Your phone’s email app is a client, but I digress… I hate using the browser to access emails. I use many different email accounts with multiple email providers to compartmentalize my emails and avoid spam. I used Thunderbird for years before switching to Geary and now back to Thunderbird.

My first time trying to get my mother to switch from Windows to a Linux based OS wasn’t successful because there was too much friction and inconvenience for her, and she wasn’t willing to even entertain the idea of Linux for years after that. My second attempt was successful because Linux is much more user friendly than it used to be 13 years ago, and I changed my approach to make it as frictionless as possible.

Firefox just set to block 3rd party cookies + some basic extensions like adblocking and some easy privacy stuff is a good way to go about it, because it’s better than what she used previously and it doesn’t become inconvenient to her. She doesn’t know what an operating system is, or what cookies are… She just uses the computer to browse the web, emails, and light office work. She even says she prefers the current setup (though that’s because her old computer was chugging with Windows and runs smoothly now with a less bloated OS)

No need for noscript, deleting cookies, fingerprinting, or user agent stuff… Only introduce these to them if they express interest in privacy and are interested in learning more. If you try to thrust it upon them too suddenly they will just think “Linux isn’t a good user experience and is only good for tech enthusiasts and programmers”.

Apple is 61.26% according to this article. Have you found a more accurate source?

Probably because iOS is extremely dominant in North America, and iMessage is preinstalled on every iPhone. To talk to someone on WhatsApp or any other chat app, installing the app isn’t enough, but you also need the other person to have it. Since in North America’s most popular mobile OS is iOS, people don’t feel the need to install another app.

On Android on the other hand, Google didn’t enable RCS by default until 2023. RCS has existed before iMessage and even before WhatsApp, but it was poorly marketed. I, as a fairly tech savvy person, only heard about RCS in 2022 when headlines about it were flooding my feed.

Google is also partly to blame, since they had so many chat services that were available simultaneously and almost all of them were short-lived. Google Talk, Google+ Hangout, Google Hangout, Google Chat, Google Meet, Google Duo, and Google Allo. Not to mention the other chat apps that flooded the app store, like WhatsApp, Line (which is very dominant in Japan), Facebook messenger, Telegram…

Yeah, not surprised at all. I know many people for whom Facebook is 90% of their internet usage, and some people I know use the words ‘Facebook’ and ‘internet’ interchangeably. Personally, I deleted my account well over a decade ago.

I wonder if we could see how many new users each year (without bots), I’d wager their growth is pretty stagnant because they already have so many users that nearly every person has an account.

The smartphone market has matured, so there is less of a difference between each generation. Earlier on there was a massive difference in performance:

The OG Galaxy S had 512MB of RAM, 8GB storage, and a single Arm A8 core at 1GHz, and the SII had 1GB of RAM, 16GB/32GB storage, and a dual core A9 at 1.2GHz. This is a single generation with double the RAM and more than double CPU power, and nearly 6x the GPU power (theoretically), and 2-4 times the storage.

Then the SIII came out with a quad core SoC 1.4GHz, a much larger screen with higher resolution (jumping from 480p to 720p), significantly bigger battery, and up to 64GB of storage.

The S4 doubled the RAM to 2GB, faster storage, significantly faster and more efficient SoC, a larger, 1080p display paired with a much more powerful GPU, and a significantly larger battery as well.

Back then, if you had the money, there was a considerable difference between each generation and there was a reason to upgrade, many not every year, but if you could afford it, upgrading every other year made sense.

After that, changes were much more calm. Sure, some phone makers made exciting and innovative stuff, but the hardware didn’t have a massive difference from one generation to another, and also prices were rising.

Nowadays, phones are far less exciting, but flagship phones are ludicrously expensive, and yet they sell incredibly well. While phones are being improved from one generation to the next, they feel like small steps rather than a giant leap. Our demand for power hasn’t gone up quite as fast as our phones themselves. People will keep buying phones less frequently, just like we do for laptops.

Classic CNIDA…

As much as I want more people to use Linux and divorce from Microsoft, I don’t want to be someone’s tech support guy, I’ve done it as a teen and as a young adult; I never want to do it again. When my parents have trouble with their computer, they don’t call me, especially since I live in a different timezone and it gets inconvenient… they take it to a technician to get it sorted. If they take a Linux computer to a technician, they will likely just install windows on it and call it a day.

Orgzly is a great notes app. Zero complaints.

I love Retro Music Player, it’s almost perfect.

By dedicating a certain amount of time for things I enjoy while pretending that the world outside doesn’t exist. That time when I watch an anime, or read a book, or write fanfiction, or cook something delicious… that keeps me sane, it keeps me from falling back on my natural tendency to focus on all the bad things and ignore the good in the world.

You cannot allow yourself to be in that “constant stress” because it wears you down and grinds your sanity and willpower like a big belt sander.

That timeout revitalises me, and gives me the balance to deal with the stresses and worries about everything else.

Obviously there isn’t a silver bullet, and mindfulness is probably the best bet here.

Had something similar several years ago: prototype stopped working for some reason, one of the hardware engineers and I were troubleshooting on a second prototype, and we exploded a large capacitor… The rest of the team were not amused that we destroyed 2 out of 3 working prototypes within 10 minutes.

Exactly, there a bunch of really low hanging fruits that can mitigate most of the risk for non-techy people.

That’s what happens when executives don’t listen to IT…

The company I currently work for host everything at the building they own. The CEO doesn’t understand much about IT, but his attitude is “I trust your integrity and your expertise, so I’ll approve anything you ask me within reason if it will improve security and reliability.”

The problem is, using a computer is pretty much essential to function in this world, I actually know more people who would run any file sent to them without a second thought because they wouldn’t know better, but they still need to use a computer.

I think a better solution is to give better training to people about computer hygiene at the workplace.

Not to mention Dell’s atrocious customer service…

I’m not buying a Dell again, no matter how cool the design is.

Manjaro made me lose some hairs in frustration… Not for me.

Linux ≠ Linux Desktop

I’m aware, I was just explaining my experience back in 2007. It was like moving to a new country where things work differently and the attitude needed was very different from what I am used to.

Like I said, at the time I didn’t even know what open source meant and assumed that Linux is a product, and Ubuntu was the company that made it. I know better now, but back then I just saw it as a “replace Windows without spending money”. Also I was a teenager, and I would have pirated anything back then without a second thought even if it weren’t free.

Also, since Linux is so widely used by corporations, they fund its development, so I prefer to donate the small amounts of money I can to smaller projects.

I wasn’t satisfied with Windows Vista, but didn’t want to be forever stuck with XP, wasn’t going to buy a Mac because I didn’t want to spend a lot of money when I had a reasonable computer already… Found out about Linux and tried it. Funnily enough, I had used it for almost a year without actually knowing what open source meant, or what source is… I just saw it as “Ubuntu is free and isn’t Windows”.

Translators have gotten good enough so this should no longer be an issue, especially for a popular language like Spanish…