for 35€ is it really needed? it will pay for itself many times over

but perhaps we dont need several gigabytes compressed code to have a browser. perhaps what google have been doing is an utter abomination?

This is cool until Google doesn't load in your free browser.

Then, you use this: https://duckduckgo.com/

Actually, use it now.

This. Also, use OSM for maps and run your own SMTP server, if you can. Nobody should need Google.

Sadly, the to me most important parts of Maps are live navigation and live traffic status. I'm assuming you can't get those with osm (yet).

The actual maps are much better in osm than in Google.

OsmAnd does have live navigation as far as I understand it (turn-by-turn directions), but no live traffic status, because for that you a lot of drivers willing to surrender their location/sensor data. Anything "live" cannot be privacy respecting. I never found live traffic information particularly worthwhile to be honest.

Maybe it's time to give up privacy absolutism and add strictly opt in live data features.

That reminds me, place reviews using ATProto. Kinda surprised that no map client jumped on that when it's the exact thing you need to replace a centralized service. A lot of people use Google Maps to find businesses more than directions.

This works for nerds, but not for grandma who can't even describe what she's doing without using the word "google".

Nerds with grandmas can manage grandma's DNS or better yet set up MDM (I'm serious).

funny, somehow we managed to have these things before chrome became basically two orders of magnitudes exploded. are you seriously defending the size of chrome as rational? we are talking verbosity to the levels that even claude would be jealous of

Actually it is still cool if they don't.

Because of their enshitification we do have alternatives that were developed.

At this point the their only services I'm using are Maps, Translate and Keep Notes and it is mostly due to lazyiness as all of those already have alternatives.

Edit: forgot about YouTube, which is ironic, because that one is a toughest one because the value comes from creators, but I'm doing my part and using GrayJay[1] so I can follow them if they switch their platform.

[1] https://grayjay.app/

what even was the point of typing that? it just reads as kindergarten bully on an ipad.

dont see how its bullying? someone is demonstrating a very childish point of view , almost to the point of preaching. which I would say a little bit of critical thinking says is otherwise. why else would so many want xcancel in the first place?

not really, no

so people just want to be looking at X for all the bot posts.. got you :)

that could possible be because you are not thinking about it from the angle needed to see :)

I think typically the term "Far" is meant to denote where it lies on political spectrum, and has fairly well understood typical brew of populist/authoritarian/nationalistic/xenophobic, with themes of strength, unity, and focus on "in" and "out" groups

It does not mean fringe or rare or low-in-numbers - unfortunately, "far right politics" have frequently been in the majority in our history and will certainly be again :-/

Right and left has little meaning in modern politics. What is a bit more concerning is the allegations of getting money from Russian.

As for a resurgence of the nazi horror: their leader is in a mixed race lesbian relationship.

When people say "far right," they mean "authoritarian right," not "fringe right."

Just because authoritarianism has emerged from the fringes doesn't make it any less authoritarian.

The Nazi party got 37% of votes nationwide (not just in one state).

Getting a lot of votes does not mean a party is not far-right. Germans of all people know that.

I have a feeling that the majority of AFD voters simply want some kind of change and action on what they are seeing happen in Germany. I'm definitely not one of them, (and being an auslander myself I have skin in this game) -- this is a failure of the other parties more than it's a victory for AFD. But then again, that's all it takes really.

Fascists inherently do not care why people voted for them.

If you're a foreigner who's rooting for the fascists, you're an idiot. They want to deport you.

? What did I say that gave that opinion? Of course I'm not rooting for the fascists...

This isn't really news. Media has been calling anyone which does not align with their views as far right for more than a decade.

question, what has the "wayland political bros" actually done except say its a waste of time?

- Removed and blacklisted it from the Arch Linux Wiki, Arch repos, The Debian repos and a bunch of other distributions as well to start out with, blacklisting the developer from the FreeDesktop

removing him from freedesktop is probably okay, and the distributions can of course do what they want, but blocking from the wikis seems inapropriate

how does it need systemd? also, you could continue using alsa using the wrapper, or you could use pipewire

and the thieves got away

i think its reasonable that people who sell computer monitors also demand you purchase a computer or other output device from them. Why do you feel differently here? after all, a computer monitor needs a computer or other output device to work, no?

Sure and whoever sells the monitor can sell it in a bundle like that, people will just stop buying their monitor and buy the competition's instead

You can do that with software, too. It just turns out that there's more people who want to bundle their software

In fact, this is what happens in the case of laptop displays

except when you for example buy a spare part, which I know some people hate having the ability to do, but some of us actually appreciate

You are comparing apples and oranges.

At highway speed, yes. But it's mostly cities where the complaints are. And at sane city speeds engine noise predominates.

And at highway speed the exceptions like Harley's and glass-packs and high rpm super cars are the problem. It's not the steady whoosh of tire noise that wakes you up in the middle of the night.

Not at 30-50km/h, the noise from engines revving from traffic lights overpower the constant tyre rolling noise.

> motorcycles etc make more

Often by design (either the manufacturer or the rider swapping to a louder exhaust) there isn't any reason they can't be quieter and many of them are off the forecourt.

The common argument you run into why people make them loud is its for "safety" but that's always felt like a thin excuse to justify "hey, look at me!" loud exhausts.

Yes, I've owned motorcycles, I commuted using one to work for years, no it been "quiet" didn't make it any less safe.

I do occasionally think about getting another one but the animus simply isn't there any more, I think if I needed transport these days I'd just get a car, for commuting a motorcycle was brilliant (it's legal in the UK to lane split which in heavy rush hour traffic is a real time saver) and they are cheaper to run but in every other way it was strictly worse than a car.

I don't have a link but I recall that someone did a study that revealed that there was no safety improvement from loud exhaust and the only way to improve motorcycle safety was increasing visibility with high-visibility vests.

In my state there are no helmet laws so I always find it amusing that the "loud pipes save lives" crew are the same who wear no helmets or any other protective gear.

> In my state there are no helmet laws.

I still find that one wild.

When I commuted I wore full high viz motorcycle specific textiles (jacket/trousers), proper boots and a helmet with the highest safety rating (on the SHARP system), as with everything in life you can mitigate the risk (in the case of a motorcyle by riding sensibly and appropriate equipment), you can't remove it and riding a motorcycle is inherently more risky compared to other forms of commuting not least because you are sharing the road with much bigger/much heavier vehicles and you are rare enough that a lot of drivers just don't consider Motorcyles - hell one of our road safety campaigns literally had the slogan "Think! Bike".

Never had an off (riding on the road, many times offroad but that's different), had two near misses - one was sand/crap on the road and the front end started to go and the other was a lady pulling straight out into the road from a blind exit (literally a hole in the wall completely blocking her view), I'd gone past that many times on the way home from work and I always slowed down because I'd flagged it as a "yeah, that's just dangerous" so I had time to stop just, she was very apologetic but that wouldn't have helped me much after I'd ploughed into and over her car.

I enjoyed riding motorcycles but they were always fundamentally a tool to me to get from A to B, my friends who ride strictly for pleasure and much less safely have way more crashes (in one case one of them wrote off two bikes in six weeks...).

I disagree with the way they ride and didn't ride with them even when I had a bike, there are literally track days for that stuff, keep it off the public highway where you risk hurting other people for your "fun".