This is anecdotal, but yeah. I once mentioned this google thing to my wife. She was due to change her phone and once I explained she was like “I’d like to have what you have” so she is now on a refurbished Pixel with Graphene.

No bingo for me :(

Only two somewhat fit and don’t allign with the free space.

This doesn’t track. On one side you say this will directly affect incredibly small number of people but this incredibly small number of people also flood posts with their one vote? Wouldn’t that be incredibly small number of votes per post?

Ok, so in the announcement post they talk about mostly technical reasons for this. But from the linked post it does in fact sound like the aim is to throttle most active members because they have too much influence?

This is what rubbed me the wrong way and I just couldn’t figure out why. We all have one upvote to give, some people just give it way more of them - so in comes the great equalizer in the form of the daily quota.

I hope you pardon my exagerated metaphor, but this is like limiting free speech for journalists, because they excercise the right of free speech way more than others.

It’s “just” votes so I’m hesitant to call this censorship but… this does feel like a first step. Will there be daily post quotas too because some people post more than others?

That’s… really weird.

On the surface the reasoning behind it makes sense, but there is also something about it (that I can’t quite point out yet) that rubs me the wrong way.

I think I might be out of the loop. What’s happening…?

Yoy described the current solution I believe.

The more hoops they put in place to jump through, the less people would consider going outside Google Play. And the more control Google has on the ecosystem.

This is why I don’t have one. I like (some) tattoos, would love having one but I’m too afraid of possible health issues.

I just don’t want one bad enough I guess.

My understanding is that Russia unfortunately still has plenty of oil - they are short on refineries to turn it into gasoline.

I don’t like the many layers that winter requires but at this point I could bite down a bullet on that. But I just don’t handle the short days well.

I’m sure in a year or two that would be preferable as well.

That’s called cake

This is definitely a scam, though I’m also confused by your dad traveling, usually that’s other way around (and that’s where “complications” happen where money is “needed”).

Try to tell your dad what you expect coming - there will be complications and she will ask for money. Likely only a little at first, but the number will be rising.

Also, since they are impersonating (or acting like) a public figure, try searchig for the name online. Your dad is likely not the first (or last) that fell for this particular scam. Other people might be sharing stories with this person. There might be messages shared that people exchanged with the scammer - these will likely match those sent to your dad (the scammers usually have multiple people going at the same time). Use that - if your dad reads on the internet the exact message he got from his love interest, that hopefuly will ring some alarm bells. Though in the age of AI this might not be the case anymore, it’s worth a shot.

Talk with your dad, ask how things are going and try to be vigilant for money being asked for. Try to poke holes in the stories but be gentle so your dad doesn’t shut you out - he will likely not be that willing to listen. One way or another he will get hurt - you can just minimize the financial damage - or limit it to emotional only.

Good luck.

Especially if this is a CEO

Harry Dresden energy

I had an issue with one banking app, but that might be because I had the second degoogled user going at that time as I tried to see how some of my apps worked that didn’t have any data on if they work or not.

I also had issues with a game called Root, Play store suddenly said it was not compatible but I installed via Aurora while spoifing a different phone and it continues to work fine.

There were some minor hiccups on some apps that were fixed by disabling some exploit protections built into Graphene (a simple Exploit protection compatibility mode toggle in the app settings).

Overall I’m really happy and if I wasn’t concerned about Google further closing down the Android ecosystem, I wouldn’t be considering switching. I never had a situation where I thought I’d be better off on stock Android

You are right. Though it’s not entirely on Google, but also on whoever develops/publishes the app. It can be done without reliance on Google, it’s just easier to use their stuff aa a crutch (at least that’s what I’ve been told.

I use GrapheneOS (with their sandboxed Google Play) and I had minimal issues. On completely degoogled one there was more issues, but something that could be worked around. I imagine with microG it would be smoother (Graphene doesn’t allow it so I couldn’t test).

It is harder than stock Android for sure but I’ll be damned if I just give up. It’s now a matter of principle for me now.

And yes, Linux will be likely even harder but I’m considering it for my next step at this point - exactly because Google is making it harder on Androids and I feel like if you want to really escape their data-hungry fingers you just need to get out of their reach as much as possible. And while there isn’t the same ecosystem available as Android has, there are workarounds for now.

You can run Android apps via Waydroid. And there are ways to run the apps seamlesly, without needing to open waydroid -Droidian does this for example (I had unfortunately some tech issues with Droidian so didn’t test it much.

The already mentioned SailfishOS should have something that allows seamless Android app integration as well.

There is still the issue of some apps not working on deGoogled Android though, Waydroid basically runs LineageOS if I’m not mistaken. I assume microG would be possible but I have yet to try it.

Valid argument - assuming you live in the woods and hunting and gathering is the only way you can get food.

When Christianity becomes a tool of power

When? We are far beyond that point…

I can’t tell, even when you pointed it out… and it concerns me. The low res really masks the tells pretty well.