Wouldn’t have mattered either way then lol.

“We won’t train AI on artists’ work…this quarter.”

~Adobe probably

The true cyberpunk dystopia. They ultimately want to keep you as close to destitute without actually being bankrupt as possible, that way they extract as much as possible from you at all times for as long as they can.

Capitalism will always try to get as many people as possible, to pay as much as possible, for as little as possible.

True, sadly. Honestly it’s already there in certain specific respects.

Puppy Linux, baby cuz I got that dawg in me!

This is kind of like asking, “what is water worth?”

To an upper middle class person in the developed world, a dollar or two. To a person stranded in a desert, they might literally kill for it.

If you are just a Joe shmoe out in the world living a basic life, privacy might not be worth hardly anything. But if you’re a whistle blower or a political dissident in an authoritarian country, your privacy is worth everything.

Causality issues aside, yes I would. Makes a big difference if I found out I had 40+ years left vs 5 years left.

I said $2,000+ to encompass even more expensive machines/setups.

I never said bodyweight or a kettlebell set could provide exercises for every possible movement or strength vector.

I said that the vast majority of people don’t need anything more than those to build a healthy level of fitness. And given that the average cost of a gym membership in the US is around $50 per month, after a few months, their used kettle bells or simple dumbell set has already paid for itself.

And weights last basically forever unless they are severely damaged, so zero maintenance cost.

Nothing wrong with going more hardcore if that’s your thing, but that’s not at all necessary to build a solid base of strength and general fitness.

Any “quick fix/all-in-one” fitness or nutrition solutions. While there are minute optimizations for elite athletes, 99.99% of the population can adhere to the general consensus of nutrition and health science.

1. Do something that gets your heart rate up for at least 30 minutes a day. Speed walk, bike, row, shoot hoops, jump rope, doesn’t matter, just get your heart pumping hard for at least half an hour a day.
2. Roughly a third of your food should be fresh leafy greens & veggies. A third should be whole grains and unprocessed starches and sugars like sweet potato and fresh fruit. The final third should be a protein. Lean meat like fish or chicken, or if you’re veg/vegan, beans, tofu, seeds, peas, etc.
3. To build strength, general bodyweight exercises combined with stretching is fine for most people. If you wanna get really strong, get a few kettle bells or adjustable dumbells on the used market for $50-$100. You don’t need an expensive fitness club membership or one of those all-in-one $2,000+ fancy machines that mounts on your wall.
4. Don’t drink often, don’t smoke, don’t pound stimulants like caffeine or nicotine.
5. Brush your teeth well.
6. Get 6-8 hours a night of good quality sleep.
7. Keep your brain engaged, read, play music, play games, learn a language, etc.

I’m speaking from experience, because I have fallen for stuff over the years that promised fast results and optimal methods with minimal effort. Fact is, unless you’re training for the Olympics or you have very specific heath conditions, those basic bullet points will cover the vast majority if general health and fitness.

Yeah, IT is in a similar boat. Not as bad, but still where I live, Linux environments are super rare. So if you are going into IT, you are going to be working in Windows environments, and most firms use software that isn’t compatible with Linux.

Stuff like their remote management software, or their inventory management software. Plus, unless you’re the guy in charge of the IT department, almost nobody wants or even knows how to administrate a Linux endpoint.

So they don’t want one of their sys admins to be running around on a Linux machine that they don’t have as much visibility on or understanding of how it works.

I’m lucky that the company I work for is small enough that I am the entire IT department, so I can use whatever OS I want. Debian 12 with Plasma, love it.

But out in the world, you’re going to find a bunch of situations like you are in, where so much of the defaults use Windows and proprietary garbage, you’re stuck running exactly what they are.

Long term, you could start trying to build your own indie studio that is FOSS-based. Maybe years down the line you can make it on your own. Do that full time and make supplemental income as an outside contractor or something. IDK, that also comes with its own set of issues. It’s a shitty tech corpo dystopia all around us.

Fair, yeah that is a solid solution.

Eh, depends I guess. Now days I would just use my Steam Deck and be happy with that.

But back when I went to college, high powered gaming handhelds weren’t a thing.

Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

That’s why I said one of the exceptions was gaming notebooks, something like the smaller Razer Blade laptops.

Absolutely.

Fair point, Pixels aren’t flagship expensive, but they definitely aren’t cheap either.

For sure.

I thought the video was pretty reasonable. I wasn’t criticizing him with my hot take.

It will always be a balance of what you’re willing to do for what you believe in, vs pragmatism and comfort.

Some things are better sacrificed, because they aren’t actually very good to begin with. But other things are better adapted or emulated into a FOSS framework.

On a more personal note, I was prepared to give up far more than I actually needed to when switching to Linux 100%. Linux has gotten so good in most areas, it’s pretty incredible.

Some people will never be willing to move to Linux. Even if Linux was 98% compatible with their needs, they would stay on Windows for that remaining 2%.

There are folks who would let Windows punch them in the groin or slap them across the face once per month as long as they could play their favorite kernel-level anticheat esport trash.

There are a few people who make their living using evil software like the Adobe suite, and for them I truly feel sorry that they are trapped in the dystopian hell of modern proprietary software, but we do live in a society I guess.

The tough truth is, many people don’t really give a shit about privacy, consumer rights, software freedom, or transparency, even if they say they do. They will huff and puff about how terrible Windows has gotten. They will rant and rave about how ridiculous the ads are in their OS or how they think it’s wrong for their OS to spy and track their actions constantly.

But when the rubber meets the road and they can sacrifice a few things to gain their freedom, they won’t do it. I know, because I have multiple friends and family that have been acting like this for years.

Whenever I suggest Linux or FOSS alternatives to their proprietary apps, they initially are interested. But of course they will always find the one or two things they like to use/play/have that doesn’t work or is a pain on Linux, and they bail.

I had one friend who was saying they were “totally serious about switching to Linux soon.” But they bailed when they found out that Valorant doesn’t work on Linux. Do they play Valorant actively? No, they haven’t played it in years, but they, “wanted the possibility to play it just in case they decided to get back into it again.”

Personally, there isn’t a single game or piece of software I would ever give up Linux for. I just flat out refuse to use Windows or MacOS on any of my personal computers. It’s a pledge I made years ago and I will forever stick to it.

Hot take: If you claim to be against all the big tech abuses and value software and computing freedom, but a handful of PC games is enough to stop you from leaving an abusive proprietary OS, you weren’t very serious about it to begin with.

Not sure why GrapheneOS is getting down voted so much here, did I miss something recent that happened?

I’ve been using GrapheneOS on my Pixel 6a for around 2 years and really like it.

If I couldn’t use GOS though, I would probably go with DivestOS. I haven’t looked deep into other alternative Android ROMs.

I’m constantly amazed at the longevity of this probe, so awesome!