TheFriendlyArtificer
It takes nearly as long to decrapify a new Firefox install as it does to compile Librewolf.
Install uBlock.
Tell Firefox that you don’t want to sync at the moment.
Disable “sponsored” stories. AKA, listicles designed to draw in idiots who want to see which 8 child actors from the 90s turned out to be the tallest. Alarmingly close to the tacky crap that you might see on a fresh Windows install.
Tell Firefox that you don’t want to sync at the moment.
Now disable Pocket. Remembering to go into about:config to really disable it
Disable telemetry.
Tell Firefox that you don’t want to sync at the moment.
Remove Amazon, Bing, et al. from the search engine list.
Remove “suggested” and “sponsored” autocomplete.
Tell Firefox that you don’t want to sync at the moment.
Remind yourself that, despite this crap, Firefox is still a better browser than any Chromium knockoff.
I think that it’s absolutely fair to jump on Microsoft for this.
There is nothing wrong with this hardware. RAM and CPU clock speed plateaued a long time ago. The overwhelming majority of these systems being thrown away would run Linux flawlessly.
Microsoft has never given a damn about security before. These new security “features” do more to lock people in than they do to keep them safe.
Survivorship bias.
We didn’t experience the numerous appliances and other detritus from the 70’s that crapped out and died. The ones whose safety policy began and ended with the power of prayer.
I have no idea what 2024 will bring us. It feels like the entire world is shaking itself apart. But I can promise you with 100% certainty that in 2064 they’ll be lamenting that their appliances aren’t built as good as they used to.
If a candidate were foreign born, they’d be ineligible. If they were under 35, they’d be stricken as well.
We have rules regarding eligibility. If you break those rules, you’re no longer eligible.
If a state court removed a candidate because they discovered that they were actually a Canadian citizen, removing them from the ballot isn’t “deciding” who we’re allowed to vote for. It’s applying the rules.
Find yourself a partner who cares as much about your genitals as Evangelicals and you’ll never be lonely.
Oh! So I can’t go into a post-op ward in a white lab coat and tell the recovering patients that the power of prayer is better than surgery?!
What’s next?! Taking away my Professional Engineer certification just because I’m not an engineer?
Or maybe you want to bankrupt my architecture firm simply because my certifications double as my Colgate Cavity Patrol diploma!
Never forget: If you can’t commit outright fraud with your free speech, is it really free?
/s
I stopped caring several years ago.
It’s like when Disney bought Star Wars. They homogenized it to make it more palatable and ended up making it dull and unappetizing. Neither franchise has a soul anymore. Just a formulaic plot with a set of waypoints in a dull 3 act format. Sprinkle in some in-humor, pedestrian jokes, and a special effects budget that would make the Pentagon blush and you have a recipe for dull tripe.
It’s more than just centralized control.
They have the ability to arbitrarily push out Snap updates.
That’s right! Your production server is getting patched without your knowledge or consent. Thankfully they magnanimously decided to let admins delay it by a few weeks.
Linux is about control. I decide what my machine does. When it updates. What it updates. The feedback from Canonical regarding Snaps was so tone dead and condescending it made Steve Balmer look sane. It boiled down to, don’t worry your pretty little head off. We know what’s best.
I genuinely want Gopher back.
I want to share information and to communicate. I don’t want every bowel movement tracked and monetizes. I don’t want 30 cross site requests when going to a news site. A single story should not require 10MB of JavaScript libraries.
I have no doubt that most of the authors of the original internet are aghast at what their high-minded creation has itself created.