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Thank you for that breakdown. I’m a big fan of Firefox, but have been aware of there being issues with Mozilla for some time now (albeit from the periphery). I figured when these cases came against Google, that even though I generally supported the breakup of the monopoly, I knew that a story like this one would eventually land.

If Mozilla is indeed burning money instead of putting the majority of it towards Firefox and, to a lesser extent, Thunderbird, then yeah, they’re going to need to reassess their budget and where to allocate their assets as without big moneybags Google forking over the funds, it’d be within their best interests to really invest hard into making their browser better.

Thanks again.

Just out of curiosity, where does the 20% estimate come from?

I’ll push back a bit on this, though I generally agree with you. I’ve only worked for a small startup as my career in tech is still in its infancy, but in previous roles I’ve had in other industries, this cult like aspect of corporatism pervades to varying degrees.

That said, when I first started socializing and networking with those involved in the tech sector, I noticed that there definitely is a subsection of the tech industry predominated by those who, in my view, took the concept of "There’s God In The Machine” thing way too far.

This subsection seems to be mainly populated by those who have only a passing understanding of the tech itself and don’t actually write the code or architect the software. This subsection also seems to be populated by those who can code and do architect the software, but appear to me to have a selfish and shortsighted mindset reminiscent of stock traders and crypto bros, communities for which I personally have a particular disdain.

This obsession and claim that tech can do anything from save the world to destroy the planet is very dangerous as it is a perceived pseudo reality that many people, both with power and not, seem to be desperately trying to make real (mainly fueld by a fear of the future and a desire to have some semblence of control over it through power mongering and vacuuming up influence in the present).

And this problem of progress for its own sake with some ambiguous “tech will save us” mindset is only recently exacerbated by the claim that these chatbots are AI (IMHO making a mockery of the term, intelligence).

Additionally, among this subsection, there seems to be an almost ravenous push for AGI, which, whether a boon or blight on future generations of humanity, they tend to argue is an inevitable outcome because technological and economic progress can never be nor should be slowed or halted.

I have definitely encountered this sort of “progress at all cost” mindset in other industries, but never have I seen it so vehemently defended among a not insignificant subsection of an entire economic sector (tech). And I’d imagine it is particularly pronounced in the major FAANG companies.

If you follow Ed Zitron’s other work, his recent articles and podcast episodes highlight a sort of “Villain of The Week” format, and so I don’t think it’s lost on him that this problem is not solely the purview of Microsoft, but rather is an indicator of a larger societal problem.

Indeed the issue Zitron is highlighting here is simply the newest incarnation of the strange cultish mantle that the Tech Industry can and has taken on in recent memory. The topic of Tech Work as Religion/Cult is thoroughly explored in the 2022 book, Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley, by Carolyn Chen.

Install the LibRedirect extension and fiddle a bit with the settings to automatically redirect to privacy respecting alternatives away from ad heavy sites.

Well, they produced Oxenfree 2 which was a welcome sequel that I enjoyed. But other than that, I didn’t really hear about anything else from them.

To be fair. I get where they’re coming from. Some people simply don’t want to take the time to learn the Linux command line nor learn how to utilize the tool, balena etcher.

That said, if one says “Is there a way to simply install a Linux OS”, I usually assume said person has at least a passing familiarity with burning an ISO as that is the bare minimum knowledge for starting the Linux installation process.

Hence my assumption that they were familiar with said tools when they asked the question.

I meant a workstation OS. Or any Linux OS that’s not locked to a corporate account and probably filled with spyware.

Yes, though I have not tried to utilize this:

https://github.com/Quill-OS/quill

I don’t even understand the first sentence of these instructions. “Mount the device” followed by a bunch of seemingly random letters and characters. Mount it on what? What do I do with these?

These instructions require a very basic understanding of the Linux command line and file system. As does installing a Linux OS without a GUI helper.

The Kobo EReader is already a Linux machine.

As far as bypassing the sign up, here are my quick notes on how to do so step by step.

1. Buy a Kobo EReader.

2. Hack the EReader so you don’t have to sign up with Walmart.

3. Install Calibre on your PC.

4. Install Kobo Driver Extension for Calibre.

5. Use a VPN (I prefer Mullvad), and go to your favorite Book piracy website for epubs.

6. Download epub books.

7. Connect Kobo device to your PC via USB.

8. Use Calibre to upload epub books to Kobo.

9. Disconnect Kobo from PC.

10. Profit.

Librewolf and Duckduckgo Lite.

Yes DDG Bangs are a great fast way of getting around the web. Works really well with LibRedirect. Here’s a Full List of DDG Bangs.

IIRC, other Cloud providers like Digital Ocean and Linode provide S3 storage solutions that have a flat fee for a certain GB amount of storage.

Oh yeah, here’s Some More News on that.

“You will not replace us!” shouted the white supremacists after centuries of erasing a multitude of other cultures, histories, and societies.

I don’t need a device to doomscroll. I can step outside and simply bear witness to the world around me. Wherever I go, the doom is ever present.

We need you Lina Khan. We need you, but stronger, faster, better. Let’s fucking go.

Damn…this looks really good actually. I’m sad to day I never heard of cohost until now. But I’ll admit I just identify with the founder’s sentiments around the tech industry, and their strict adherence to moral values around how a platform like that should interact with their users. I wish their developers all the best in looking for new work.

I’ll second this request. I prefer to get software through FDroid when possible. I use Stealth in combo with Libreddit currently, but this has a nice UI.

Can you recommend me more than a few hardcore leftist content creators exclusively releasing content on Odyssee?

This. Google is pushing MV3 to single out and neuter the more robust and customizable ad blockers, like uBO. They’re trying to appease their advertising investors by force feeding ads to you and they’re plugging the leaks/workarounds savvy developers have created to block them.

If Firefox ever gets popular enough, what do you wanna bet money bags Google, their primary monetary contributor, will put a condition on the next round of funding that they stop support for MV2?

Stay small and crazy customizable Firefox.