Maybe not.

Basically every computer, phone or tablet not only runs some OS that can act as a powerful stateful router/firewall but also has the UI and some workflows specifically designed for that (connection sharing, tethering both wired and wireless, etc.).

Probably ... YES. Not intentionally, but I've seen quite a few posts over the last months where I said "surely this isn't AI" (and by AI I mean what mostly everyone mean by "AI" nowadays, these LLM autocomplete). We got to the point where the AI stuff is coherently crafted from beginning to end while the "human" posts are what the average human (that's a really low bar) would do, possibly drunk or on drugs.

Not sure what all posts about "Chromium something something" are about. Chrome has 65-80% market share. Most of what's left is Safari, with the rest being mostly in the noise. I'm sure Chromium runs on all these platforms, yet approximately nobody prefers it. Yes, Chromium or Firefox would do fine. But all the "[gasp] why people would want Chrome when Chromium and Firefox exist" posts are pointless, people just do.

And Apple has MacOS, iOS (and iPadOS) based on Darwin (BSD).

Ask Google why they're trying to fold ChromeOS into Android. On that side they barely managed to just give it a new name, while on Android side they're toying with a terribly lacking "OS" UI, and all apps are still the regular Android apps, missing even the (proper) Chrome from ChromeOS (!). And they've been at it since late 2024 (publicly, probably more behind the scenes).

LOL Guess again Asians are considered a minority for the mandatory Oscar quotas.

This is what I mean by "that can be faked fairly well currently" followed with "but also actively going after the entry points and blocking them completely".

They are blocking VPNs since way before the war embargoes and escalations (I presume there are some state approved VPNs but they would be worse than no VPN). They're blocking TOR too, and both aren't just regular DPI content inspection (that can be faked fairly well currently) but also actively going after the entry points and blocking them completely. This isn't trivial to bypass, as you somehow need to give people the nodes that are available for connection, and you don't know which one is a snitch. Of course, you don't give the whole list to everyone, but it's a cat and mouse game, everyone is looking for still working entry points but all that you can find "they" can find too and it's only a matter of time and chance.

Nothing makes sense. They started to supposedly merge Android and Chrome OS in 2024, didn't do much on Android except to fiddle with a desktop mode that's better than nothing but still really bad. And they didn't do much on ChromeOS (and can't really make it too Android-y without alienating the customers they have and use it, especially in education).

My theory is that they realised at some point they overcommitted with these and will just polish a little both Android and ChromeOS (rename it to AL...OS too) and call it a day.

NOTHING makes sense! If they want to merge them both why call one Android and one Aluminium? Now they're having "desktop mode" in Android that supports keyboard and mouse, and is intended for really all display sizes, from small portable monitors to large TVs and anything in between. Just say "Android" and call it a day, it's probably the most popular OS out there anyway, take advantage of the network effect.

Microsoft tried to call their thing Windows Mobile _number_, Windows _number_ Mobile, and Windows Phone in between only to drop COMPLETELY the "Mobile" thing and say their phones run "Windows 10" (no small print, no nothing): https://download.microsoft.com... . Even if confusing and dishonest they saw the value in just going with the most known and popular name.

The main problem is the keys have to be accessible to the WhatsApp ... app ... itself and you have no way of validating what that does. Never mind that it isn't open source, you can't read its memory space or debug it in any way, heck if you aren't rooted you can't even read /data/data/com.whatsapp/files/ . Because you know, it's too dangerous for you to be able TO READ YOUR OWN FILES ON YOUR OWN DEVICE.

They already have the facility to read your already decrypted messages remotely via the web interface "app", even if that encryption is end to end (which I guess can be, but it might be very cumbersome as opposed to whatsapp's servers doing everything and serving you the web interface) still the authentication process is mostly under Meta's control.

it would be a lot more difficult to establish communications with new users
 

No, encryption between any two (initially unknown) parties is a solved cryptographical problem (and when well implemented it would survive any sniffing or even active attacks). AUTHENTICATING the other party is the problem and of course you need in this workflow to trust Whatsapp on that, and nobody ever claimed or thought otherwise I bet. It goes without saying that it's on them to insure you are talking to the one who has that phone number - not great security but at least not a random attacker, you also trust it to be that app at the other end not Whatsapp themselves ...

Nah, the only thing that was better probably were cheaper drugs, other than that the Office for Windows Phone (later renamed to Windows 10 Mobile, than Windows 10 -even if it had nothing in common with "the real" Windows 10 - and then killed) was a pathetic joke. Even compared with the current Android MS Office, which is in fact worse than the web version.

Slippery slope much? What else should you buy in a multi-year contract just because it might make sense to buy a house? Full tank of gas? A loaf of bread?

And YES, the amount DOES matter. If you could buy a double-digit number of houses from a monthly salary (starting from minimum wage!), YES, it would be just as dumb to enter a two years contract to pay for it!