This isn't even necessary. Just set Firefox' Tracking Protection level to High. That will turn on the first-party-isolation feature under the hood, which keeps all cookies/metadata in separate silos depending on which "first party" site is shown in the location bar... Its all automatic! No muss, no fuss!

As I mentioned in another reply, IME type firmware is not a rung on the ladder of free/open systems; its basically a part of the closed hardware. Cut to the chase with open source hardware and the firmware issue becomes moot.

There is very little emphasis on open hardware. Its "FOSS" all day long – software. The FSF tinkers with the issue of hardware as an extension of its software focus, but that is marginal.

Who wants to buy a Talos II system for big bucks and take up half a desk with it? People want laptops and phones.

The underlying problem is that hardware experts are not interested in open hardware to the extent that programmers are interested in open software. If they were, we would have laptop and phone-ready open source processors already.

I try to follow and keep up with what the open hardware community is doing. But it can be exasperating... its 99% tinkerers building novelty gadgets (using their closed source PCs for research & design without the slightest sense of irony).

I've been down this road and still own some of that 2012-era hardware the author mentions.

But I no longer share FSF's philosophy about pure libre firmware because it became obvious (to me) that the newer hardware was locking-out that possibility. Therefore, the closed IME/PSP blobs were functioning as a part of (or extension of) the hardware. Firmware of the sort discussed here is not a rung on the ladder to fully open source / libre systems... it is a property of the closed hardware itself.

What we really need for freedom is Open Hardware. Having powerful, general purpose computers consisting of open silicon would obviate the whole issue over firmware! However, the open/libre community is doing a rotten job of emphasizing hardware, because it has formed its identity around FOSS – Software.

Cryptocurrencies (at least the ones around today) do nothing to mitigate network effects, which leads to concentration of power. In fact they encourage those effects. The 'DeFi' moniker is a blatant falsehood and shouldn't be used without irony.

Not really correct. Firefox is reducing available fingerprint markers as well. Of course, there's a problem if you log into most sites and they are unscrupulous. Be picky about the sites you log in to, and clear your history cache every 3-7 days. That way the sites that are sleazy but you rarely need to login to can't correlate by your email/phone.

Mozilla is also offering a VPN service now. That blunts IP address as a fingerprinting method.

Its good to emphasize the importance of power users. In a lot of ways, they are the center of gravity in a tech ecosystem.

But 98% of the power users / techies I know want standards. Linux distros are chock full of standards under the hood, but there is no hardware certification standard (so finding compatible peripherals is always weird+risky), and there is no standard UI. Techies want both those things (and more). Yes, most power users prefer Windows or OS X for these reasons! A techie who must give tech support instructions to users as _shell_ commands because there is no standard GUI is a techie who will turn their back on "desktop Linux".

The three social maladies FOSS community has, which leads to this predicament are:

1. It thinks "Linux" is an OS. Its only an OS for technical elites, to anyone with a consumer mindset (which includes most power users) it is nothing at all. Put another way: What is Linux to an Android user? Its something vague that rattles around under the hood.

2. "Interfaces are commitments (learned that in CS) – but only to my hacker peers. I refuse to make commitments to end-users; that would be then end of freedom!" Truth: Interfaces are commitments for everyone involved, most especially for UIs. If a certain class of stakeholder experiences a computer as chaotic, then that system is a failure. Computers must deliver consistency or else... be unplugged.

3. Distro packaging was both app-developer and user hostile. The "solution" is, uh... Let me just cut to the chase: Snapcraft is an OS. Think about it. Is that good? IDK. The other app packaging contenders are less useful to desktop consumers for reasons I won't get into here.

To be worthy of the general public's attention & investment, FOSS desktop developers must shift their mindset to the questions: a) How do I get ppl excited enough about the platform to start writing apps for it? b) How do I bring app developers and end-users together in the least stressful ways possible?

The answers to these may vary at times, but they usually look like: "Vertical integration goodies are on the way", "Targeting dependencies is usually just checking the OS version" and "Keep the UI and other interfaces consistent but not spartan". (FOSS tends to emphasize horizontal integration, per-library dependency resolution, disposable UIs and spartan APIs – almost all wrong answers for the desktop!).

Also, this was an early peeve of Mark Shuttleworth's: If you have a standard collection of desktop APIs, they will be relatively useless unless the APIs in the ensemble have standard versions. The rest of the Linux distro community at the time said "No" we'll mix-match upstream versions as each sees fit; this is perfectly reasonable if you assume all "developers" are system hackers who occasionally write apps.

Google figured out most of the above with Android, which considers the Linux kernel replaceable BTW.

Hey... get a tech support job for consumer GUI apps on Linux. Then tell me how you help end-users navigate the system while trying to diagnose/fix the issue.

But also know that this conversation isn't about you, obviously. And your food analogy sucks.

Its tough to choose but possibly my favorite Vangelis album is "China". It was artsy and futuristic and somehow warmly familiar (if you were a kid in the late 1970s).

"Opera Sauvage" is another favorite, a soundtrack he did for French TV. Some of the passages are somehow fierce and tender and hypnotic at the same time. Amazing!

I believe the two scores are "Heaven and Hell" and "Alpha".

There may have been extra bits used incl a passage called "Affirmation".

"The CEOs got away and the peons who heroically risked life and limb got blamed, and you want me to sign off on more nuclear in my neighborhood? No way. Fix the societal problems first, and I don't know how you do that especially in America."

Absolutely true! Engineers, who are so critical to nuclear projects, have increasingly come under the thumb of the MBA management style over the past few decades. It's a truth-negation machine; all that matters is profit from externalizing all the downsides of risk.

AND they are raising taxes on the working class!

Punishment and profiteering won't stop getting worse until the political trend is reversed. The oligarchs backing the Tories, Republicans – and let's face it, Putin – feel tormented around a large, educated and empowered middle class. And now they're incapable of feeling comfort unless people beneath them are suffering in droves.

Nuclear energy had a very steep learning curve, totally negating all the early claims for low-cost.

It is water-intensive and water shortages are increasingly affecting reactor output.

It also engenders political paranoia to the extent that only certain countries can realistically exploit it without being accused of building bombs. What makes the dynamic truly sicko is that the paranoia is mainly spread by the politicians most loudly supporting nuclear energy.

Mini-nukes are a non-starter – substitute neighborhoods for countries and see prior point. Such devices would eventually wipe out any chance of stopping the expansion of the police state.

Nuclear competes with renewable energy for energy storage – surprise! In fact that's why pumped hydro was developed in the mid 20th century: anticipation of an ever-growing nuclear fleet. Inflexible generation is a problem for both RE and nuclear at high market penetration... the difference is RE is a lot cheaper and less headache-inducing.

Nuclear doesn't work in privatized generation markets. That is the main lesson from France's stalled nuclear industry. Whatever the intentions of execs & investors going in, they will demand high returns similar to the rest of the rotten business culture (yes, this is a "late capitalism" POV). They will feel mounting pressure to abandon incomplete reactor projects bc ratepayer commitments upfront are the norm (i.e. take the money & run).

Similar to my point about privatized markets, nuclear doesn't comport with what is objectively a class war prosecuted against anyone who isn't a corporate aristocrat. But engineers are core to nuclear operations for the entire life of a reactor and the late capitalist class is allergic to uppity engineers. Their entitlement psychology means any situation where they cannot bend the reality of the business to their whims tends to devolve into a nightmare.

OTOH, renewable energy projects are horizontally integrated and based on commodity equipment. They are malleable at the level of individual wind turbines and solar panels; failures tend to be small & easily corrected. The high-tech engineering is 'baked-in' in commodity fashion, like microcomputers. They do not have exceedingly high de-commissioning costs. --- this is the future!

"Network effects" is an economics term that describes unstable playing fields. The problem with crypto coins is they intensify network effects and there is no baked-in algorithm to reduce it. That's why the DeFi aspect was a fairy tale by 2015.

Its all cartels doing pump-and-dump. Tether's activity alone proves that.

What Yellen's reaction tells me, however, is the govt is afraid that inflation will create a destabilizing shift to crypto (there can be no stable shift to it). And maybe if she's as smart as you think she is, she may realize the current profiteering we're seeing not just from fossil fuels but across the board represents a revolt that has already started against govt regulation. If Musk & Thiel can be gleeful about inflation pushing ppl toward crypto, then that has a contagious effect in the business culture (which was already rotten to the core).

And... they are afraid to create a backlash that will make the revolt explicit (though, honestly, a showdown is probably one of the best things that could happen at this point).

Another aspect to this is her statements come on the heels of the EU backing off from banning PoW crypto. My feeling is that all of them are accustomed to co-opting grass roots movements, even though that isn't what they're dealing with here. Billionaire personality cults – no matter how participatory – are definitely not that.

TL;dr is the govt isn't in control and bringing crypto into regular finance will only heighten the already intense scofflaw regulatory environment. Elon Musk (crypto mogul) just this week committed an SEC violation with a Twitter stock purchase and we know they're not touching him.

Sigh...

Q: How do I XYZ on Linux?
A: Here are the CLI commands. You might be able to in the GUI, but we don't presume any particular GUI so we (all) stick to CLI howtos.

Q: My cool new hw project is in beta & my Windows peeps love it. How do I certify its also Linux compat & provide easy-to-use _signed_ drivers?
A: You don't do any of this; there is no hw certification channel. Put the driver on Github and cross your fingers your Linux users won't be too confused.

Q: These App ideas bouncing around in my head sure would be nice to implement for a FOSS environment. How do I get started?
A1: Go to Ubuntu and pray the users of 22 other distros don't send you death threats.
A2: Let me introduce you to ncurses in docker.
A3: So you want to be a FOSS Programmer! Here are primers on hacking the Linux kernel, systemd and 25 packaging formats. While coding your "Appthingie", please remember to post patches you've made the OS along the way.