I’m an old head, having daily-driven Linux since 2012, and so far it’s been great. And the current pathetic state of Windows further reinforces my resolve to not go back to running that OS, or when or if I do end up running it, only doing so in a VM or on a secondary machine.

Due to the downward spiral Windows is going on right now, it ain’t touching baremetal on my main system, and that includes LTSC. I genuinely do not trust Windows outside of a VM or burner box.

So far Google services aren’t being mandated on the desktop like they increasingly are on phones, yet, at least.

WEI threatened to push that once already, plus Google trying, again, this time with an actual chance of success given the Win10 EOL combined with the dumpster fire that Win11 is for the SKUs that normal people can legally access, to push Android to desktops in addition to mobile devices, certainly doesn’t help matters either, and if Google gets away with locking down Android successfully, that’ll probably embolden them to try to lock down the web at large with WEI again too.

Sebo stuff is also built really well too, or it better be given it’s commonly abused in commercial settings; think hotels and schools and the like, plus bypass designs like what Sebo typically uses mean sucking things up like coins won’t break your machine, vs. direct-air designs like what Kirby uses in which sucking up hard objects will break your machine.

Just buy a normal vacuum since those can still be used without web connectivity. Avoid anything made by TTI if you want your shit to last though. Also, avoid Kirby and Rainbow due to their scammy business model and extortionate pricing (seriously, quad figures for a vacuum is ridiculous even without the scammy business model).

Do you think IBM wouldn’t make Red Hat completely proprietary if they had the chance?

Adding to this, Google would make Android fully proprietary in a heartbeat if they could, given they’re already closing down more and more portions of the AOSP and trying to lock down app development and distribution as well.

And conceivably all it would take to turn Android fully proprietary ala Windows, is to hard-fork AOSP to keep the Lineage/Graphene/etc. users happy, and then rewrite main Android as closed-source.

Although, it’s kinda ironic that Windows, a fully closed environment, is less restrictive in terms of app dev and distribution, than Android, a supposedly semi-open environment, is. Like, MS isn’t mandating signed exes or trying to fully lock Windows into the MS Store, yet, while Google is trying to mandate signed APKs and also trying to lock Android into the Play Store.

And before anyone says, ‘But SmartScreen,’ unless that option is specifically disabled, you can just run unsigned exes by clicking ‘Run anyway’ still, Android doesn’t have a ‘Run anyway’ equivalent option AFAIK.

That won’t be of much good should Tor or I2P get taken down too, and a major Tor exit node operator recently getting arrested doesn’t spell anything good on that end.

Matrix, also PeerSuite if you don’t wanna leave a paper trail as PeerSuite discards your sessions by default.