A few days ago Eugen Rochko, original creator and maintainer of Mastodon as well as instance owner of mastodon.social, has published a blogpost outlining a “new onboarding experience on Mastodon”. In this blogpost, he describes what he thinks makes “signing up on Mastodon easier than before”.
While that certainly holds some truth, it is inherently flawed and a punch in the face of our whole community. But before I come to that, let’s first highlight his (most likely well-meant) intentions.

The problem many people see with Mastodon and Fediverse services in general are that people have to understand the concept of Federation before being able to make an educated choice. The concept of Local and Federated timelines is yet uncommon and the (awesome!) lack of algorithmically filled timelines often make first experiences by newcomers worse than what they’re used to, that is being flooded with content to the point of harmful psychological manipulation. We have the exact opposite problem – your timeline being empty at first start. This problem is made worse by, in my opinion, bad UX in the “official” Mastodon app – more about that below.

The proposed solution by Eugen, also known as @Gargron on Mastodon, is to change the current design; two buttons on the welcome screen either for login or registration that confusingly lead to the exact same list of available servers. Goal is to have one highlighted button directly leading to his own instance, which already is the biggest instance within the network with over a million registered accounts, and an implied button that’s leading to a list for all instances that apparently got an updated design (partially visible in his blogposts’ header). This makes mastodon.social the de-facto default server of Mastodon.

Making the onboarding process as easy as possible helps new users get past the sign-up process and more quickly engage with others. This gives us a far better chance of showcasing what decentralized social networks have to offer instead of having that person bounce and never hearing from them again.

Eugen Rochko

Small change, huge implications

Before I go into any details, let me list all the problems with this:

• A single, oversized server takes the whole concept of federated social networks ad absurdum.
• This change was not brought to and discussed with the community.
• The change is now pushed despite the community. [1, 2, 3]
• The “official” Mastodon app still does not feature the Federated Timeline, aggravating the issue.
• Even the Local Timeline is only a sub-menu of the Search, further encapsulating people.

Unfortunately, this behaviour of Rochko to decide major changes behind closed doors and rely on solutions despite criticism isn’t new. This is one reason why the feature to move accounts from one instance to another the way Mastodon does it wasn’t adopted by other Fediverse services like Pleroma or Misskey, despite also even being for micro-blogging.
In case you’re not aware of how big the Fediverse actually is: ever since the standardization of the ActivityPub Protocol by the W3C, dozens over dozens of different services for vastly different usecases were created that all communicate with each other. Before Mastodon became the most famous of them (due to a certain billionaire throwing tantrums as well as money out of windows) it was just one out of many (list of the most mature services can be found on fediverse.info). It heavily relied not just on those interested in the technology, but also people who were left alone, attacked or even banned from corporate social media and came here to build something new, beautiful and inclusive. That’s the reason so many instances are administrated by LGBTIQ*, Furries or sex workers.

Given Eugen developed Mastodon (thank you!), maintains it and holds the copyright to the name, Eugen has – if he wants to – basically total control over the path Mastodon takes. And while many of you now think that might be totally reasonable, given he created it, it still is a community-driven Open-Source project with hundreds of people actively working and enhancing the software, fixing bugs and hosting instances and moderating it. Yet, despite better examples both by other projects (like Pixelfed, who gives you a visually pleasing instance-picker) and even proposals by professionals on Github, the Mastodon gGmbH (non-profit company under german law) decided to simply ignore any criticism and boldly go – again – with a decision that not just annoys other instances, but outright frames them as second class behind the default, the “official” instance. Which is already utterly overcrowded.

There are many community members who openly criticize Eugen for years because of decisions that are not in the interest of the community, many of them defederated from mastodon.social by now. And while many things could be explained simply by different opinions about where to go with the design, features that might change the atmosphere on the network (like when he prevented the quote feature because of social concerns) or how to program something, this one can only be described as outright insulting and a slap in the faces of those who make Mastodon and the Fediverse what it is: the hundreds, perhaps thousands of server admins and moderators all over the planet who have fostered a federated community that is utterly unique and resilient to hate, spam and even takeovers by both companies and states. And though he deserves praise for not selling us out despite multiple offerings allegedly worth hundreds of thousands of Euros, we have to remind him that selfishly acting like an authority will only lead to increased crippling effects.

The corporate social media fallacy

Rochko is moving on the paths of giants. Unfortunately, these giants aren’t friends – in fact we know they’re selfish dicks. And despite everyone around him shouting that he should get a damn shovel and help us moving towards a better direction, he keeps expanding an already overbloated instance that by now has the capability to cripple the whole network and expects people to have the attention spawn of TikTok users. In fact, the slow decay in our ability to concentrate on something longer than two seconds already is a huge problem by now as children are consuming more short content. We know IT companies and their “social” media platforms are at fault. There even is a word for that, “attention management”. Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, all of them use algorithms to manipulate you so you stay longer – we can be truly happy there’s a healthy alternative to these things. Yet, instead of staying on track in offering a truly social media that can’t be bought by the same people who’d willingly sell your sanity if it makes them even more money (and they’re already trying), Eugen further dumbs down the app and pushes those who make Mastodon what it is to the sidelines.

To be social means to invest time, care and attention into it; even if that only means to find your favourite bar in the city so you can drink yourself under the table. It’s the minimum, but a minimum we must be able to expect from people.

To make [registration] easier, we now have a default sign-up option that works with a server we operate. If you wish to leave or join a different server, you can do so at any time.

Eugen Rochko

It’s also important to point out his flawed logic, making his own instance the holding centre for newcomers who can’t or won’t understand the concept of federation before being subjected to it. Those who supposedly need this will not even remotely care about the concept of moving to another instance once creating an account “that already works fine”. Given they do not know what they miss out on with a slower, more personalized Local Timeline (or even the federated one), they won’t seek it out. Not to mention the implications of what it tells the user to make other instances more of a secondary afterthought.

The idea of a central authority, something that is leading anyone else, is exactly what the Fediverse can not be. To try it anyway has a bitter taste of corporate social media and got the potential of completely ruining Eugen’s image for good.

How to do better

The following are just my very personal, probably stupid ideas. I stopped trying to be semi-professional at this point.

Instead of ruining Mastodon and “the experience” the same way corporations did and falling for their lies, the strengths of the Fediverse as a whole must be utilized. So what could Eugen do better? Reverting the change to the welcome screen, obviously. Make sure other general purpose instances are able to cope with a lot of new users, then set mastodon.social at least to invite-only if not even closed to stop its growth. If Eugen doesn’t trust any other instance admin to recommend to his users right now then create a second instance under the obligation of transfering that one to someone else later (too much power corrupts everyone and everyone has their prize).
Overhaul the server selector. It is usable, but visually unappealing and doesn’t convey the topic as well as vibe of an instance (or any vibe at all, really). There is a good example how to do something like this in the Pixelfed app, get some inspiration. Having a Local Timeline is something unique, so show new users how there are servers around their hobby and have them rejoice when they see a lot of like-minded people. Also… include the damn Federated Timeline already, and if it’s just as a sub-section of the search tab. The official app is especially awful for small instances because of this – people who got over a million might not notice.
To get more servers that can handle higher loads perhaps create an open fund (as far as I know german non-profits are allowed to manage those). Such a fund could then be used to support instances financially. Hell, if the problem is finances, open a discussion about making users that donate to their instance or the fund (or both) visible in some way; not to give them any extra features, just to make donors look cool with some fancy badge in their profile that promotes the idea of donating. Many users do see value in what their admins do for them on a daily basis and are able to help financially.

But for cry out loud Eugen, stop with what you’re doing right now.

You might have heard once or twice that Windows is bad. I’m sure you also, at least once, experienced why – it’s slow, updates whenever it wants (even during standby), printers are a nightmare (they are, to be fair), browsing takes aeons… you get it. Perhaps you even thought about moving to Mac for these reasons – after all they’re well known for “just working”, right? Not just that, but you can use them for so much longer! Well, compared to cheap garbage computers that might be true, however in general it’s mostly marketing drivel.

Then there’s Linux. You probably heard about it – perhaps you even met one of our very devoted missionaries of the tux! If so, I’m very sorry – coping with big techs’ shenanigans all day and fixing family computers can result in some weird behaviour. And blogposts.

Once an operating system mostly aimed at tinkerers and developers, nowadays some versions of Linux can easily keep up and surpass the likes of Microsoft Windows and MacOS – of course always depending on what you want to do with it. Companies have been created around the free operating system selling devices with ever-increasing quality, and with the support of Valve it has been made a viable option even for demanding gamers. Heard of the new mobile gaming console, the Steam Deck? It’s running Arch Linux.

Now, I want to make one thing very clear to every reader: Linux is not to be understood simply as Windows replacement. As with MacOS it is a whole other operating system with different paradigms to get used to. In fact Linux is closer to MacOS in many aspects, given both came from the same family of operating systems called UNIX (You don’t have to remember that, just trivia). As such running a Windows .exe file on Linux instead of installing Linux software from the Software Store needs the same user approach as, let’s say, playing a Playstation 1 game on a Nintendo Switch. It simply is a different platform. However many modern tools nowadays also feature a Linux version or are web based anyway (meaning they can run inside your browser), and anything that doesn’t can be replaced by a plethora of awesome tools you find on pages 10 to 21.
The one and only exception here might be Adobe Photoshop – despite my best efforts I couldn’t find something comparable. Be not afraid though, artists do have tools like Krita, GIMP and others at their disposal with the latter being actively worked on to introduce non-destructive editing features in the future. Get them right out of the graphical Software Store that doesn’t flood your screen with ads and privacy-violating payware.

What you can expect

From here on I’ll keep talking about “Distributions” or “Distros” instead of “Linux”, since different flavours of Linux come with different expectations. Think of it like Android phones – It’s all Android, however a Google Pixel feels quite different than a Xiaomi with their MIUI Launcher, or Samsungs “One UI”. While Distributions like Linux Mint are made for ease of use and simplicity, others like the infamous Arch Linux are specifically made with powerusers in mind. To give you a hassle-free start I’ll present you three highly user-friendly distros right on the next page.

What you’ll also notice is how the Software Stores are centered around free and Open-Source applications (services like Spotify are also available though). Unlike Microsoft or Apple there are no investors to please, a majority of distros are maintained by a group of very dedicated private developers or small companies who make their main revenue by selling devices as well as support and cloud plans. As the community is extremely aware of the downsites of modern data collection you’ll also rarely find invasive applications or apps who’re calling home. This might reduce available options, however the upsides are clear: Smaller, fast-running tools that do exactly the thing you want without being slowed down by ads, want you to log in first or only exist to grab some data. This results in a faster experience overall without the system becoming slower over time.

Almost any distribution is built in a way that gives the user choice and control. That means you still have the option to let your computer automatically update itself, but it’s not the norm – instead you’ll be notified about updates after opening the Software Store. As we see on a regular basis with Windows, automatic updates without notifications often lead to massive unanticipated slowdowns. Not a good experience at all.

However if you’re always on the hunt for the newest trend in the IT buzzword world, I can happily announce to you that you’ll most likely be severely disappointed! This of course doesn’t mean Linux can’t be pretty – in fact a little visit at r/unixporn will show you how much love some people put into their machines to have them look truly unique. The goal of most developers however is to build a good and reliable system that respects you as a user – not a selling platform for the “new” Metaverse.

Enough talk – on page 3 I’ll show you how to try Linux on your computer yourself via USB stick, all without changing anything about your existing files.

What is Mastodon?

Mastodon is a free (as in freedom) social media network developed and run by independent and committed people. Other than social media networks run by big businesses, it is run by people mostly during their free time, who truly care about a healthy environment and wish for their idea to succeed. It is free of ads, and there are is no algorithm trying to learn from you. Your data will also not be sold to data brokers on any trustworthy Instance (more on that below).

Differences compared to Twitter

• No Advertisement: Other than on Twitter, Mastodon does not feature sponsored tweets (or ‘toots’ as it is called here).
• No Algorithm: Mastodon does not have an algorithm. Instead your timeline will always be shown in chronological order. However, if there is an account you’re specifically interested in you can click on a bell icon in their profile to receive notifications about new toots. You may also use lists (for people you follow).
• No single moderation authority: There is not a single “Mastodon company” that is in charge of moderation, but you can join any server (instance) you like. They all speak to each other, like Email. This means overall more active moderation, less political pressure on moderative decisions and no faulty auto-restrictions after orchestrated mass reportings.
• Multiple Timelines: While there is no algorithm that meddles with your personal timeline, on Mastodon you get two extra one. The Local Timeline will show your any public toot from people on your own server (instance) while the Federated timeline shows a huge amount of truly random toots from all over the network.
• No Quotations: Other than in Twitter, you can not quote someone else’s toot. This was a deliberate design decision by Eugen, developer and maintainer of Mastodon. You can read up his reasoning here, it makes sense after thinking about it.
• Search in Progress: As of now the Mastodon Search will mostly give back hashtags and user accounts. Full-Text search wasn’t a focused task in earlier development and is currently, with the huge surge in user numbers, rapidly worked on. However the question how exactly it will be implemented is still up to debate.

What is an Instance & how to choose yours

A Mastodon instance is a single provider of Mastodon with their own ruleset. Think of it like Email: You have multiple providers like gmail, hotmail or outlook. You have to choice which one you make your account on but don’t have to worry about not being able to talk to your friends. No matter which provider you end up choosing, they all use a common protocol to be interoperable.

The best way to choose your home instance is by using the instance finder utility of instances.social. It will lead you through a few questions to find an instance that fits best for you and give suggestions where to go. Feel free to take your time here – given Mastodon offers you a “local” timeline with public toots coming from people on your own instance this choice really matters.

What mobile apps are there to use with Mastodon

There is a well sorted list of apps you may use on joinmastodon.org. My personal recommendation for Android is Tusky. For iOS I’ve heard a lot of good things about Metatext.

Your Timelines & About Federation

Mastodon offers you 3 different Timelines:

• Home: This is your personal timeline. It will show you any toots coming from people you’ve followed in chronological order.
• Local: This timeline shows you any public toot from people that share the same instance as you.
• Federated: This timeline is full of random toots from all over the internet, no matter where someone comes from. It is by far not all there is, but definitely interesting given its unfiltered (and sometimes naughty) nature.

Below is a visual example that might help you understand how a federated social network works. In it, you just created your account on “mastodon.art”. You can follow any person anywhere to fill up your Home timeline. Your Local timeline is filled with toots from fellow mastodon.art users. And the Federated timeline is a mix of all the toots coming from bern.social as well as tech.lgbt.

Content Visibility, Accessibility and Warnings

Given the roots of Mastodon and many developers’ backgrounds it has a more sensible approach towards communication. There are three major features you should familiarize yourself with:

Content Warnings

These are really useful if you post something questionable or content that might deserves a previous notice. It’s mostly used for example for lewd content, political content (so people can scroll over it) or if someones really needs to vent and throws insults.

If you saw the newest episode of some popular series using a CW to talk about it is also highly appreciated by literally everyone.

There’s an ongoing discussion about renaming it to something more fitting given its wide usage. You can participate here if you want.

Picture Description

If you include a picture in your toots you’re able to add a picture description. This may not only help with more context information, but is especially useful for blind people who can not participate unless image descriptions are added. Without them their screenreaders will only say “image”, basically excluding them from any proper conversation. It might feel troublesome at first, but taking your time for every toot can be rewarding in itself.
If you just want to quickly send something, please take the time to at least add a short description like “[something] at [somewhere]” for our fellow tooters.

Visibility

Last but not least, there’s visibility. Every toot you write can be send in four different ways, depending on who you want to see it:

• Public: Visible for all, will federate globally
• Unlisted: Unlisted toots will show up in your followers timelines and are visible in your profile, however it won’t show up either in the local or federated timeline by itself.
• Followers only: As it says, only followers will be able to see this.
• Mentioned people only: This is Mastodons version of Direct Messages. Only those who’re mentioned will receive and see these toots. Make sure not to accidentally mention someone you don’t want to add to the conversation!

Very useful for threads: Make the first toot public and each following unlisted. That way the first toot of a long thread is publicy visible without having the whole thing clutter someones timeline. Thanks to Wayne for mentioning it!

Tools to find others easier

There are two tools that are especially useful to find other users. The first one is called twitodon, a tool that looks up your Twitter followings and searches for any references to Mastodon in their profiles.

The second is the Directory feature on fediverset.info. Many people added their accounts into it and included topics via hashtags in their bio for new people to discover them more easily. It’s a good start, given there’s no algorithm that relentlessly shovels things into your personal timeline.

“Is there something like Tweetdeck?”

Yes! You can activate the “Advanced Web Interface” in your Mastodon settings under Preferences –> Appearance.

What is the Fediverse?

The explanation earlier actually only represents a small part of the network Mastodon is part of, called the Fediverse. In addition to the many Mastodon instances that are connected with each other using the “ActivityPub” protocol, there are also other services. The most popular examples here are Pixelfed, which is an alternative to Instagram but without hurtful algorithm or ads, or Peertube (e.g. TILvids), which is a video platform like Youtube. They of course also follow the same concept of multiple instances and everyone being able to host their own.

Let’s assume again you got your Mastodon account on mastodon.art. If you watch a nice video on a Peertube instance like TILvids.com, you’re able to like, comment AND follow by simply using your Mastodon account! By doing so, everything posted and every comment will show up in your Mastodon feed just as they were in the same platform. Same works with Pixelfed, meaning you don’t have to have an account all over the internet just to follow your favourite creator on multiple platforms.

However, if you want to create videos or have a nice photo gallery there’s nothing bad about having multiple accounts across the Fediverse as one service won’t act like account provider for another (and your Mastodon feed might look really awkward if looked at as a Pixelfed feed). Don’t hesitate to cross-reference your accounts so people can follow you everywhere – just using their one account!

If you’re curious about all the services you may be connected to with your Mastodon account, there’s a great article about it over at axbom. If this short description of the Fediverse left you with questions, there’s also a great video about it from The Linux Experiment.

Introduction

Android device flashing probably is one of those things you heard about either for its ecological value, economical value, or as something only nerds do. And while both may be true (you’re a nerd now, congratulations!), its financial benefits and the gain in knowledge about the device you may even use for hours each single day can not be underestimated. After doing it the first time on my old bq Aquaris X Pro I really started appreciating the device and its benefits – but also was mildly frustrated about the initial learning curve on how to do things, as I had little reference to go by, no one to tell me what the hell fastboot is and why my god forsaken GPS simply won’t work.

So that’s why I gonna tell you.

  
Page 1: Introduction
  
The easy way:
	Page 2: /e/ OS One-Click Installer
	Other Post: Buy a degoogled Phone
  
What you need to know:
	Page 3: Terminology & Resources (Glossary)
	Page 4: Visual Examples
	Page 5: What adb is & how to prepare it (Android Debugging Bridge)
	Page 6: List of known (Google-free) Android ROMs
  
Flashing your Phone:
	Page 7: Common Example
	Page 8: Manually installing MicroG

First of all, what you need to do this is a phone you either not depend on right now or a backup plan in case your endeavour doesn’t meet your expectations, a proper USB cable, a computer and a lot of time and nerves. It may be a good idea to get an old phone (except Huawei, more on that below) from ebay, craigslist or any other source so you have a cheap device to tinker with. This will save you a lot of stress and perhaps makes an otherwise unused phone useful again.

There are, unfortunately, devices and manufacturers where you are utterly out of luck. One of the main villains here is Huawei. They, as well as many other chinese companies like Xiaomi, once forced you to contact them so they could send you a unique unlock code for your device but closed down that service in 2018 (this isn’t linked to the embargo). This, of course, made developers of free operating systems move to other devices and projects, leaving the brand vacant. And while there is a way to still unlock your phone through a paid semi-legal service by the name of DC Unlocker and HCU Client, you usually don’t get much further after that.
Luckily there aren’t many manufacturers locking down their devices this much. Most of the process depends on the popularity of devices here – the more people use them, the higher our chance to get a nice new operating system. The best example for this is the Samsung Galaxy S4, for which you can still get a modern and secure LineageOS 18.1 (based on Android 11).

However, be aware you are trading security for privacy by flashing your phone. By unlocking your bootloader, thereby perhaps tripping security measures like Samsung Knox, and flashing a custom operating system you rip a huge security hole into Androids security concept as sideloading is now possible for anyone who gets physical access to your device. I myself was able to write and sideload a small file comprised of about 6 commands that deleted my security pattern, enabling me to simply start and access my phone. At that point file encryption doesn’t help anymore. There are reasons why you might still want to flash your phone: Maybe you own a Google Pixel and want to go with CalyxOS or GrapheneOS (they are able to relock the bootloader after flashing without bricking the phone). Perhaps you want to safe some money after the OEM stopped support for your device way too early. Not feeling secure because of surveillance on phones is also a valid reason, given how much worth private data is nowadays. In the end, it’s up to you and your individual threat level to decide whether or not flashing is a valid option for you.

This whole guide will also focus on Google-free flashing. While installing all or some Google services only adds a single step to the process, it wouldn’t really help us to jump right back into the lions pit if we aim to regain our privacy. However, for anyone who really wants to do so, I’ll mention how to do it in this article too.

If you want to check whether your favourite apps work on Android operating systems without Google services or with MicroG (See page 3 to know what that is), download the app Plexus from F-Droid or their website.

In case you like what you’re reading I’d be super grateful if some people may decide to support me. <3

Next Page: /e/ OS One-Click Installer

This is how you get there.

Introduction

Our company doesn’t attempt to provide you a service in exchange for your data. Instead, you voluntarily give us your data, and you receive nothing in return.

wesellyourdata.com, basically google but with less service

Who of those with knowledge in Open-Source doesn’t know this sentence: “I know Google is bad, bad you can’t escape them nowadays”. Often, at least my never-ending optimism leads me to believe that, they also want to hide a feeling of helplessness stating obvious lies like “I don’t have anything to hide” (everyone does). And I can really much understand the sentiment; how are you supposed to avoid being tracked when every single person got their own tracking device full of sensors, microphones and cameras on them, every car got an uplink sharing anything they possibly can and many homes are full of devices specifically designed to monitor the surroundings, providing yet-to-be-necessary comfort functions. Any boundary of privacy seem to have fallen, as people even began wearing smartwatches, their telemetry happily uploading your most private information about your body to Google. And even if all of those things offer you a great deal of comfort, many people slowly realize that paying with all that you are to gain a little bit of comfort and funny gimmicks is an awful trade that’ll eventually bite you in the back.
As I grew up in Germany just after the berlin wall fell and the crimes of the STASI came to light, a situation just like ours in 2022 would’ve been unthinkable. The thought of paying for a device in the kitchen you’ll end up mostly using to create timers or listen to music that permanently got microphones and cameras directed towards you? Preposterous! Yet, in merely 20 years, people not just got so fascinated by technology that seem straight out of Star Trek (even though I don’t know why I need a talking toaster with firmware updates), they bought into it and started peer-pressuring everyone else into stripping to the buff – or, well, to the Zuck’.

There’s another reason you should care about your privacy too, and that is governmental control. For modern governments, the data we accumulate about ourselves are like a mountain of candy for a myriad of reasons. Not just good ones, like calculations about infrastructure and where to build a new hospital – but even more for surveillance. At this point we don’t even need to talk about China, Russia or the USA – all of them are going thoroughly nuts on collecting and analysing data of their and anyone elses citizens. Europe however is a close competitor for being on the worlds’ ranking of surveillance states, court rulings being the only reason why we can still talk to our friends through (some) instant messengers in private (supposedly).

Let me give you three examples of how your data is commonly, right now, used against you:

1. Targeted Ads and profiling
   ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎By now it’s common knowledge that we’re constantly being targeted with specific ads, tailored to what we might want to see to maximize the effect. However, many people aren’t aware about the extend, specifically of Googles “AdSense”. Using all resources – Search history, GPS data, Voice Assistant (even if you think it’s off), photos on your phone, visited websites (through Google Analytics, used on almost any website), bought products, time you spend on said websites, shops in the city you seemed to be interested in, people you’re socializing with (either online or those you invite to your home) – they can predict not just what you like to see, but also what you’re about to do to such an extent, you might already bought something not because you genuinely wanted it, but because you saw or heard something in the right moment to make you think you want it. And with targeted ads planed in electric cars, smart ad screens in cities changing their display when you walk by and our habit of using new online media that gets more and more cluttered with ads, it definitely will get way worse before it gets any better. Hell, they even target our very dreams at this point.
   ‏‏‎ ‎
2. Analysis of your private files and chats
   ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎You might have heard about the rufus when Apple introduced its controversial CSAM feature, supposed to find child pornography in private media. If not, it’s about an AI controlled system systematically scanning any private picture that gets (usually automatically) uploaded into the Apple cloud. If sth. is detected, it also gets automatically send to law enforcement. The problem with this is obvious: an AI, without intrinsic knowledge about the private life of ALL of Apples customers, can not differentiate a child on a beach on your holiday photo from real chipo. Systems like this regularily ignites a storm of outrage, especially in groups of independent security experts and data protection organisations. Even many child protection organisations see this negatively, as seeing the whole population as potential child molesters will do more harm than any good, and proper police work to convict actual criminals would be way more effective. However, as it is now, these things are either already implemented or about to be implemented by politicians all over the world.
   ‏‏‎ ‎
3. Your life as a product
   ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎Did you know how much worth you are? Not just because you’re awesome, but because of the data you create. That’s why those profiles and data I mentioned in point 1 is called the “modern days oil”. Let it be your exact movement data (Google tracks that by default), your voice patterns picked up by Alexa or how you drive your car, everything is bundled, losely anonymized and sold to data brokers. Those then resell it to well-paying customers, and they make no difference between Russia (really bad if you’re from eastern europe), another company or your friends and family. And how it’s possible to deanonymize given data is shown by security researchers – for example when this priest’s data has shown him using Grindr.

All that said, it’s not impossible to regain your privacy. And to help you making a first step, I want to show you some alternative smartphone manufacturers that actually value your privacy, who offer modern devices without or with very few Google services. And the best thing about it, you’ll still be able to access the Play Store in most cases. Question being: Do you really want most of the junk there?

I’ll also show you some great alternatives to greedy apps like Youtube, which will enable you to still watch your favourite Youtubers¹ without giving Google your whole contact book. And although there may not be alternatives to some of the worst apps – like TikTok – you can, if you wish to do so, just keep using them as you always did.

¹ Since such apps also often circumvent annoying ads or even skip sponsor segments, please consider giving your favorite creators some bucks through their favourite donation platform.

For years now, Linux is struggling to really achieve a stable foothold in the world of desktop computers. Even though it’s the de-facto standard almost anywhere else, let it be Servers, Smartphones, IoT (Internet of Things), integrated systems and more, it just keeps failing to attract a greater userbase and is still most well known as a system for professionals and nerds, something you can’t actually get any other work done than what IT specialists do.

While this may change rapidly in the near future (mostly thanks to Valve, who’re pushing things with their Proton compatibility Layer and their soon-to-be-released Steam Deck that’s based on Arch Linux + KDE), the details that’re hitting on the breaks still persist and should, in my humble opinion, be put more into focus as the opportunity of a massive influx of new people is on the horizon.

Terminal-Affinity is hurting the experience

“As a user of [Linux & Win] now – Aaaaay… – they’re both bad.”

Linus Sebastian, CEO Linus Media Group

Just by reading this, many users may be instantly outraged. The Terminal is one of the reasons Linux is so beloved by many professionals, and it’s obvious why: Unlike Windows, it gives you access to absolutely everything. Why should anyone despise it?
The reason is quite simple: Accessibility. Let me give you an example.

Recently, Linus Sebastian from the well beloved Linus Tech Tips Youtube Channel has started a “Linux Challenge” with Luke, one of his colleagues. Both are seasoned Windows powerusers who now switch to Linux for (at least?) a month while recording their experience. The videos are not out yet, but they’re already talking lengthly about it on their weekly WAN show. And while they also struggle with problems that just pop up as people use vastly different configurations with devices from manufacturers that may or may not respect some standards as they should, they also encounter problems that are so incredibly unnecessary you wonder why there’s still only a commandline option for that.

As an example he brings up a file copy into a folder that belongs to root. Things like this should not be a big deal, especially not on an operating system that keeps being praised as being most open and letting the user do whatever they want to do (even if it’s unfathomably stupid). Yet, even after 20 years, big Linux file managers like Nautilus and Dolphin still do not have implemented a proper system to raise privileges on users demand, making it virtually impossible to administrate your own computer outside of the terminal. This is especially frustrating as tutorials for Linux are praised to be super simple because of their copy & paste nature, yet as soon as you have to copy a file to a destination outside of your /home folder you have to learn how sudo ‘cp -r <src> <dest>‘ means, directly followed by chown as well as chmod to set up file permissions correctly. Not to mention cd and ls if you never saw a terminal before. Welcome to Linux.

This is just one example, but it leads to one of the biggest issues as the file privilege system of Linux may be powerful, but to new users it’s a literal beast.

Such problems don’t come from nowhere. As the GNU/Linux Community is mainly made out of nerds and professionals, there aren’t enough people to demand a solution thats not just easy to use if you already know it, but also intuitive on first glance and a great experience to use (which, for most people includes a GUI). Even something small like asking if you want to either open or execute the file you just double-clicked makes a huge difference for someone who’s trying to find his way through something new they don’t have to use. Telling a frustrated user to “use chmod +x” after their executable only opens as text file only leads to even more frustration. Not to mention file managers even implemented the “make file executable” checkbox, it’s just rarely mentioned.

A loud minority of Toxic Elitists

“Just go back to Windows if you don’t want to learn yourself.”

A toxic response

Of course, neither of the above applies to every distro (Linux Mint does these things really well for example), nor does the following apply to every forum or distro-specific community. Yet, every new Linux user will eventually face the dreaded dragon of the Linux Community: a toxic, elitist environment where your trouble will be met with ridicule, as only filthy non-Linux peasants would dare to expect a graphical experience over the chad command line. /s

Jokes aside, experiences like this are made daily and keep driving away potential newcomers. And even if you’re not the person who’s directly involved, looking up solutions only to find toxicity towards others who were right where you’re standing right now makes a lot of people wish their Windows back, where they knew how to go around. Keep in mind, nobody who tries Linux has to use it, but they want to use it. Being send back to where they came from, their bad experience with Linux will persist.

It can be even worse to be trapped in the pit between apologists of different distros while looking for help. Nobody is helped by reading “Oh, you should’ve picked my distro over your distro because that distro sucks”. From my personal experience, most of these people don’t even think about what’d be best for the one who asked, but what they like best. If you don’t support that you might as well go back to your dirty Windows. /s

This can lead up to ridiculous situations, in where you can get accused of being stupid simply because of your choice of distro. Those people can’t be helped, but given the size of the community, overlaps in distros and the almost absolute lack of graphical tutorials you’ll eventually meet those people. Even worse, they might argue that the missing feature protects you from harming your own system – an argument we constantly hear from Apple. Hard to be more disrespectful if you ask me.

Still worth the hassle

“User Experience? Very good. […] Which is why I’m genuinely switching my work laptop to Linux and I genuinely think it’s gonna be a better experience.”

Luke Lafreniere, COO Floatplane Media

Despite all the problems and the initial learning curve being a 90° brick wall as soon as you’re forced into the terminal, it can be very much worth the hassle. There are communities out there which are very welcoming too, Linux Mint communities being a good example. But if the Linux Community really wants to keep up the pace all the system options finally need to be made accessible graphically, details like gnome-tweaks not being present by default have to be ironed out (they’re working on that tho’) and a better documentation has to be present on how to get by solely by the means of the GUI to not just attract new users, but to keep them.

Because let’s be real, users that aren’t tech-savvy don’t want to use the terminal. They want a nice clicky button to press while not being treated like idiots.