I do not use Google products or use FB or most social media and family looks at me as if I am from Mars. Some do not even know what Linux even is. If I installed it on their machine and didn’t tell them what it was, they would just think it is “another” Windows.

Once a non-tech guy asked how I find stuff if I did not use Google Search. Another thought that I used Terminal, not because I need it but because I wanted to look Retro.

To plenty computers or tech in general are not their thing.

Caring for your Privacy and the general privacy of society in the aggregate, given the increasing data mining, collecting, advertising and other trends is the normal mindset.

Getting propagandised and brainwashed into thinking that paying, with your own money for literal microphoned devices operated by for-profit-focused Corps that will listen in and record you so as to give you lazy weather updates or help you play a song, or purchase knick-knacks online in exchanhe is the crazy take.

Getting you to feel ackward is the point of peer-pressure and their Marketing. Just ignore it. You are not in the wrong.

Gradually? By 10’s launch, it was already adware/spyware. 11 is not even attempting to hide it, if you look at it objectively past the PR.

Not a fix but having Mozilla coded PWAs could help a bit. Rather than 3rd party.

Vertical Tabs are in the Nightly build, already. It is a very rudimentary implementation, still. Personally, I use Sideberry though.

Not a hot take. Most regular end users are lazy, not tech savvy, or do not care. Not meant as an insult, it is just reality. I used to be a SysAdmin and this was always the case. This is why IE got big, and why Chrome and Google Search got big and to a larger extend why Apple’s offering got big in their ecosystem.

Google trying to kill adblockers Barbara Streisand Effect them into the spotlight, magnitudes more than their own existence had merited to most average users in the last 15+ years, at least in the USA.

And even now, I still know tons of end users who do not use adblockers.

Ah, fair.

This has been done for decades. It is PR 101, and it is done to indoctrinate and subsequently normalize XYZ onto the average consumer/citizen.

In Marketing, you get taught that the average person has a memory of 3 to 6 months for issues like this, at the most. So, if you can afford to stretch something for longer, than acceptance on average, will always go up. Attention span are short. In other cases, it alleviates any cases of legal liability. Since no one can say they were not warned.

I knew that 23andMe would eventually breaker to that. Told people not to do it. Oh, well.

I opted out of LinkedIn and PayPal, but I wish I didn’t have to use them. Plus I do not fully trust them to respect the option, too.

In fairness, no one who understands how Laws actually work says that. Problem is that most people just do not care.

I got people saying I was silly paying a bit more for when I wanted to use some VPS boxes located in not 14 eyes countries.

Personally, I got a large dumb flat TV and use a small PC attached to it with Linux with all the privacy trimmings, VPN, etc. Use a browser, like Librewolf or FF with ArkenFox, along with Freetube on it which we control with KDEConnect from our phones. Once you setup the proper commands on it, it is fly and forget. You can pick a stripped, privacy focused distro, too. Most of my PCs/phones are on WiFi but for that box I plug it to the router via cable, directly, for faster display speeds. You can download other media software and run it through, if you wish.

Power usage is minimal or at least I do not see my power bill go up substantially, or noticeably. Have had this type of setup for over 15 years. Never had to worry about microphones or cameras as there are none to worry about. No terms to agree to that will get changed on a moment’s notice, either. No spying or dialing home. Sometimes, the best way to win is just to not play their games. Have 0 complains.

It is the same with Google Fonts. Everyone uses them, so your browser will have to ping Google Servers to get them. Even blocking them, puts you in a smaller bin of users since most people do not block them, which can help them profile you.

I got lucky and forced everyone I keep mostly on touch away from Gmail and into either my Nextcloud instance chat and/or Signal, XMPP or Delta Chat. Which are on mobile.

Another user mentioned PGP, great in theory, but most people I know do not use it and will not touch it. They think it is too complicated, which is not. But people are lazy if they do not care about privacy. I got lucky that I made most switch.

Why do Right wingers get pissed off at Stein? I do not get it. The main attack ads I have seen towards the Dr. come from the Democrats. Who try to sell her as a Spoiler candidate who is seemingly pro Putin – although no serious proof is given outside insinuations-- and also as proxy vote for Trump, because she takes away possible Dem votes.

Is it right wingers who dislike Trump?

One could still be pro Democrat or pro democracy, and still do not like Harris. Many things can be true at the same time.

On my laptop, I update my bashrc on Excel, in Wine, then export it as a PDF, OCR to .md, Pandoc it to an .Org, and then finally, write it down on paper and re-type it on my phone’s Termux’s Emacs instance, then TRAMP it to my PC, in the other room.

I use biebian, btw.

Personally, I like it. Usually I will have something playing, music or the like in another tab or will have multiple media tabs, so I will have a small PiP on the bottom right hand side, makes it easier to manipulate on the fly. Alternatively, I will just push the tab with the screen onto the sidebar, since this is what I did before this option became available.

The US follows the Super Power playbook, which is, they will invent some ridiculous, random, flimsy reason as to why they can allow themselves to break International Law. I mean, what is anyone else going to do? Invade them?

I mean, is not like invading Iraq, Afghanistan, among others, and covertly helping overthrow dozens of democratically elected Heads of State since WWII was like, 100% Legal.

If anything, at least more people see the blatant hypocrisy, now more than ever.

I guess if they are illegals than sure, why not?

I do not know either. But with the recent Google, Anti-Trust ruling, there is a chance the Courts could force Google to break the deal they have with Mozilla in the future. I assume Google will appeal, but if that goes, so does 80-85% of Mozilla’s income. Selling Mullvad’s VPN is not going to cut it, so maybe they think they can cash in with “AI” somehow. Since you are right, maybe the best VPN’s aren’t dirt cheap but they are certainly not expensive in most Western countries. Besides, most users do not use VPNs. As of 2023, only about 31-33% of all internet users do.

Fair. should have been more clear. I use Betterfox with my own tweaks, essentially a mix of AK and BF. Since BF is just based off AK. The AK maintainer has stated in the past that he just steals it off him. However and as you said, when jumping to site to site, AK is more likely to break things, which requires a bit more troubleshooting. Which I do not need for work since I know most of the sites I will be on. So outright privacy is not the primary goal there.
I used BF and tweaked upwards, rather than to undo AK settings. It’s just less of a hassle.

If I want AK, I use LIbrewolf since it already uses a lot of Arkenfox, along with my own tweaks for personal use, where I take privacy more seriously. Each browser has different uses.