Let me blow this wide open. I don’t think anything went wrong with it, there was just too much Star Wars and I stopped caring. The same with Marvel stuff , I watched it all and then bam I couldn’t be bothered to watch Endgame and I haven’t watched any since. And I’ve always been more of a Trekkie. I watched every single episode of every season of every Star Trek but I just can’t be arsed to watch the last seasons of New Worlds, it is fine but I have had my fill. Or maybe I got old and it just doesn’t do it for me any more?

I’ve been boycotting all US products and services online and offline since Trump 2.0. Now I’m working on avoiding the most stubborn things like Mastercard and visa, but I’m getting there.

Fluffychat (matrix), Deltachat seem really good but good luck getting anyone to change. Let us know if you figure out a way to persuade people they should make any effort or try something new.

I use Mistral Ai instead because I don’t touch and US products or services. The most common thing I ask is: check and tidy up these notes add formatting for readability, present as a markdown code block, add some nerd fonts.

I use iPhones for myself and the family because they just work. I don’t shell out for the latest models, this as-new iPhone 12 I’m on now works just fine. I use Linux for everything else but my requirements for a phone are totally different to what I need from a PC. I don’t need freedom or the ability to tinker or hack it. I need my phone to operate as a reliable appliance and a mobile wallet, so I appreciate features like Apple wallet and Face ID. Other people’s requirements might differ but I think it is just a case of horses for courses. But don’t get me started on all the advanced features of the iPhone that are hidden so well behind the pretty ui most people will never ever realise they exist…

I don’t know, don’t Apple have a reasonable track record of pushing back against governments? I personally have even less faith in the security of android based devices or Android phone manufacturers.

Does no one else wake up at 0300 and read a book for a bit before going back to sleep for a couple of hours?

My wishlist is an app which is not linked to a phone number, is multi platform and has a web app. It should be none US and open source. That isn’t too many requirements and yet nothing seems to full fit the bill? Anyway good luck trying to get school parent’s groups to use something other than WhatsApp.

I can’t seem to find any evidence online but there did used to be a supermarket in the UK in the 80s/90s called ‘No Frills’ and all their products were also just black and white packaging.

New season of the handmaiden’s tale just dropped?

Take a look at Delta chat? I can’t find a fault with it yet…

Is anyone else using Delta chat as an alternative? I can’t fault their idea of basing their chat app on the well established email system.

Good thing I cancelled prime along with all my subscriptions and accounts with US companies just after Trump was elected.

Abolish copper coins. Job done :-)

I’m not advanced, just a distrohopper for fun :-) but NixOs seemed excellent, you install like an other os, open the config file and write a list of what you want installed, rebuild and it’s all there. Then use it just like any other distro. That seems a good experience to me and if you are just a simple desktop user like me what else would you ever need to do? Am I right that all the homemanager and flakes business is optional and for people with more complicated requirements?

thanks, that’s comprehensive, I recommend it at least :-)

I agree it is great, but am I the only one running Opensuse MicroOS?

The funny thing is only the UK plug design is any good, all others are so much worse they should just give up and go home.

I wouldn’t say dogshit, I would say the results are good enough for most purposes, not great, my priority just as the moment is dumping USA based companies and I thought Ecosia planting trees was a nice touch. Although as someone else pointed out it is still possibly using crawlers from google and bing in the background. I’m still keen to try out other search engines.

I stopped using Google at the same time I closed my accounts with Facebook, instagram, Reddit and Amazon. Currently I’m using Ecosia which I think is German. I’m dumping all the US companies I can based on all the Trump crap. It is taking time and effort but I should be able to actually close the Google account soon and I replaced windows with Linux on all but one of my PCs.