If they would produce a super stable, backward compatible system without “AI”, without tons of dark patterns and with a traditional UI… let’s say, a Windows 7 reboot with compatibility to modern software and released under a Free license… then I would honestly take a look.
Just to be a bit heretical: Its absolutely possible to install Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, look up Rufus, download the ISO from Microsoft and on you go.
I have managed to get it running on a NUC with a two core and 2 GB RAM after also running a debloat script.
edit: Completed post after my 3 year old crashed into me sending the phone into the neitherworld under the couch
Yeah, i also have backups of my files… but every single time such a failure occured was when i under no circumstances needed a downtime like that (important project to finish, holidays where all shops are closed…) and i simply developed some superstition regarding SSDs.
It also wasn’t brand specific, i had it happen with Sandisk and Verbatim so far.
The thing is: With a spinning disk i can hear when things start to get spooky…
Nah… i don’t trust SSD’s, had too many dying over the years without any form of warning.
I write this post from a Core2Quad machine with 8 GB of DDR2 RAM and a spinning harddisk… and the system feels quiet fast and nimble.
There is already postmarketOS if you have an old supported phone somewhere in the drawer… it has still some rough edges, but it works and gives a nice glimpse into that ecosystem.
I still like Opera but I would really wish they would move to a different browser engine…
Bill doesn’t gave a shit either about me religiously repeating that in a world without walls nobody did need Gates or Windows… but it felt better reiterating this mantra.
You could say the same about drugs…
Why should we need “equal power” to some hypothetical “cloud pc”? We did video cutting, 3D rendering, webbrowsing, videochatting and so on in the late 90s with PCs whose CPU speeds where measured in Mhz not Ghz… with the PCs build in the last ~15 years i really, really see no danger of running out of useable devices within my lifetime (i am slightly over 40 now).
If there will be some time in the future when its only possible to get “meaningful employment” or “make appointments” using some cloud based shitstain i will happily spend my last days doing my part in helping to burn down this dystopic society.
I did use it a couple of years ago extensively, but moved back to the basics later on: Termux and Rsync.
Oh… right…
Yourself and the code you read and understand. So as long as you don’t use a system where this is possible (say 9Front and the like) you trust nothing and nobody, do careful backups and don’t go on a installation spree.
My computer, my rules… and if I want a piece of software out it will move out.
What about the following take: LLMs are an abomination that consumes enormous masses of resources for… well… really nothing besides being a tool to further enshittify the Internet and the world as a whole, being a tool for making it easy creating ever more divisive content (not to mention the special content Grok is now known for), killing jobs and replacing genuine human creativity by a cheap, warped imitation thereof.
My opinion is: Everybody who uses or promotes this technology is accomplice in making the world a worse place.
Don’t use Discord!
IRC and Matrix are better, free alternatives.
Why not self host it? If you use Software like snac or gotosocial its quiet easy and soft on resources.
This one is on you. MY copy of the necronomicon firmly sits in my library in the west wing…
Well, it is what de create, right? Why not encouraging people creating short form videos that are decisively not brain-rot?