I’m not saying my setup is any better, but it currently looks like this:

• Firefox
• UBO
• SponsorBlock
• Return YouTube Dislikes
• DeArrow
• Archive.ph

I’m open to suggestions if anybody knows any better alternatives. I’ve had mixed luck with services that filter out YouTube’s crap.

Ah, yes, Ventoy, my favorite “open source” program. https://github.com/ventoy/Ventoy/issues/2795

Yup. Programmers who have only ever been programmers tend to act like god’s gift to this world.

Fair enough, I respect that.

I don’t think that necessarily means your data will be deleted and not used to train their LLMs, though.

Out of genuine curiosity, what is it missing? I have to use macOS on my Apple Silicon computers, so I haven’t tried out Asahi.

I think you’re partially right, at least, based off my personal experiences.

My wife who despises Windows is primarily a macOS user, but she’s fine with using Linux, assuming I’ve setup anything “technical” beforehand.

However, I think complacency will continue to thrive for Windows-only users. I think there’s only a small vocal minority that is switching from Windows to Linux. Most of the people I work with continue to use and complain about Windows, but are too intimidated by Linux to switch. I think the average Joe doesn’t even know Linux exists.

I appreciate your well-thought response. I’ll give you my 2¢ and I want to preface what I’m about to say with the idea that this not a hill I’m willing to die on, it’s just my personal experience.

On the contrary, I have accidentally ran into a number of people online saying “I’m so happy with the performance of my Linux box” but less so for Windows, but that’s likely due to the communities I’m a part of. I also made my original comment with specific, stubborn people I know in real life, who hate Windows and refuse to do anything about it.

The time you’ve seemingly spent configuring Windows sounds like the same amount of time an average Linux user would spend to setup theirs. I also use Windows, macOS, and Linux daily and have all kinds of weird issues on all 3 of them, but for Windows, since everything is closed source, there’s often nothing I can do about those issues other than wait for an update and hope those issues are fixed. The same goes for macOS but the number of issues I have with it are very minimal in comparison. But at the end of the day, if this setup makes you happy, then I’m happy to hear it.

This would be a lot more accurate if Windows users weren’t constantly complaining about Windows.

“Tall, dark, bad boy with power” = Darth Vader

I’m surprised that Facebook consistently ranks higher than Snapchat on these charts. I thought younger generations considered Facebook to be for “old people” for just about 7 years now.

The rule of any article asking asking a question in its title is that the answer is always no.

I use Pop!_OS on 2 machines daily with KDE Plasma and am happy with it. I use KDE Plasma because COSMIC is too GNOME-y for me. The only thing I liked better in COSMIC was the fractional scaling- that was way better than the options I have in KDE.

If you’re using a device or network-wide ad-blocker like I do, then you won’t see them. When I try to use Waze on somebody else’s phone, the ads are unbearable.

https://archive.is/FJgF

EDIT: I read the OP and now realize what you mean. I’ll keep this here anyway.

I agree that Linux Mint is closer to what the vocal Linux desktop community would like to see, but Ubuntu is anything but abandoned. Where I work, both my coworkers (excluding myself) and customers are either using RHEL or Ubuntu. That’s it. Sure, everyone on Lemmy and Reddit swears against Ubuntu and has no need for plain-RHEL, but a lot more of the non-vocal Linux community is using Ubuntu. I prefer Pop!_OS, but that’s besides the point.

Source: Ubuntu is anywhere between 4th and 6th place on these charts:

https://distrowatch.com/dwres-mobile.php?resource=popularity

And it has come a long way too. In fact, I just donated since it’s struck me how solid of an experience it’s been.

I love this graphic because it’s a reminder to self-proclaimed “gamers” that mobile gaming has been doing laps around “real” gaming for over half a decade now, with no indication of the trend changing. Yes, mobile games are typically lower quality and more predatory, but it’s undeniable that the average person who plays video games now is just a regular person with a phone.

Again, if you’re already that far down the rabbit hole, anything that tells you, “No, you’re wrong” is going to upset you. That includes a shadow ban, explicit ban, or somebody just telling you that you’re wrong.

If you think I’m wrong and you think shadow bans especially push people towards being alt-right and believing conspiracy theories, then I’d love to see a study that says so because that’s what would likely convince me.