[HN Gopher] Using computers more freely and safely (2023)
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       Using computers more freely and safely (2023)
        
       Author : surprisetalk
       Score  : 57 points
       Date   : 2025-06-13 17:27 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (akkartik.name)
 (TXT) w3m dump (akkartik.name)
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | Original discussion (67 comments)
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36113115
        
       | rpdillon wrote:
       | This approach has been my central philosophy for years, and is
       | why I dislike central app stores so much: they put significant
       | downward pressure on hobby coders releasing their work, which
       | leaves the store with a bunch of primarily commercial software,
       | which aligns incentives around extracting data or money from
       | users. F-Droid is a great counter-example that highlights this.
       | 
       | I think my decisions have panned out pretty well, in a
       | /r/stallmanwasright sort of way. I caught a lot of side glances
       | for using Linux back in the late 90s and early 00s (I wanted to
       | load it onto some computers on LHD-4 during my tour aboard, but
       | the command said it was a "hacker" operating system), but these
       | days, looking at what Apple and Microsoft are doing, I'm thrilled
       | to be using System76 machines for me and my kids.
       | 
       | Emacs has been a consistent friend over the years, and I still go
       | back to it for anything text-centric. It's made the transition to
       | the LLM-era quite gracefully. Tiddlywiki has also been a reliable
       | source of value over the years.
       | 
       | I tend to not install apps for sites on my phones. They offer
       | less control than a browser I can add uBlock to and just visit
       | the site. Not always (I use the Amazon app, for example), but
       | mostly.
       | 
       | In general, I've cultivated an attitude of reverse-entitlement:
       | sometimes I really want things, but I have to stay real with
       | myself that I don't need them. Some examples that folks will
       | probably argue with, but are good illustrations of the idea:
       | 
       | I'm a huge fan of VR, and have had amazing times in Beat Saber
       | and a few other games. I bought Quest and Quest 2, but when Meta
       | locked me out due to a SNAFU with the Oculus/FB account mess up,
       | and I was unable to file a ticket to get the account unlocked
       | (because I couldn't log in), I lost $1000 in hardware and a
       | couple thousand in VR software, but I just walked away. I realize
       | the relationship was abusive, and that I didn't need Meta in my
       | life. That was 2 years ago, and I still miss Beat Saber, but it
       | was a good decision.
       | 
       | I had a LinkedIn account, and gave my name and email when I
       | signed up. When my phone fried and I didn't have backup MFA, they
       | demanded my state-issued ID to let me back in (rather than, say,
       | verifying by email). I don't trust MS with my ID - they said they
       | would delete it, but I didn't believe them (prior data breaches
       | at ID vendors motivated me). But more importantly, it was an
       | escalation: they didn't verify my identity when I signed up. So
       | they should be trying to confirm that I'm the person who signed
       | up. But they instead wanted me to verify I'm rpdillon, which is
       | moving the goalposts. They're doing it as a transparent data
       | grab. So I walked away. That was a few years ago; turns out I
       | don't need LinkedIn!
       | 
       | There are probably dozens of examples like this, but I'll stop
       | here, since this is already too long.
       | 
       | My core point here is: it turns out I don't need most of the
       | stuff these companies offer, and they do seem to be getting
       | increasingly abusive. I read about the WebRTC backdoor in Meta's
       | apps last night, but I quit Facebook in 2009, because the writing
       | was on the wall. I think the article offers a good perspective.
       | This is quite at adds with opinions I read here all the time
       | ("Libreoffice is a useless replacement for Excel", "It's
       | literally impossible to program unless I have my liquid retina
       | display", "Unless I'm rendering at 144Hz, it's like a slideshow",
       | etc.), so it might be a _highly_ individual thing, but I thought
       | it was worth mentioning, since it might be a fun discussion about
       | how folks think of these tradeoffs.
        
       | jay_kyburz wrote:
       | Upvote for Love and Lua!
        
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