jjlinux

Wao, did you not read what I said? No app store is inherently safer or more dangerous than any other. They all require some level of trust, plus trust in the devs of the apps available on each store.

About freedom, nobody is taking anything away from you, other than Apple. Again, if you want to remain in their ecosystem exclusively, nobody is going to force you to use alternative app stores. However, your argument does go entirely against choice, the same choice you claim I am soiling with my comments.

We do agree on 1 thing, when someone buys an Apple product, there's a very good chance that they want that walled garden. Then there's those that did not buy from Apple, but had no option other than an iPhone, some of those I can guarantee that they hate being controlled by the company that manufactured what is supposed to be theirs.

If you can't do everything you want with what you bought and paid for, is it really yours?

I suggest that you look at the current status of technology in the world right now. You do not own your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Same with most Android devices and Windows computers. They force shit into the users, to the point that you will lose functionality if you were to disable most of what's in the devices.

Sure, Android is a bit more flexible, but other than GrapheneOS, CalyxOS or LineageOS, it's the same crap as iPhone, locking you to have apps forcibly, whether you like or use them or not. The only difference is that in Android you do have the ability to use other stores.

Enjoy your locked iPhone, and let those who want more choice just have the choice.

But this also happens in the official stores as well. While it does happen less in ios than in android, the fact remains that it happens in official stores ss much as I alternative stores, which makes this argument irrelevant at best.

Again, I can understand where you come from, but it's been proven, time and again, that using apps from the main app store (ios or Android, doesn't matter) is not inherently safer or more dangerous than getting apps from other stores. The problems are the apps not the stores. Additionally, I have yet to see any company, institution or organization publish apps exclusively in alternative app stores,which means that, as far as I'm aware, every app "needed" will be in the platforms own store, which means that nobody has to get an alternative app store if they don't want to.

These facts render your arguments to block giving owners of devices options completely invalid.

Yes, if you feel safer with the platforms' default stores, you're free to remain there and avoid anything else, as this is your device, and therefore your choice. But these arguments you bring take away CHOICE for absolutely no good reason.

You are missing the point. If you want to remain in the Apple infrastructure exclusively, nobody is forcing you not to. Those who want options will have them. So enjoy your walled garden all you want, and let each user decide if they want to keep being tools or not.

I have 2 numbers with them, no regrets. So far the service has been flawless (except where I have spotty data services or crappy wifi). Absolutely worth it.

I've been off of WhatsApp for about 7 years. My only communication options with everyone else are phone calls or Signal, and for those that will not use at least signal, we'll, you can always call me.

I have arcane chat, but only 1 friend of mine from church uses it with me.

Last windows I used was 10,and I've always found it lacking in the screen capture arena. Full disclosure, I had no idea Flameshot had a windows version.

Gnome has an extension called GSConnect which is their re-implementation of KDE Connect. I have in my tablet and phone, and it's flawless.

But don't change yet, give me until the weekend, I'll spin Fedora with KDE in my laptop, and come back with my experience with FlameShot.

No need to change if that's what you like and it ends up working.

Flameshot does require some tweaking to work anyway, so I'll need check if it's the same in KDE.

I honestly haven't tried on KDE, but I can give it a shot this coming weekend and report back. I'm up for a distro hopping round anyway.

But in Gnome, dual screens, it works like a charm, also on Wayland.

Absolutely. And they update pretty quickly when YouTube breaks something.

Yeah, but this is about self hosting and it's costs, so the comparison is relevant.

How are the Chinese data hoarders providing government your information to the government any worse than the US ones doing the same? VPNs are only a small part of the full arsenal needed for obfuscating your identity, and the nationality of any of them is irrelevant, as pretty much all governments are gathering data from them.

I don't trust Chinese VPNs, and I don't trust American VPNs, or Russian, or Israeli. I feel somewhat safer with Mullvad or Proton VPNs, and even then, they are worthless if you're relying only on VPNs.