I agree with OP that we're better people. And fuck you.

The data concerns are at least actionable from a Constitutional perspective. You mention media concerns. Which equates to government regulation and prior restraint of speech. Trying to legislate on these grounds raises all manner of 1st amendment barriers and is subject to "strict scrutiny" from the courts. Hell even during the Cold War the U.S. didn't prevent USSR ownership of domestic media outlets. Granted they had to register as foreign owned and as foreign agents. But they were still allowed to operate the media even as it was sending out messages diametrically opposed to the US government.

Alright. Ubuntu then. On an HP Zbook Fury G7, a system that HP says fully supports Ubuntu. Out of the box and with the various drivers and support files supplied by HP, the touchpad didn't work, the video was wonky, and various misc features such as the backlit keyboard, function key switching, power saving / sleep / hibernation, etc didn't work. After working on it for hours spread over several days searching the internet, most of these problems were resolved. And I will readily admit that this was a much better experience than when I last tried Linux on a laptop 10 years ago.

But I have never had that many initial install issues on Windows. Not once. Perhaps that is the benefit of having one company working full time developing Windows versus the cornucopia of part time unrelated developers that work on all the various Linux components. But if Linux wants to go mainstream on the desktop then someone is gonna have to crack this nut.

I understand and on some levels agree with the fears of Chinese data harvesting. But singling out one company won't pass muster. However our bought and paid for representatives won't push for a blanket foreign ban because such a thing would displease their corporate overlords by cutting off that sweet sweet FDI (Foreign Direct Investment).

I didn't miss your point, your point was bullshit.
In what way has Reddit shown that it considers its users "customers"? As in what has Reddit done to benefit them? I can site several things they did that made the Reddit experience harder.

Now maybe *you* like to fuck your customers in the ass and make life difficult for them. But I'll go out on a limb and suggest that's not how an organization that values customers is suppose to act.

Cyber criminals cheat other cyber criminals out of money and don't keep their word to the ransomee?
Nickcageyoudon'tsay.gif

It's a myth for you.
When I was doing IT that was the norm. Especially if using vendor specific wipe tools.

Also I don't think OP is talking about the specific tweaks, UI changes, etc that geeks like to do. I think he's talking about getting the thing to boot and work out of the box. And towards that end I agree. With Linux desktops even 10 years ago one often had to do a bunch of extra work to get touchpads, wifi, etc working. Hell even today if you run Fedora and have an Nvidia graphics card, you'll have extra work to get it running right.

To Reddit the users are not the customer. They are unpaid content generators.

This is very true!
Take a stock like Cracker Barrel. It's shit. It pays a high dividend but has lost 50 percent of its overall value for its investors for the last 5+ years.

What else but backward looking thinking and yield chasing can explain why 96% of the stock is owned by institutions? Why would so many institutional investors own this dreck? Because they're trying to goose current returns without concern for some principal.

Wouldn't one AI system be able to catch the other one trying to infect it with a virus or worm?

I'm sure if we were to look at HP's strategic plans for the next five years, they include not offering most models for "perpetual" sale and jacking up the price of the few that they do.

Not very smart, I agree. But I could see a future scenario where there aren't many other options.

When you buy, backstop your purchase with a stop loss order. Update it daily as you accumulate gains.
You'll be fine.

And yet from "influencers" on down folks just don't seem to understand this.

If that were true then we'd have more innovative product releases by now instead of drab incremental Iphone and I-pad "improvements."

Changing stories to match the times has always been Disney's MO. Back in the 1930's they changed aspects of Snow White to match the more conservative mood of the day. In the 1950's westerns were reworked with patriotic and anti-communist themes.

Calling Disney out for this is like playing basketball with a retarded kid and calling him for double dribble. It's the nature of the thing doing what it has always done.