It’s pretty spot on.

Most nerds I know (including sysadms) started out on Android because of all the reasons you’d expect. Most of them now use iOS / iPadOS because, at home, they want things to Just Work - and have the available income to throw at the problem. Desktop-wise many of them have used Macs on and off, but it seems like lately they trend Windows and Linux again. Probably because macOS has become more hassle than it’s worth with the continued locking down, increased paranoia, lower flexibility and ridiculous storage prices. It used to be that you could work around the storage prices, but these days it’s practically impossible to run programs from somewhere other than Applications if you want your system to stay up to date. Macs just aren’t the great *nix alternative that they used to be, and while Windows is still pretty awful for my use, Linux as a desktop/gaming system is getting better every day. At least so far. I miss when macOS became more useful for every release. The big releases these days break more than they fix for me.

Good thing some clients will remain incompatible with the new features, then. On the other hand, IRC clients have always been some of the most configurable pieces of software with lots of options to choose from, so I am sure it will be possible to avoid most of the nonsense even in v3 clients.

No reactions, emojis, previews of images and videos? Sounds like heaven.

Discord is creepy if you examine the information they like to collect. On Android, for example, there are 11 unique data points. That’s not just an email.

Personally, if I see a software project on Discord, I nope out. I have made very few exceptions and every time I have come to the conclusion that it is not worth it. Discord isn’t really good for anything other than what it was designed for: Persistent IRC - plus a voice chat option. It’s perfectly fine to chat with a bunch of friends and play some games together. But that is about it.

It is terrible for tracking subjects, for finding information, for storing information, and for engaging in chats across more than one instance. It is unintuitive to navigate, and while they have made improvements, it is up to the user to make a server bearable to navigate by hiding the flood of channels that the average instance contains. Even so, Discord will still try to show you things you have explicitly disabled as a “suggestion”. Discord is bloody intolerable.

So yes, you may grow a community quickly because the people who already use Discord can jump on there. You will, however, lose a bunch of users wiling and able to use a better option who are, most likely, more experienced web users - and sick of the Discord bullshit. While this certainly includes me, I have seen the same sentiment again and again in my feeds. Power users tend to loathe Discord.

Thanks for the heads-up on this. I was entirely oblivious to the existence of custom content.

These stunts should be ignored by the media now. Stop giving the clowns the attention they seek. It is every single bloody time. I’m not even American and still I’m sick of hearing about the idiocy of this small group of extremists.

Jeg synes også det tricky er, at man så skal stole på endnu mindre, ukendte udviklere. De har ikke længere Googles bevæggrunde til at snage, og de fleste er sikkert fine i kanten, men det er nærmest umuligt at sætte sig ind i som slutbruger - og relativt let at tage et build og tilføje noget, som kører under radaren og er en del af custom ROMen. Jeg er bange for, at de ikke får den samme opmærksomhed af sikkerhedsfolk som udgivelser fra Google/Apple/Samsung osv.

iOS. Så længe det varer. Det har været en dårligere og dårligere oplevelse de seneste år, selv om der på den anden side er låst mere op for ting som automatisering og sikkerheden er skruer yderligere i vejret. Jeg har været ved at kigge lidt på de forskellige alternativer som Linux og af-googlet Android, men umiddelbart har jeg ikke fundet en rigtig god løsning endnu. Jeg ville ønske, at de Linuxbaserede telefoner var lidt længere fremme i brugbarhed, men baseret på de oplevelser jeg læser om fra ejere af dem, virker de mere som devkits end produkter, der er klar til at køre.

Hvis du er bekymret for dit privatliv, så håber jeg ikke, du kører en almindelig Android-version på telefonen, medmindre du holder det mest personfølsomme på computeren. Der findes selvfølgelig alternative android-versioner, men du var ikke så specifik i din beskrivelse - og desværre er telefonerne vel snart den mest personlige computer for de fleste.

Nå, men hvad kører der her? Mildest talt et sammensurium. Jeg har to installationer af EndeavourOS på ældre hardware (2010 MacBook Pro og en Asus K56CB). Jeg har to maskiner med hhv. ZorinOS Core og Lite. Zorin er den mest problemfrie installation jeg har prøvet af noget som helst til ikke-kreativ hjemmebrug. Alt har virket ud af æsken på min desktop, og da jeg først fik tæmmet UEFIen i den bizarre Acer 2-i-en, som jeg lagde Lite på, virkede alt også upåklageligt der (den maskine kan virkelig ikke lide at installere noget som helst andet end Windows og bruger 32 bit UEFI til en 64 bit maskine).

Jeg har også en PPC Mac Mini med MorphOS 3.18 og en Mac Mini Server med Haiku OS nightly. Dertil kommer en arbejdslaptop med macOS og en M1 Mini, som også kører Ventura og primært er server. Der er også en Pi, der kører sin debian-variant, men den laver ikke så meget andet end HomeAssistant lige nu. Jeg har også et par Win 11-maskiner, der primært bruges til spil eller at understøtte anden hardware (f.eks. små værktøjer til firmwareopdatering, der kun findes i Win-versioner).

I don’t know anyone actually using WhatsApp - and considering who makes it, I’m not tempted to start on my own. Of course there are other, better alternatives, but you still have to convince others to use what you would like to use. That is an uphill battle - especially with tech illiterate users in your family.

Just use the fantastic Heroic Games Launcher.

Check out their github to see how new this actually is. I’m blown away that it actually works most of the time and new major features arrive daily.

Check out their github to see how new this actually is. I’m blown away that it actually works most of the time and new major features arrive daily.

OK, thanks. Guess I must have overlooked it when I searched for it (because I started in Firefox). I still think it’s worth to be aware of in case people use some really specialized browsers with certain limitations.

One thing to be aware of is that it should probably be done with the original system browser, so Safari on iOS and Chrome / Samsung Internet on Android. At least I didn’t seem to get the option to add to home screen from Firefox on Android, and I’m also not sure every iOS browser will have add to home screen in the share sheet.