You wouldn’t download an NFT…

This sounds promising. Wish we could do something about microplastics as well.

not really seeing the benefit to me if they just record the data.

I can’t speak for ListenBrainz, but Last.fm has been great for music discovery/recommendations. Also, unlike Spotify which only tracks your music till October, there’s no such limitations with Last.fm. You can also get a multitude of stats, which helps review your music tastes and discover new music. I also like sharing my stats with others on social media, and making connections with people having similar music tastes as me.

Probably this guy.

I think a lot of enterprises are going to look at RHEV

I don’t think so, because:

Development of RHV has ceased and as of August 2020 the product is now only receiving maintenance updates, with extended life phase updates provided until 2026.[8] The successor to RHV is Red Hat’s OpenShift container platform.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hat_Virtualization

Proxmox

I’m no expert btw, but from what I understand (from speaking with others and researching for my own homelab setup) is that LXD/Incus is now the preferred solution over Proxmox. LXD is faster, the CLI is very good, it has a huge library of ready to run Linux distro images which is convenient, and it runs on top of your favorite distro, which makes it easy to install/setup, more flexible, and more compatible (Proxmox runs an old and custom kernel, which may not be fully compatible with new hardware).

But isn’t RHEV dead?

Explorer has had tabs for about an year now (since 22H2) - just press Ctrl + T, or the little + in the titlebar.

It has already become bloated, I wouldn’t be surprised if crashes and hangs come next.

Old Notepad vs New:

• RAM usage: Doubled (1.6 MB -> 3.4 MB)
• Disk usage: 10x increase (356 KB -> 3 MB)
• Number of files: 27x increase (1 file -> 27 files)

* Allegedly.

What exactly is evidence that Google has suppressed other stores, and in what manner ? If you consider say, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo etc - all have their own stores in parallel to the Play Store. And on all/other phones, you’re free sideload any third-party app store.

Taking my Samsung phone as an example, I don’t see the Play Store being promoted any more prominently than the Galaxy Store, nor do I see any blockers for using the Galaxy Store. I believe this is the same for other OEMs as well who bundle their own stores.

So tell me, where exactly is the suppression here?

They do infact. The exact filename is FortniteInstaller-5.3.0.apk, so you’re not too off the mark. :)

No, then you won’t even be able to use in-app purchases.

That’s not true - they wouldn’t be able to use the Google Play APIs for payments of course, but if the app is sideloaded they can definitely use any payment processor / method. If the app isn’t on the Play Store then Google has no say over it.

Android supposedly has an option to side load, and even install another store, but in order to do it, you get through a series of warnings

It’s really not as difficult as you make it seem.

1. Send a link to the user somehow (SMS, email etc); or user goes to the website
2. Click on the Download button
3. Open the APK
4. In the dialog box that pops up, click on the Settings button > then allow Samsung Internet
5. Click on the Install button

That’s it. There were no “series of warnings” to go thru, no need to flip between multiple screens or anything. I literally just went thru this process to install the Epic store my Galaxy Fold 4 - which took only a few seconds in total - and it was in no way complicated or “scary” at all. And bear in mind that the audience in this case are gamers - people who are already familiar with the concept of downloading and installing programs on a PC, so it’s not like you’re targeting some tech-illiterate people here.

The only one that lasted is F-Droid

Not true again. Aurora Droid and Droid-ify are both reasonably popular, at least in the OSS/enthusiast communities. Yes they use the F-Droid repos but they also subscribe to other repos (Guardian Project, Izzy etc), so you’re getting your apps from multiple sources.

There are also proprietary stores such as Aptoide which are quite popular in the Asian markets. Finally, you’re completely ignoring other stores which are bundled out-of-the-box on many non-Google phones such as the Galaxy Store on Samsungs, Mi Store on Xiaomis, AppGallery on Huawei etc. Of course, in the western market the Play Store is the most dominant, but the Samsung store is reasonably popular among Samsung users (as they have regular deals on games and various other apps + some exclusives like Good Lock and other Samsung-specific apps), and of course, the OEM stores are also quite popular in Asian markets.

Exactly. And this (community reverse engineering / interoperability / bridging etc), isn’t something new, it’s existed ever since a messaging protocol became popular - remember Trillian, Miranda, etc? Whether proprietary or not, it didn’t matter - people were going to find a way to bridge the gap sooner or later. So for Apple to think that this was somehow exclusive to just iPhone users - and that it will stay that way - is a bit shortsighted.

If profit is what they were after, they could’ve just as easily made an official, secure API and charged for it. I’m sure there’s plenty of folks out there willing to pay for iMessage, given how many of them are buying used Mac Minis and iPhones to use as a relay. Apple’s shortsightedness is making them miss out on a business opportunity.

inhabiting a boston dynamics robot would probably be the best option

Already been done: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djzOBZUFzTw

SELinux, grsecurity, containers, keep your system updated and don’t run random untrustworthy code.

I got away from overpriced Samsung devices a few years ago and have a fairly bloat-free Motorola. Now I want to dump the Google ecosystem. I intend to download all of my pics and files from Drive and the Google cloud. I am not so tech savvy that I can install APKs

You don’t need to install any APKs. You can buy phones with /e/OS (a fully de-Googled Android) preloaded, such as the ones sold by Murena. Another option is to buy a cheap/used Pixel phone and flash GrapheneOS, which is another de-Googled Android, but is much more secure than /e/OS. They have a web based installer that’s pretty easy to use, you just have to follow the step-by-step instructions on that page - there’s no need to even type any commands or anything!

or switch to Linux

Depending on your software requirements and workflow, this could actually be a pretty easy switch. You said you’re not very tech savvy, and contrary to popular opinion, Linux is actually very suitable for non-techy people: because such folks have very simple requirements from a PC in general - like surfing the web, checking emails, do some light document or image editing, transferring files, ocassionally print or scan stuff. You know, all the basics. All of which Linux excels at.

Now on the other hand, if you’re a geek or a IT pro, or a professional photographer, or someone like that with very specific software requirements / workflow, it’d may a lot more difficult to switch, but for most general, non-techy home users, Linux works very very well. Case in point - both my mum and dad (60+) and many elderly relatives of mine are all happily running Linux since many years now. None of them are tech savvy (except my mum I guess, she actually learnt computers properly, going back to the DOS days), but most of them are total noobs at PCs - in fact my dad didn’t even know how to operate a PC until I taught him (which was after his retirement, for reasons…). Most of these folks have been running Linux for over a decade now and had no major issues, afterall, all they need is a web browser and some light document viewing/editing, plus the ocassional prints and scans. They have no need for proprietary apps or nVidia graphics, so Linux has been working for them very well.

If you’re in this camp as well, then Linux could be a good option for you. If you also think this is the case, let me know and I can point you in the right direction as to how to get started with this Linux stuff in the easiest way possible.

… or just use a password manager like a sensible person.

Or they could just get you to execute the command without your knowledge (eg: all the people who just blindly copy-paste commands, or pipe scripts from the net into sudo). Or it could be a compromised github account/repo (supply-chain attack). Or even the ol’ techsupport scam where they get gullible users to install stuff…

No, it’s an actual attack. But we don’t know for sure if it’s being exploited actively in the wild. This vulnerability has existed ever since PCs adopted UEFI (~2006).

FYI: The blog post by binarly is a cleaner source and was published a whole week ago.

Ah, AR, that infamous state where a mother killed her three babbys.