Ya it’d be better if it didn’t require a phone number but it’s a solid start as it’s build up a user base over the past decade. Matrix is good but I know far less people that use it and it’ll be a long time of growing with nerdy/geeky communities before it starts getting more mainstream users

It’s a slow grind for adoption. I’ve had Signal installed on my phone since like 2016. Went from one person I knew to now about ~30. It’s mostly people from work at tech companies but progressively I’ve noticed other industries employees adopting it for unofficial chat that my contacts list has been growing over the years. Probably won’t take off in a few years. Maybe another decade

I’m pretty satisfied as a subscriber. Slowly using proton mail for more and more important accounts. Constant usage of the VPN. Trying to use the calendar more but still haven’t broken my Google Calendar habits. Proton Drive I use over google; I just need a Linux desktop application. Proton pass, still haven’t given that a go. Comfortable with KeepassXC and managing the backups myself. Proton Docs, it’s OK. Solid start. Hoping that notes partnership/acquisition eventually replaces Google Keep for me as a cloud notes application. I have pretty strong confidence now in the company regardless of the slow Linux developments

I always find these articles being so popular in western social media weird and subtly braggy. It’s like the Lyndon Johnson quote about about making white feel better than black people so you can rob them of whatever. Such a distraction that makes people feel like we’re better than them/at least we’re not them. Yet pretty much every trend I’ve seen about Chinese ennui was at the time true of Americans and western Europeans just articles being written about the ennui would not be mainstream for a couple more years. Like minimalism during the financial crisis or recently quiet-quitting in the US were celebrated in US social media as great workers movements that are positive social movements and a sign of cultural strength while lying flat in China in US social media is a sign of societal decline. Whatever either is, it’s the same shit. It’s always weird exoticism to me. You don’t get popular articles about youth expectations about young people in Romania or Greece

Economic sanctions exist just to make the people suffer and hopefully cause enough destabilization so that the ruling class capitulates to whatever demands. I plain don’t like economic sanctions. I consider it a form of terrorism and one the pillars of modern imperialism

I’ve subbed a few times over the years. Usually one off summer months when I want to game but don’t want to turn on a really hot PC without AC. Or when they give some big deal for 6 months. It’s high quality and very responsive for me. Good to see a Steam Deck app. Going to check sometime if they do any limitations on Linux installations that aren’t detected as a Steam Deck

I at least have a core group of friends that use Signal and I keep Element installed on my phone and computers hoping someday more people move to that over the next decade

I’d have to read more to see if I had any faith in its potential, article paywalled for me.

In my experience with friends, family, and coworkers when people show me crazy loony shit, it’s a YouTube video or a podcast. YouTube was always the #1 crackpot incubator but I think podcasts have passed up Facebook at #2. I don’t know what goes on in the lands of twitch.tv and if that gets categorized as social media and does it even matter since you don’t need an account to view

For a while I thought of Reddit as regularly trading position with 4chan as an anglosphere mass shooter’s favorite social media

Not long ago I finally saw clips of early 2000s Alex Jones 9/11 conspiracy vids. They were like the crazy stuff you’d see a coworker going off their rocker would start showing people on YouTube. I think I’d expect crackpot peddlers to adapt faster than government regulators for how they reach mass audiences

Before people just used chegg at least for math homework. Ai chat bots are quicker and can write papers but cheating has been pervasive since everyone once laptops became standard college student attire. Also the move to mandatory online homework with $200 access codes. Digitize classwork to cut costs for the university while raise costs on students. Students are going to use tools available to manage.

This eras, “you won’t have a calculator everywhere you go”

Waydroid is very close to greatness. My major hope there is Valve contributions to Waydroid for probable Steam Deck integration will make it incredibly seamless. There’s also the Android Translation Layer being developed

https://gitlab.com/android_translation_layer/android_translation_layer

Anything closer to supporting regular Linux applications the better. Though I’d expect anything like this to just be Android with well funded alternatives to Google applications/services. Whatever happens will be good for non-Google/Apple/Microsoft directed platforms

More and more people just need to switch to Linux and grow the userbase so more and more proprietary software create Linux builds just like how Maya and Davinci Resolve are available for Linux. If your computer is a web browser, you should be on Linux. Firefox, Chrome, Edge are all on Linux

If you’re a casual photo editor, Darktable. A casual photo editor can probably be well served with GIMP or Krita. If you’re a web browser and digital painter Krita. If you edit videos, Davinci Resolve and Kdenlive. Office - OnlyOffice, Libre office, WPS Office