That’s hard. Another solution, if it’s a laptop, is to have him mail it to you. Mailing a computer internationally 2 ways (a) will take a long time and (b) requires very, very good packing

Maybe you can send him an appimage of one? Those are easy to install. Then connect to his computer and update it

Get the most basic version with a metal interior. I haven’t tried many brands but my whirlpool is ok

It might be easier to install a remote administration program on his computer and just do these things for him.

A community in which everyone has equal power and acts in solidarity with one another

Big shout to Tablestory

For most relatively-nontechnical users, UX is among the most important parts of any OS. As long as it “feels snappy” and doesn’t run out of memory too quickly, marginal differences in resource usage won’t even register. Ideological considerations about being in control have been there since the beginning of Linux – it’s only the absolute horror of Windows 11 that has brought that to a crisis point that has more people switching.

I make these points out of frustration with some linux software devs who seem to hold UX in contempt. Darktable, for example, is powerful enough to pull tons of market share from the ever-more-expensive-and-resource-hungry Lightroom/Photoshop, but the mediocre UX is a powerful disincentive. “Fork it!” is… an answer. But, despite using Linux, I’ve never written a line of code. Neither have most of photographers in the world currently using Adobe products. UX is extremely valuable and shouldn’t be a second-order consideration.

grapheneOS isn’t security through obscurity, they make efforts to harden the phone’s privacy. You’re right that, if it was mainstream, Meta would target it directly though.

The solution is to remove the profit motive from acquiring, selling, and monetizing our data. Laws alone don’t stop big corps from doing things.

Doomscrolling is scrolling through your phone wallowing in depression/anxiety about these things. Moderate your news intake, spend some time doing mutual aid, ice watch, whatever appeals to you, and get more sleep.

Joplin

Alternative OSes for phones use the same carriers as everyone else. You can choose to use your phone on wifi only, without a carrier, to avoid using a carrier. You can also choose to use a VPN to make your data inaccessible to the carrier (although they’d be able to tell what cell towers you connect to).

In order to switch over, check the compatibility information for each of the OSes you’re looking at. If you don’t have a compatible phone, you’ll need to get one. Then you follow the install instructions for the chosen OS. GrapheneOS was very easy to install for me – I switched to it when my old phone broke.

So doge is doing that work. Why get rid of it if it does what they want?

DOGE is not just a Musk thing. Privatizing government has been a long term goal of the republicans and capitalists for a very long time

Linux is super configurable! You’ll just need to try out a bunch of different window managers, taskbars, etc to see which one you like best, but maybe look for some videos to preview a couple first.

The unixporn Lemmy community also has examples

Don’t pick a whole distro based on the UI. The distro choice is about stability vs bleeding edge packages, package manager, minimal/maximal installs, security hardening vs convenience, use or avoidance of particular systems (e.g. systemd), and things like that.

The UI will come from your choice of desktop environment, window manager, compositor, etc. Those can be installed on most distros. You can also look at dotfiles for more theming. Ofc it’s silly to install a different UI on a particular flavor/version/spin of a distro built for a given desktop environment (like Kubuntu), though it’s still possible.

I’m enjoying Niri rn. It’s a scrolling & tiling window manager. I have it running on opensuse.

Try searxng

Check for new terms about ai use of your data

This is amazing and should be in a tabletop rpg session

Telekinesis

Socialism would certainly work better than capitalism does. Under capitalism, because every company is driven to increase profits and the rate of profits, we have tons and tons of:

• Production of shit we don’t need (which people buy because of desire manufactured by marketing and a sense of having little control or meaning in their lives)
• Overproduction of shit we do need (e.g. fast fashion)
• The replacement of diversity with monoculture everywhere, making ecosystems less resilient and outright destroying them
• War for resources among competing empires and companies

In a socialist society (and, I would argue, a [libertarian socialist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_socialism society) society in which there were systems in place to prevent the accumulation of power), the base incentives of the system should be to fulfill human needs and promote human flourishing, as part of a web of ecosystems on Earth, and not to make a profit.

Here are a few examples of how that would make society much more efficient in its use of resources:

• We wouldn’t need to produce useless things for profit like superyachts or fast fashion. Instead, we could produce high-quality, long-lasting clothing and come up with interesting ways to wear, share, and repair it.
• Instead of growing mostly crops to feed livestock, produce corn syrup and other flavorings/additives, and ethanol (as we do in the US); we could grow a greater diversity of human-edible, nutritious food.
• We wouldn’t need to manufacture desire for consumption through marketing
• We wouldn’t have to fight or exploit each other to gain market access
• Programs like universal free healthcare would make for a healthier population that would need less emergency medical care
• People would have more agency in their own lives and more say over the decisions that affect their community, which would provide a level of satisfaction that would reduce “retail therapy”

I would also argue that there is no true socialism if it is not anti-hierarchical, which includes liberation and full bodily autonomy for everyone having childbearing anatomy. Among other things, that means the right to choose when and when not to have a child.

If we could achieve a libertarian socialist commune-of-communes in which we could guarantee ourselves and each other a dignified and abundant standard of living, in which we could provide for the varying needs of different kinds of people instead of demanding that we fit one or two pre-approved molds, and which has mechanisms to prevent the accumulation of power, then I think we can turn to questions about the number of humans who can exist on Earth, how we might travel the stars to find/create additional homes, and so on.