"They own" a temporary, non-transferrable, non-exclusive, revokable license to use the software. I'm sure it's somewhere in the fine print.

Flock cameras are not mere ALPRs. They can track you based on the make and model of your car, combined with other identifying marks such as bumper stickers, dents and scratches, etc... And their database is searchable via "AI", and can be used to keep track of your movements across the entire network of Flock-surveiled areas.

Flock pretends they're merely ALPRs when engaging with the public, in order to weaken the argument against them, but on their website and during their sales pitches they boast about these capabilities. Or at least, they did a while ago; haven't checked their website in a while now.

LOL I didn't end up with T-mobile because I wanted to... I was with Sprint, they bought it and obsoleted all Sprint devices within a couple of months... Thus I had to buy from them that phone that refused activation. I had really liked my LG V20, and I still have it and it works, but T-mobile refused to let me use it.

...when your brand new phone refuses to be activated on their network, even though you bought it from them> No activation = no connection = app is useless. Can't call them either because, you know, at that point the phone doesn't work.
And yes, it has happened to me.

I'm happy that my LG monitor, which I also purchased 3 years ago, did not do such a thing. It would have been OK if it ASKED me if I want to download this or that and gave me the option to say yes or no. But install stuff surreptitiously and without my consent? No way. If it did that it would have gone right back to the store, EVEN IF THE STUFF IT DOWNLOADED AUTOMATICALLY WITHOUT CONSENT WAS REQUIRED FOR THE MONITOR TO FUNCTION.

Solaar (GUI app for controlling Logitech mice settings on Linux) weighs in at a hefty 6MB. :)

300MB for a glorified mouse driver, it would be funny if it weren't so sad.

I cannot find that in my settings.
Maybe I should report it to the developers of XFCE as a bug. :)

Just after the Steam machine was announced with specs, and just before hardware prices jumped back in November.
Ryzen 5800X, 32GB, 2TB, RX9600XT (16GB) so above the specs of the OEM machine
It cost me $650 (including some parts that I already had like PSU etc)
It's a nice gaming machine, and a capable desktop PC as well.
It's not a small cube with detachable face plates, but fairly small anyway. I like it.

... is of the kind:
"You should invest a lot of money in OpenAI"
?

Nah. Oxygen++ would turn all of the space computers into Rust. :)

"press F1 to continue"

Arch/XFCE with Steam (flatpak) plays 100% of my 500+ game library (many of which are "Windows-only") without any issues.
Also, many non-Steam games (especially the more modern titles) play without issues using system wine.

A 16" laptop screen located 1.5ft from my eyes (in my lap) appears subjectively approximately 3 times larger than a 59" TV located on the wall, 10ft away.

Why do you think it's normal for one to think they have to open an application that they never intend to use?