Cool.

I really like Heliboard but Jesus does it suck at autocorrect and detecting what key I meant to hit. Gboard is a thousand times more accurate in these respects and so I default to Heliboard but I’ll occasionally switch to gboard if I have a lot to type and Heli is just wasting my time.

Is that actually your name? As in, גדליה? Juuuuust curious.

I buy slightly older phone in Lots. I clean them, test them and then I change them over to a ROM that runs nicely. Then I sell them at a modest markup. I’ve sold about like twenty so far in the past year and I have about forty waiting to be finished. Due to chronic illnesses I have, I often have weeks during which I can’t make any progress.

I know there are plenty of enthusiasts who would like to run a smoother OS that doesn’t spy on them or waste sys resources on bloatware, but oftentimes those people are afraid to do their own hack for concern they’ll mess up. That’s basically my customer base and I’ve been very happy to help get these devices to folks who want this experience.

I like crDroid, ResurrectionRemix, BlissOS, Lineage, Havoc, /e/, Iodé, and like a dozen others such as generic AOSP based etc. There are like a hundred. I just discovered SuperiorOS I put onto a Moto X4. Superior is quite an apropos name, it’s really sweet!

Samsung and Motorola are a smooth process (provided not restricted due to carrier or because it’s a prepay). Some LG are very good as well, but too many are not accommodating and also lots of them crap out. I do like my G4. I have about thirty devices I use somewhat regularly for this or that.

There are plenty brands, though, that I’ve not yet tried out.

I suppose. Hey to each their own. I personally toy with the other ROMs a lot but I don’t yet have anything running a custom brew that accesses anything very secure etc.

That’s not the single solution. You can put dozens of ROMs on dozens of other devices. I buy older devices at cheap prices and put custom ROMs on them and then sell them. It’s fairly lucrative; more so as time goes on. Plenty of people want this kind of privacy but don’t have the skills or confidence to modify their devices. Motorola and Samsung the most by far, but also LG and various others occasionally.

I’m gonna stick to pre-owned devices with alternate ROMs like Lineage, Cyanogen, RR, Havoc, Bliss, cr, Viper, AOSP, KP, ISP, etc. or any of the other hundred brews. I don’t anticipate getting a phone that runs android and is not able to be modified EVER. Eventually if the time comes that the tech changed so vastly that they’re not usable anymore (like 3G now) by then hopefully there will be full Linux phones or some other varieties. Maybe many.

But the thing is the mainstream masses just don’t give a shit. Their rights and liberties have been getting chewed away at for decades and they just can’t seem to care. As long as they are entertained enough and the culture like ours - ie geek subculture / hacking community continues to be mocked and vilified, they’re certainly not gonna listen to us.

But what’s new about that? Nada.

We are forever going to remain a fringe community and I just accept that. When a family member has Alexa devices and I show them all the analytics and tests and records from all the various sources that provide empirical evidence of constant surveillance and spying and uploading of eavesdropped audio and the folks just go eh oh well eh yeah but ah useful eh I have nothing to hide ehhh urrrgh … I start to see them with sunken eye sockets and protruding brow ridges. They are the fools and the suckers and the sheep. They’re the ones who will line up to be implanted with a chip, they’re the ones who will pay to have their brains mapped and catalogued. You can’t cure fucking stupid. Meanwhile people like us will remain the fringe “undesirables” as long as our hearts beat.

Aside from one desktop that still has Win 7 Pro on it for various reasons, and is almost entirely an internal server, every single system I use is Linux. Has been this way for at least a decade. My current laptop came with Winblows 11 but I booted first time straight into a Kubuntu flash drive to install it. Never even had to see that ugly ass Winblows.

I’ve got something running Pop, one running Debian, one has Elementary, I’ve got one with Bodhi, another with KDE Neon, one with Q4, and a variety of others.

Fuck Winblows the OS that is one giant virus.

Edit: oooh forgot my little guy running Kali. And also the dozen distros running in VMs on the Windows desktop.

Seriously, I don’t know if this is precisely accurate but definitely don’t spin down. Data errors, software problems if it has to wait for spin up and then something experiences a timeout.

I’ve had some drives spinning for like twenty years without any problems.

I have genuinely no idea how that could work

It couldn’t. It’s political showboating.

I have used Pop! which is basically Ubuntu but very polished and customized to enhance what’s already there. But as others said it’s not strictly a distro thing it’s Desktop Environment and also the graphics system I’m probably not using the right terminology. But Wayland is very good with touchscreen and I’ve read that X11 has some support as well (?).

You’re being logical. And you’re looking at the big picture. In budget allocated resources, they can only look at their own small box, and not think on a larger scale. Also, the people making these decisions are usually dimwits too.

I ate a clementine yesterday that ran Debian kernel lol. :-D yuks.

Well, then they hire based on paying the lowest, then yeah, you get amateurs who don’t know shit. Can’t tell you how many situations I’ve encountered in environments like government, educational, etc. facilities where I.T. is run by the cheapest labor available. And the net result is everything runs piecemeal and haphazardly. Oh, and the average user has WAY too much privilege because they have no idea how to properly restrict access. I see it often.

I’ve said on a few occasions when this subject came up about them closing off the ability to install whatever you want - the only reason Android has been what it is until now is because they needed an “in” to compete against iOS and Windows. Gaining a foothold was the priority, but now that they’re huge they can do what they’ve always wanted, to follow Apple’s example of mandatory middle-man.

It’s sickening. What people need to do is only buy second-hand and use devices that can be ROM-ed. I have a couple dozen that I tinker with and test stuff on. I also buy older models, put custom ROMs and Recovery and then sell them at a small premium, but I digress.

There’s only one way to get what you want as a consumer: unite and don’t buy.

In the current age, antitrust laws don’t apply to major shareholders of the Corporation of America.

On Android I use Seal. Aside from an occasional hiccup it’s awesome and does a phenomenal job 99% of the time. If I ever can’t get one item to work and there’s no alternative, I use one of the ones on my Linux machine. I’ll post the name when I’m home and can check.

First game I ever played that had that had an arena where you’re running around fighting enemies and the emcee bad guy was like the dude from The Running Man, and he would yell “TOTAL CARNAGE! IIIIIIIII LOVE IT!!!” damn what was that game called? SMASH TV!

Ah, see I am interested in a lot of variety but these days I don’t really have the time for extremely involved stuff. I enjoy games that you can spend small clips of time on, rather than having to devote a lot at once. I like cool visuals and gizmos - that’s why Torchlight appealed to me so much. Upgrading and advancing. I loved all the Angband clones I played over the years. I love lots of the BigFish style games like where there’s a cool story, hidden object puzzles, other types of puzzles, click / find stuff, and problem solving. Also I enjoy really good musical score. Ever play Drawn the Painted Tower and its sequels? Absolutely mesmerizing game of artistic beauty. I liked games like Sword of Fargoal, as well - also a sort of fancier Angband. Dungeon crawlers, adventure stories, cool gadget type equipment / magic spells etc.

I think it would be easier to specify the things I definitely won’t devote a single second to: sports, racing, RTS, hugely long-term upgrade stuff à la Sim City (though I used to love it). Roads of Rome is an exception. God I love that. And I also loved loved loved Magesty. Nothing where reflexes are needed. Again, used to be great in my youth but it’s not my thing anymore.

I loved the Krondor series by Raymond Feist. I enjoyed every Zork incarnation, especially Return to Zork, Zork: Nemesis, and Zork Grand Inquisitor. Might & Magic I loved, as well as Wizardry. Kings Quest series and of course Hero’s Quest. I liked the Diablo editions that were very like Torchlight.

Most of all is that I prefer it be on Android or Linux.

Wow did I just write ALLLL of that? Meh. Just sharing my game tastes.

P.S. oooh I LOVED the Samorost series. Amazing style, beautiful gameplay simulation and just plain fun and moderately challenging.

Wow I’ve never seen anyone actually argue their own hypocrisy with hypocrisy.

Motivations are irrelevant. Equality is equality, you can’t give rights to one demographic and deny to another because you think the other is ‘icky’. That is discrimination. Kinda the very thing we’re trying to argue against, and yet you used it as part of your reasoning.