I'm just curious as to why you'd use that instead of any manufacturer or google's offering, since those are feature complete, have no ads and no in app purchases.

"I used it when options were worse, and I just like it the way it is" is a completely justifiable reason. A lot of things in our lives, there are better options but having to switch carries cognitive and time costs that are just not worth it.

Why would you want SMS app with "ads and in app purchases" when so many fully featured ad free with no in app purchases SMS apps exist?

What does it offer that others don't?

Everyone has their own message app, and outside US, almost no one uses it for anything other than SMS. For everything else, it's Whatsapp, Telegram, WeChat, Signal, etc.

It's interesting that google and other phone manufacturers lost this fight so comprehensively.

Story notes that number changes massively every month and it went 3,5 > 2,5 > 5,3 across January, February and March this year.

This obviously isn't changes in user base, but changes in tracking combined with very low sample size, meaning it's wildly inaccurate.

Props to writer in that he didn't engage in mainstream media clickbait method of "we clickbait headline and then we spin a narrative for the entire story. And then we destroy our narrative by telling what actually happened in last two paragraphs". This is explained in three opening paragraph, and literally first sentence is "if figures are accurate" proceeding to explain why they almost certainly aren't:

Quoting the story's opening below:

"If Valve's latest Steam Survey monthly figures are accurate, Steam on Linux enjoyed a very wild month of March. Steam on Linux is now above the 5% threshold and more than twice the size of the Steam on macOS marketshare.

Steam on Linux ended 2025 at around a 3.5% marketshare, dipped a bit in January, and fell to 2.23% in February. That's still much better than several years ago in the pre-Steam-Deck days when Steam on Linux was at around 1%. In absolute terms with the continued growth of the Steam user base, 2~3% was rather healthy considering all of its bumps over the past decade.

But Valve just published the Steam Survey results for March 2026 and they have never been so incredible for Linux... 5.33%! Steam on Linux was never above 5% and easily an all-time high for the Linux gaming marketshare, especially in absolute numbers. It was a massive 3.1% spike in March"

I.e. this growth is more than total supposed user base last month. This is obviously a massive statistical inaccuracy just hitting the limits of the error margin, as these numbers were tracked for many years, so we know what approximate number is. Error rate for these sorts of studies is usually 2-5% depending on sample size and methodology, so we're seeing the error rate manifest itself on massive differential reported.

It would really help if people took any decent class on statistics.

It baffles the mind that Microsoftware - known for decades for being unreliable shit - is allowed on space missions at all, no matter how uncritical the role. The potential for malware alone is ludicrous. "Hey, pay us 2500 bitcoins if you want your space capsule back".

Then again, I figure the days when NASA did the right stuff are long past.

You can just watch the videos. It's made very clear where they sourced the information on the fraudsters.

This is why quite a few people followed in his footsteps and did the same thing. Went onto the relevant government website, pulled the data, and went to places. It's not like Shirley is the only one. He's just the one who started the trend.

This is so true, so true.

And it's not even US specific. In the wake of the Ukraine war, German parliament voted to give itself 100 billion of additional taxpayer money (i.e. debt) to spend on defense. Recently a report came out of all the money spent so far, 90% did not go towards the intended purpose.

Why any of the jokers in charge of our governments are still not in jail baffles me more and more every year. Oh yes, it's because they make the rules, sorry, my bad.

That's what campaign donations get you, if they are large enough.

This is why congress occasionally bullies the big tech companies. We all think they might want to have some regulation or to punish them. Oh sweetie... they're saying "nice company you have there... would be a shame if something happened to it..."

The best time to leave github was when the evil empire bought it. The second best time is now.

Seriously. Anyone who thought MS wouldn't fuck it up in the same way they fuck up everything they touch can't be helped. It's Microsoft for crying out loud.

Don't care. If your shit shows me ads, it's not getting into my kitchen. Note to self: Don't buy appliances from Samsung anymore.

Yes, I am vocal in how much I hate ads. I believe the CEOs of advertising companies should get one hit with a stick for every time their ad bothered someone even in the slightest.

Exactly what I'm saying.

The fact that users and enterprise customers are not demanding better software from Microsoft with the same fervor their ancestors demanded that the witch be burnt speaks volumes.

And I'm specifically talking about operating systems here. Software can crash for all I care. I'm fine software quality being all over the place, the market can sort that out. But operating systems are natural monopolies and the foundation for everything else. We should not accept shoddy quality there.

They do. That's why that Mormon guy could just grab a list of those organisations from the relevant government website and went to each location to show they're fake and exactly how much money they are defrauding the government on camera

Users should never be able to do things that cause crashes in the same way that drivers should not ever be able to press any button or press any pedal that causes the engine to spontaneously burst into flames.

I'm also a Mac user, but let's not boast here, shall we?

My personal guess would have been at least 10x. Did Microsoft bribe the study authors?

Dude, are you living under a rock?

These bands are creating new music. But the money that allows them to do so comes from their old music. I have bands in my collection that have been making music for 30 years.

No they don't. They don't even make ok money. Tours are expensive and a lot of people, from road crew to venue security, take their cut before the musicians. The big guys, they make a killing on tours. But the small ones sometimes don't even break even.

In fact, a common wisdom in the industry is that touring is worth it not because the tour itself makes profits, but because it builds a fanbase and drives what is called "catalog discovery" - both old and new fans looking buying the albums with the songs they liked (and for the old fans, didn't know).

This study: https://www.giarts.org/article... says that 28% of income across all the musicians surveyed comes from tours. The share is larger for the rock/pop sector where it nears 40% but even that isn't easy money. And if you consider that only 20% of the rock/pop musicians make more than $50,000 a year, then it becomes a hollow statement.

Plus, it goes directly against your first statement - while on tour the band is not creating new music. So if you want to drive musicians more towards constantly creating (which most of them already do), then you can't make live performances the main income source.