Oddly, for this article, with a credit card payment for one thing.

Control of money (credit cards) is one great way to limit that... Steam is probably one of the safer places online. (They at least require payment for full features making alternate accounts harder to gimmick)

Compare that with a web nanny proxy's effectiveness for the internet at large.

> What's more impressive is with a product that's GIVEN AWAY FREE

When's the last time you paid for Windows? (usually comes free on integrated laptop / desktop, or non-activated free ISO installation)

There's a secure web browser?!!! (which engine? I'm so surprised to hear this!)

> Not everyone is a full geek, and not a lot of people understand what you mean when you tell them to type in a command in the terminal.

Every user should know what a directory tree is and how to save a file someplace "safe to them". Trying to avoid this creates "software insanity".

Not every user needs to know how to use a command line, but most should have a vague idea that "the dark place" exists and other people use it. That said, anyone who installs an operating system from scratch should probably be able to make the leap of "finding the dark place" and typing a few simple commands. Pre-installing an OS so most people don't need to do this, that gets a bit trickier and partly explains why things are wonky even today. Either the hardware integrator or the phone company seem to be the only folks in a position to do this now, and phone companies are especially bad at house keeping afterward. Frankly, UNIX / Linux hasn't had a good track record with pre-installation for some reason. Probably due to the tiny difference between GPL and BSD licenses. Corporate vendors just can't give up the illusion of "licensing power" and it goes strait to their head every time.

> ChromeOS and Android are signs of the things to come and Windows isn't even on the radar with those usage patterns.

The future is an OS that can't save files, doesn't know where to put files, and can't even properly send email? An OS crippled to not allow installing software unless it is "blessed" in a store front? An OS where editing text files and documents are difficult after thoughts?

Windows may have a lot of problems, but at least it was originally meant to be a general purpose computing platform. Not some gimmicky appliance for making phone calls (blackberry++).

There, fixed that for you.

Now LEAVING the editor... that's a bit more difficult...

Is it still UNIX if the "vi" command is missing on default install?

1976 called, it wants an editor back.

> collecting confidential intellectual property

Information just wants to be free.

This is great. I must be getting old since I'm actually finding buzzwords somehow useful now.

"no frills answers"

"vibe coding"

Such simple concepts and a common simple way of phrasing something to facilitate search and "communication".

A new shiny thing after cryptocurrency wound up as a commodity traded like so many others, and not the civilization-changing invention envisioned.

AI looks like it'll be hampered by power generation and delivery (or rather the lack thereof).

On the upside, there'll be ungodly amounts of money spent upgrading and expanding the power grid.

> Your copying that data digitally any way you cut it.

This, very much this. This is the reason we have the DMCA. VCR and DVD vendors were paranoid they were going to get sued for making "extra copies" inside the machine blitting video to your screen. So they "compromised" by signing the DMCA into law and creating a whole different landscape of rights and criminal prosecution for research.

I expect the other foot to fall soon, especially here in the USA. There will be new legislation and it won't be helpful or rational.

I think a better question is whether we are seeing capitalism's end game: concentration of wealth in the hands of so few they decide that it's in their interest to remove the governments power to regulate them. (As has been stated by more than a few national figures about deregulating to the point the US Federal government "can be drowned in a bathtub")

At which point the wealthy can simply assert the role they already hold: as our feudal lords. They hold all the means of production, all the means of information distribution.

They'll likely even have swarms of slaughter bots to enforce their will. What can the rest of us gonna do to stop them?

The problem is the same people are also entirely unable to see when they're being lied to / bullshitted in a different area. As a species, we just aren't skeptical enough in general, and we love when bullshit fits our desired narrative.