Libb

Simplified and with a lot of user power and user freedom abdicated to a few companies, or to a few groups of developers working together, in order to make things much simpler and much more optimised for the average user.

I mean, suffice to see how often people can be completely lost when they’re asked to decide between clicking either the OK or the Cancel button, or use a simple drop down menu, or decide if they should even be bothered with their privacy at all when using any app as long as it is free and shiny… As it is, Linux stands no-chance against that with its many quirks, workarounds, with its sudo pacman -s or sudo apt install, and with its focus on freedom and privacy. No matter how excellent those tools can be, and no matter how important freedom and privacy should be.

As a non-US user myself, beside the lack of participation on Lemmy, I think the kind of replies and the instant escalation to this comment, in this very thread is a great example of why Lemmy can suck, hard.

The world, exactly like the Internet, does not end at the US borders.

And yep, even though many US citizens seem to be on the verge of slicing each other throats, it doesn’t mean the rest of the world should behave the same. Lemmy users should still be able to discuss freely even between people of varying opinions, or even of completely opposite opinions.

Unfortunately, calling police in America may put you in danger. It’s one of the many, many reasons I’ve left. I don’t think people quite understand what it does until they’ve lived in other, safer places.

That is not how the system is supposed to work. I never went to the USA and probably never will (there are a lot of reasons and people that would make me want to go mind you, but there are also way too many things I’m just not OK with). So, like I said I really can’t tell but if that is like you say, that’s very problematic.

I mean, there must be some legal authority to call for help. Self-defence, adding violence to already too much violence, can’t be the only solution a State has to offer to threatened citizens. If that was, what use would there be in such a State?

Real Marseille soap (savon de Marseille, as we say here in France) is a great 100% natural soap that is not agressive to the skin. But beware if you try to buy some, as there is a vast majority of cheap knock-off edit: that aren’t Marseille soap at all.

I don’t know how things go in the USA but in my country if anyone was to threaten to kill me, like a real threat not some shit talk, I would call the police and they would deal with that. Even more so if I told them I have a disability of some sort and can’t defend myself.

Also, you need to contact a social assistance office, or whatever you may have like that in your town/region/state, because you need to get away from them and be able to sustain yourself. A change that will most certainly take a lot of your energy and focus — one more reason to let the police deal with the death threat.

And in the walking vein, good shoes are essential. If you can’t afford new shoes then good insoles are the next best thing

100%. And I should have mentioned it as, back when I started to walk daily, I almost gave up because of the shit shoes I was using. They were hurting my feet and my back and they were reducing my endurance, like really. Investing in decent shoes (and orthopaedic insoles made for my feet) changed everything. I probably would never have started walking as much as I do without those. Money very well spend, in both case.

I don’t care about making money with my hobbies, I do them to help me feel better and have some good time. As a whole we’re all already way too focused on making money, at least that’s what I think.

• Long walks. Daily. This is the (second) best change I ever made into my life. I would encourage anyone, even more anyone that is like I was (in a very bad physical and mental shape) to give steady walks a go. Start small but don’t give up even though It’s hard to begin with, and slowly increase the distance you walk and your steadiness. It’s so much worth it. I was a potato couch but nowadays I could not not go out for a few miles walk at least once a day (as much as possible I’ll go everywhere I can by walking instead of using any mean of transportation). It also helps in the head, immensely as far as I’m concerned.
• Writing &
• Reading. Reading and writing should never go without the other as far as I’m concerned. Read (like you write) widely, don’t be afraid to read stuff you don’t normally read, or stuff/author you don’t like (there is a lot to be learned when confronting your own thought to those of people you don’t agree with), or read unpopular stuff.
• Sketching/painting. I’m not an artist, I don’t care I just enjoy doing it. I try to do more of that outdoor, while I’m out walking)
• DIY, making stuff with my hands (book binding, woodworking,… those come and go along the years) & also
• Fixing stuff. Reducing the amount of waste we create by making our stuff last a little longer.
• I had to quit model making, but I liked that a lot.
• Music.

Shower & soap (savon de Marseille) with a washcloth thingy that is not too soft. Natural deodorant (pierre d’alun). End of the process.

Unless one should also consider making faces in front of the mirror part of the daily routine, say while one is shaving or brushing one’s teeth? Asking for a friend that, quite obviously, is not as adult and as serious as I am.

iPhone SE. I would use a smaller model of iPhone, if there was one. I need a phone I can easily take with me, not some aircraft-carrier sized high-tech device ;)

I think it’s already very hard to change our own habits. I would not hope to change other people’s own habits.

I would like Lemmy to grow if only for one reason: I don’t care being part of any niche (no more than I care being part of not highly popular communities, mind you). I enjoy exchanging ideas and chatting with interesting people much more than I need to feel ‘smart’ myself because of the tools I’m using and for any chat to happen one first have to meet people. So, the bigger Lemmy, the better for me ;)

I joined Lemmy/I left reddit only because I realised I was not OK with the way reddit changed policy (the way they control our content) and because I was not happy in the way they made their website evolve. That said, I do miss the few subs I was following and participating in on Reddit. I miss them a lot, as they were/are often very interesting and rich… of their participants.

Can Lemmy become comparable? I don’t know, I have some doubts but I also have very little intention to come back to Reddit, at least not until they change a few things.

After I announced I would not be posting on those subs anymore, a few months ago, two people contacted me to tell me that would be some kind of a loss and they were sad to see me go, asking me to reconsider. As far as I know, none have created an account here on Lemmy so we could keep on discussing stuff. Of course, I can’t be sure of that but to be 100% honest the opposite would have surprised me a lot more. I had the same lack of reaction a few years ago when I quit Twitter and the likes. That’s fine.

Changing habits is hard. Even more so online, I reckon.

Taxes. They have an incredible talent to raise new taxes.

And, more seriously, like already mentioned in another comment: destroying public services. which is a real sad thing to see happening, if you ask me.

100% with you.

I’m 50+, I’m not a geek and for the last 35 years or so I mostly was an happy Apple customer/user (I only used Windows for a couple games and, recently, on a PC laptop). I was happy using Apple and even earned decent money doing so but, a few years ago, I grew tired of seeing Apple acting like a dick — more and more greenwashing while at the same time making it impossible to upgrade or fix hardware, and then they released the turdiest keyboard ever created on this planet (yep, looking at you Butterfly keyboard) and insisted on using it for years, despite so many of us complaining. So, I decided it was time to try something else. Windows did not impress me much. Then, I tried Linux and was so impressed how simple it was to use (I don’t do fancy stuff on my computer, I write) and how I could (more or less simply, but quite often it’s simple) tweak it to do exactly what I wanted, and how nice it was to run even on very old hardware (making for less e-waste, which is a good thing), I was sold. Plus, I won’t lie, the whole freedom and privacy considerations, the GNU philosophy, were becoming an important factor too as I realized how we were increasingly deprived of those.

I still own a Mac today but, unless there is some kind of revolution at Apple’s HQ, I don’t see myself buying a new Mac after this one dies of old age. My main computer is now my Linux machine. I keep the Mac out of laziness and habits… Also because I would miss one specific app: Scrivener, a writing app I’ve been using probably for the last 15 years, if not more. And, yep, I’ve tried many alternatives available under Linux and they don’t cut it for me.

Setting up a new laptop - How do I get around needing a Microsoft account?

I use Linux. Not trolling, it’s just what I decided to do so I could avoid Microsoft spying craziness… and their bloatware, too.

If Linux is not an option for you, maybe an utility like Win11Debloat could help you use Windows whiled minimizing (removing?) all the spying and bloat? https://github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat

Intolerance.

Aka, the lack of willingness to understand one another — I mean, the ability to discuss and work together toward a common goal, even with people we (deeply) disagree with — and the hostility towards whatever dares being/liking/talking/thinking different.

This is a not only a sad dead-end, imho this is also the very end of any society and of any civilization when the only other persons we can tolerate around us are exact copies of ourselves. People behaving, dressing, talking and thinking exactly like we do — or like we want them to.

This frightens me way much than anything else because I see no way to escape it and, even more terrifying to me, I see no place anywhere where one could escape it. Intolerance is growing everywhere, and it’s growing fast.

Would also require seller to fill many tax and vat forms (one per country they sell products into). And it may very well not be worth the effort.

It’s all about choice. And choice, aka diversity, is great.

It’s like not having to eat a banana if you don’t like them and having the ability to grow the fruit you would love the most instead. That’s also why I’ve now (in the last 5 or 6 years) mostly switched from Mac to GNU/Linux. This Mac Mac Studio I’m writing on right now is the last Mac I own and I see very little chance for it to be replaced by a newer Mac when time comes to replace it. I like the freedom of choice and to do what the funk I fancy on my computer. Not just what some designer at Cupertino (or some wannabe designer, at Redmond) decided I should be permitted to do.

Also, where is the standard between incompatible different macOS versions or different versions of Windows? Or between incompatible versions of the same apps running on those systems? I’m not saying it’s wrong, nor that it’s great, just that we should not neglect all those ‘standardization issues’ that exist in every single system. Marketing should not be blindly trusted — Imho, marketing should never be trusted, and not even listened to but that’s just me deeply allergic to bullshit ;)

I was still a kid when my dad brought home a brand new Apple II. Before that computer appeared in his home office (and in my live, as I used that Apple so much more than he ever did ;)), I learned to type on my granddad’s typewriter.

100%.

The same reason I care about a working democracy. You can’t have one without the other.

Less people using public libraries (and reading books to learn stuff) around me because 'who needs to read books when there is everything on the Internet and I can Google anything’?

And, at least as saddening and frightening to me, seeing more and more people willing to censor whatever book, author, or idea, they hate or even they just don’t agree with (most often, without even reading it). It’s even worse when I see librarians supporting that — it doesn’t matter how ‘good’ their motivation is, censorship’s only success is in the promotion of stupid ideas (if not of sheer ignorance), hate and fear.