source user so I can at least wade through the waters, lol
The browser in my computer at work doesn't have an ad blocker. I haven't installed one because I most of the time I'm using it to access our intranet. But when I do happen to use the internet, damn are there so many ads! They literally block the content I'm trying to read, and come back even when I try to close it.
All that to say, due to enshittification I will forever keep my ad blocker on my personal computer.
And now on YouTube the Red Pill symbolizes accepting misogyny as the backbone for society.
Conservatives can truly spin everything for the worst.
What if, sometime after Win 10 loses support a virus takes advantage of the lack of patches and propagates across all the machines with a simple message "This operating system is no longer supported, please click here to upgrade." The button then runs a script to download and install a user friendly Linux distro. The world is then saved.
Mathematically they're equivalent, but the feelings could not be further apart.
Is that a pedestrian symbol or the chalk outline of a pedestrian who got hit?
Firefox is installed by default on my Linux distro, though
I will also add I am currently reading issue No. 127 of the literary magazine Zyzzyva. Not a book, but a decent collection of short stories, poems, essay, and even bits of visual art.