2 ms·

I did what you did, and then I went back. I went from full Apple ecosystem to completely FOSS, and then back again. I have an EliteBook running Fedora, and som

I did what you did, and then I went back. I went from full Apple ecosystem to completely FOSS, and then back again. I have an EliteBook running Fedora, and some virtual private servers to run Matrix and NextCloud. Fedora was solid for about a year, and then it catastrophically crashed. I had backups so I could get my files back, which was a good thing, since NextCloud's encryption relies on an unencrypted local copy (in my particular version). Decrypting files stored on the server was onerous, at least in the particular combination of server/client I was running. Since I rely on those files (OCR scans of letters, building blueprints, photos and a bunch of other stuff) I found this unacceptable. For the phone I have a Fairphone 4 running Murena's /e/OS (which is a stupid name, by the way) which works. GPS was crappy though, and aside from messaging that was all I used my phone for. Yes, it is important to have some measure of freedom, and I am still vigilant against locking myself into systems I'd have a hard time getting out of. But at some point pragmatism wins. I never wanted to tinker (on production systems, anyway), I want stuff to work so I can go about my business. So now it's an M1 Pro MBP and the iPhone 8 I had in a drawer. I set up some automation to copy Photos out of the library into flat JPEGs and I copy the iCloud data to an external drive (in flat, open format) regularly. Other than that I rely on Apple to keep my OS secure and hardware running. Some part of me misses the feeling of being 100% in control. On the other hand, this just works, and I have little issue throwing money at the problem.

shrimp_emoji 3y ago
That's hilarious. I definitely feel you. :p Between idealism and pragmatism, the latter definitely wins when push comes to shove. It's also easy for me to posture as though I use GNU/Linux out of bitter, noble sacrifice and righteous fury toward Microsoft, but that's like 1% of it. The 99% of it is pragmatism. I happened to have lucked into a set of priorities where Linux is the more pragmatic choice (as long as you pay the upfront cost to learn it). I don't need to use PhotoShop or audio synthesis software, for example. I just program. So, for me, Linux works great! :D I also play (mostly non-AAA) video games. If Valve hadn't supported Linux, you best believe I wouldn't have survived on it. So, actually, my real fear isn't that I get complacent about my ideals; rather, it's that my priority matrix never shift such that the optimum solution begins to run against my ideals. (That's partly the case now that Microsoft owns GitHub, since I use GitHub, and I try to forget that Microsoft bought it every time I use it.)

shrimp_emoji 3y ago

That's hilarious. I definitely feel you. :p Between idealism and pragmatism, the latter definitely wins when push comes to shove. It's also easy for me to posture as though I use GNU/Linux out of bitter, noble sacrifice and righteous fury toward Microsoft, but that's like 1% of it. The 99% of it is pragmatism. I happened to have lucked into a set of priorities where Linux is the more pragmatic choice (as long as you pay the upfront cost to learn it). I don't need to use PhotoShop or audio synthesis software, for example. I just program. So, for me, Linux works great! :D I also play (mostly non-AAA) video games. If Valve hadn't supported Linux, you best believe I wouldn't have survived on it. So, actually, my real fear isn't that I get complacent about my ideals; rather, it's that my priority matrix never shift such that the optimum solution begins to run against my ideals. (That's partly the case now that Microsoft owns GitHub, since I use GitHub, and I try to forget that Microsoft bought it every time I use it.)