Slutty Little Tramps

It’s a word that has become popular in general in the last year-ish. But if you hear it more here. It is likely because it is a term used to describe the dynamic that pushed people from Reddit and other platforms to Lemmy. So you will here it more here, since pretty much everyone here has been personally affected by it.

Basically we are a self selecting group of people who chose to leave (or minimize use of) big tech platforms. And are therefore much more likely to be aware of the problems with those platforms.

Considering that in this analogy you’d be asking the mugger to be your protector it is still unreasonable.

Particularly considering there are plenty of reputable and privacy respecting vpn providers

Yeah voluntarily using a VPN from Google (the largest tracking and Adtech company), is like voluntarily seeking out Mob “protection”

I think Konquerer is no longer actively maintained.

Fun fact (which you may already know) the two most popular browser engines today are based on KHTML)

Google is in the process of undermining the effectiveness of uBlock Origin and other adblockers on Chrome and other Chromium browsers. I believe that change comes into effect this year.

But even before those changes were announced, uBlock Origin’s creator and main dev has stated that uBO is most capable on Firefox.

I just wish that a free-speech-absolutist-billionaire would buy the platform so things like this wouldn’t happen anymore. He could even rename it something cool (like ‘Y’ or ‘Z’) to get some street-cred with edgy middleschoolers…

If you form your understanding on topics you don’t understand based on what “gatekeeping morons” think or do, you are going to be perpetually misinformed

You can use a second router and pass through the WAN. It’s a bit complicated to explain in a comment, but it’s also not too difficult. Is your ISP ATT?

NextDNS and pihole serve the same purpose and are redundant. Personally I prefer NextDNS but it wouldn’t make sense in ops meme

Pihole is a great project, but it is objectively less capable than uBlock Origin.

That is not a criticism of the software. It is just a fundamental fact that DNS based adblockers are less powerful, and less granular/precise than Browser based adblockers.

They do work well in combination though (the DNS level adblockers gives you moderately effective network wide blocking, and uBlock Origin gives you exceptional blocking but is limited to the browser.

Flatpak is not designed to solve all the same problems as snap they have very different scopes and goals. It’s really only Linux hobbyists that see these as comparable technologies.

Also the Steam flatpak is unofficial just like the snap, they would be unwilling to support flatpak issues as well.

Some of those alternative “YouTube” apps are not limited to YouTube as a backend/source of content. I don’t recall if it’s freetube, new pipe or both that allow using Peertube and YouTube from the same app, which helps bridge the gap in content / ease the transition from an end user perspective.

• Rattlesnake
• Sea Urchin
• Reindeer Hamburger
• Abalone
• Cricket
• Frog
• Alligator

What you are feeling is natural and relatable. You need to find a balance and define your threat model.

Privacy maximalism and/or FOSS maximalism etc is natural impulse when you first begin to grasp just how quietly exploitive, invasive, and commoditized the modern internet is. But it also leads to burnout and can be isolating if you are too rigid about it.

Define your threat model, and your priorities. Accept that perfection is not attainable and do the best you can. It’s less overwhelming.

My advice:

• pick ONE easy to use and well established/reputable messenger that is privacy respecting (Signal is the obvious choice in my eyes). Make it known that this is your preferred messenger (and have a short, not super technical and not super political explanation why you prefer it). Try to get the people you are closest with or communicate with most, and the people you think are most likely to be interested to start using it.
• Then, have a preferred fallback or two (basically the “least worst” mainstream option). Depending on your circle, iMessage, RCS, WhatsApp, or Telegram might be that fallback. None are anywhere near perfect but they also aren’t the worst and sometimes you have to meet people where they are.

I agree with your critique of both the algorithms today and the often relatively low-effort, unoriginal, self-interested, and self-absorbed people that tend to rise to the top of these systems. (While still acknowledging there is a lot of great content as well)

I try my best not to let the Algos shape/direct my viewing.

With respect to YouTube, I:

• Disable the ‘front page’ and ‘trending’ category.
• Disable ‘auto play’
• find content in two ways: directly from a list of the channels I subscribe to, or by deliberately searching for something.

It’s certainly not a perfect approach, but it does a lot to focus my attention on things I actually care about and minimize the effect the algorithm has on what I see or view.

Yeah the fact that OP calls systemd “new” or even knows what systemd is makes me doubt the authenticity of the original post (or more likely I just misinterpreted the top post).

I read it as an excited new Linux user who “Doesn’t know how to use Debian” and is enthusiastic about MX Linux. But there is no way in hell someone who doesn’t know how to use Debian would have a preference for alternative unit systems and definitely wouldn’t be calling systemd new

I think Signal won’t leave unless they have to (have to meaning if the only alternative to leaving is to undermine user privacy/security which they will not do)

And if Signal has no other alternative than I can’t see how every other e2ee messenger wouldn’t also face the same difficult choice.

Edit: also what does exiting the EU actually mean? Like what would prevent you from just continuing to use the app?

Debian is far from difficult but it is certainly not as easy and beginner friendly to install as Ubuntu, Fedora, or Mint or any other mainstream distro (unless I’m using the wrong iso or something). Debian is a great intermediate distro, but I can’t feel comfortable recommending it to newbies until there is a proper beginner friendly guided install process.

I understand and respect the choice of some distros to not go the guided installer route and go with approaches that are more traditional, flexible, and better suited for more advanced users. And I don’t want to see these options go away. But I don’t recommend these distros to beginners unless they express interest in learning/DIY

If it works for you go for it. I don’t hear much about it, and haven’t encountered anyone using it. I know it is one of few Debian based distros that is based on Debian itself and not Ubuntu, that is about all I know about it.

What attracts you to it? What are its selling points and what makes it different from Debian? Do you know anything about the developers.