Toes

I don't even remember my numbers.

Most of my friends used aim or msn anyways

Ideally the internet would be provided with the same indifference as water and electricity. With no stipulations on how or why you're using it.

Yeah and abandon so much in the process.

Linux is wonderful and works plenty fine, but as a civilization we are not ready. There's still so much that won't work out of the box, for most manufacturers it's an after thought if any at all.

You can't walk into your avg store and be like I want a computer with Linux that will play fortnite.

You can't blindly buy a video game or a multifunctional printer without serious consideration.

Unlike Windows where it's the established norm that it will work 100% of the time.

Sure you can argue that a user should just learn to deal with that and teach themselves how to install Linux and cope with whatever comes up.

But that's just unfair to grandma and anyone else that hasn't made computers a hobby.

A devastating amount of computer hardware is about to be e-wasted because they decided to drop support for anything older than roughly 2017/2018.

It's an arbitrary limitation as people have succeeded in forcing it to work on much older hardware that still works well enough for your avg person.

Additionally, windows used to be a tool now it's a platform for them to essentially market any number of things and user privacy appears to be the least important thing on the table.

The only reason we don't see mass adoption of Linux has been 4 decades of software development and marketing that let's them continue to wear their crown.

A regulatory party needs to humble them and return windows to being a tool.

Imagine if the gasoline companies one day announced that they will be changing gas so only cars bought in the last 5 years or so could refuel.

Now imagine if to buy a car you had to tolerate cameras and other forms of tracking your telemetry just to get to work and feed yourself.

Lunacy yes? They took the "my" out of my computer.

I'm not too familiar with that side of things but I do believe they do. My understanding is that some organizations are set up as nonprofits and they contribute to the development of Linux.

Some European governments also use foss software for things like email and office.

But it's easier to throw darts at a big company than lots of small things that add up to something big.

It's not out of the realm of possibility. They have been known to force Microsoft to make changes in the past. As well as Apple and other major software companies.

Edit: Grammar

I really want to see the EU force Microsoft to release a stripped down version that continues to support older hardware.

Well, its not wrong.

I remember reading that android dropped support for risc-v. I wonder if they will reverse that choice.

"windows is shutting down..."

I paid around $300 for one of the first 2TB drives. Surprisingly it hasn't come that far

Yeah that's exactly what I was comparing it too.