People are lazy and don’t think very much. Spotify is right there.

Also enshittification: it was better to draw people in, and then they made it shittier and people stay

I buy music (mostly from Bandcamp). Now I have a big library and no subscription fee.

Modern social networks are pretty trash, but I don’t have an iPhone so this is a non starter.

Even so, I’d rather just… text my friends.

Windows is pretty bad and their management are soulless husks.

They could rip out all the AI garbage and I wouldn’t trust that they learned anything. Fuck 'em.

Linux is free and meet all my needs.

You’d think more libertarian types would be more in favor of walkable cities, biking, and such.

Ars is weirdly pro-windows sometimes , in the comments. I don’t read them as much as I used to.

It’s hard to make a full judgment without knowing more details but “the pay is good and it’s easy” isn’t really a compelling justification for “and I help evil manifest in the world”.

I knew a guy who went to work for palantir a bunch of years ago. Was always friendly at work. I asked him “but what’re you going to do if they do bad stuff, like spying on people?”

He just shrugged. Didn’t care. The money was good.

I don’t know if this alone is proof that’s a bad person, but I think it precludes him from being a good one.

Yep. Infrastructure shouldn’t be privately owned.

Yes that is the legal justification. I am not interested in the legal justification. Laws are not inherently good. They were clearly paid less than their worth if there’s six figure payouts to be had here.

This is the fundamental injustice of capitalism. The owner pays you a small amount and keeps all the profits. A child would recognize that as unfair.

This feels like theft. Maybe not technically legally but the people who did the chatting aren’t getting the money. Capitalist hellscape

Microsoft is probably salivating at the idea of being the only legal OS provider.

If they won’t use signal or similar then they’re kind of shitty, but sometimes with friends and family that’s how it is.

People should stop using Facebook products.

I’ve never paid a subscription for YouTube. It’s been, what, like $10/mo for ten years? Can buy a lot of media drm free for that $1200.

I just saw a play that has a plot point about how someone gets robbed by some racist, well connected shits, and the police won’t do anything to help. The closest he gets to justice is vigilantism, where he hunts down and shoots 3 of his assailants dead. Only then does anyone start to listen to him, but when he agrees to talk peacefully they shoot him dead.

I’m not sure “the only way you’ll get justice is with your own bloody hands” was the author’s intent, but that seems to be the message.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do-gooder_derogation

Some people are very fragile and have poor emotional regulation. When they see other people doing good, it makes them feel bad, so they lash out.

Environmentalism, biking, veganism, all commonly evoke this behavior.

I switched to Linux a year or two ago. Pretty much every game I’ve played has worked fine. (Elden ring, guild wars 2, nioh2, pillars of eternity…)

Even non-steam stuff was basically click and go with Heroic launcher

Seriously, folks, how hard is it to just walk away?

I read recently that “will power” doesn’t meaningfully exist, but it’s rather the result of many other factors. That said, many people seem to be bankrupt of what one would call willpower. I don’t know why.

Maybe it’s the capitalist hell scape. Maybe it’s the plastic in our bodies. Maybe people are just largely social followers, and with a large enough contingent of idiots many people who would behave better follow down into the slop.

I’ve been using Linux with Nvidia for a few years now without any problems. I don’t play the most cutting edge stuff at high resolution, but like path of exile 2, elden ring, expedition 33 all ran just fine.