hopefully tomorrow i'll actually set up my new phone

it's been such an astronomical pain in the ass... it's my mum's old phone, and it's a samsung, and you know how they are about modifying your phone!

word of advice: don't ever buy a samsung phone

i had to download a 4.3GiB stock firmware image from a site that caps downloads to 120KiB/s

why in the fuck do you have to flash the massive stock firmware file to reset knox, why is knox tripped when you try to flash non-stock firmware without enabling non-OEM ROMs, why do you have to enable non-OEM ROMs why do you have to have owned the phone for seven days (or set the clock forward one week) to enable non-OEM ROMs, why can't you disable knox, why doesn't wiping the phone from recovery reset knox, why why whyyyyyy

literally all i had to do with my old phone, the one i'm currently using, is download lineageOS and TWRP (along with gapps and magisk and all that), flash TWRP, install lineage, and reboot

meanwhile with a laptop it's like
- put linux on USB
- boot USB
- install linux

i hate phones and i especially hate samsung phones

at least it's not an iphone
i'd probably hate computers a lot less if i didn't know so much about them

the path to customisation on android is a long maze with broken glass floors and bouncers positioned randomly throughout who will kick you back to the start if you forget to say the right phrase

the path to customisation on iOS doesn't exist

meanwhile, puri.sm is promising a linux based phone that actually lets you install other distros and shit, and has open source hardware. it's set to come out in april, but it's gonna be pretty expensive, and i doubt you'll be able to get it on a plan

another thing that i hate about phones is how hostile they are to libre software

both google play and apple's app store require you to pay a fee to have your app added to their store. apple even charges you yearly to keep it there. you can't provide software for free without paying out of your own pocket. thus, every developer is heavily incentivised to either charge money to install their app, or to fill it with advertisements and in-app purchases. it's such bullshit.

at least on android, you can install apps that aren't from the play store fairly easily. sure, you'll get a lot less people seeing your app, but at least it's possible. apple makes you get a developer certificate if you want to avoid using their app store.

remember when microsoft tried this with windows? they tried it twice, actually - with windows RT, and then windows 10 S. nobody used it, and they were criticised almost universally for it, and rightfully so. but this is just the way things are with smartphones. it's how it's been since the iphone and it's going to stay that way for as long as smartphones exist.

the app store is a great idea - a GUI to browse a curated selection of applications, screened to remove malicious software. the thing is, this concept has been around for a while before smartphones did it, in the form of package managers. smartphones just took that idea and made it worse.

@lynnesbian
Not April anymore. Q3 now.

Also they did a blog post about "Converging on convergence" that has me a little shook. Like you haven't made a phone yet and you claim to be getting close to joining the two ecosystems on the software side.

@lynnesbian ooooor you could just go the harder but cheaper route and get ubports or postmarketOS running on whatever android device you want.
@knuxfanwin8 i tried using pmOS once
i got halfway through compiling the linux kernel when i realised that this was way too much effort for alpha software

@lynnesbian

I misread this as "circumsizing androids" as I was scrolling past.

No real point, it was just amusing.

@lynnesbian
The path to customization on windows: In August of last year you will be able to make the file manager dark themed. UwU sowwy uhh nevermind
@Authoritimmy @lynnesbian I broke down and bought a dedicated file manager due in part to the default one STILL not having even the most basic dark mode.
@Wailing_Oboli
@lynnesbian
Omg did you buy Directory Opus? I'm convinced that the only person who buys Directory Opus is my coworker who insists on using it exclusively
@Authoritimmy @lynnesbian Heh, I totally did (though only after trying a bunch of others). It's more than I really need most of the time, but I don't regret it for a second.
@Wailing_Oboli
@lynnesbian
I have it on my work computer and I actually really like it, although tbh all I really want is a dual-pane file manager and would probably be equally happy with anything with a dual-pane mode

@Authoritimmy @lynnesbian The dual pane mode was a bit of a switch, but it ended up being immensely helpful in managing my music collection.

(Also helpful? Being able to see the file size of folders.)

@lynnesbian people that don't know much about computers hate computers because the magic box doesn't Just Work and people that know too much about computers hate computers because everything is actually just terribly hacked together.
@lynnesbian ah in french there is a saying that mean this basically.
"Heureux sont les ignorants." (Happy are the ignorants)