Ironically I think I’ve gotten better results from AI-optimized search engines than from DuckDuckGo

I have not had good luck with any search engine I’ve used lately, even Kagi. I pretty much have to go directly on the website I expect to find what I’m looking for and search there now. Also I suspect that with AI people might be posting in forums less now.

Do you live in California?

With Brave I need an ad/paywall blocker for the browser itself

I read on the GrapheneOS forums that Cromite lags behind on updates and that Titanium is better

Windows phone failed because it could run apps people expect

That combined with being a locked-down platform, which is a big difference with the open source OSes to people who want to make the most use out of their phone, technical or not.

that’s the same blocker for Linux on mobile

Linux at least supports compatibility layers and VMs so it has more potential

Unless things improved drastically, I really can’t see how it replaces GrapheneOS.

Right now it doesn’t, but GrapheneOS is held hostage by Google until a group of people decide they want to hard fork AOSP even though Linux already exists. Google has become increasingly negligent with AOSP which is not a good sign for the future of either platform. Hard forking would involve maintaining most of an OS and fighting Google constantly if they want to maintain Android app compatibility, whereas the Linux ecosystem is already maintained and work for it improves both desktop and mobile so it just needs UX improvements to be a solid alternative.

My current daily driver is a Pixel 9 with GrapheneOS, and it’s the best experience I’ve had using a phone.

Right now I use a Pixel 6 Pro and it’s also my best experience but I’m pissed that it’s EOL now and I don’t want to spend $1000 on another mediocre Google-ecosystem phone with no expandable storage.

Sure, there are Linux phones being sold, practically nobody would honestly suggest they work as a daily driver. And Windows phones were being sold because MS is a giant company that was willing to burn money trying to make them popular, however even with all their resources, they failed to make them succeed. But you appear to be suggesting that some small hobby vendor will?

I was talking more about Linux devices in general but even for phone use it isn’t that far off, the Pinephone is more capable than the Windows phone that I daily drove for 2 years and ARM hardware support in general is improving. Right this very moment I wouldn’t recommend it to people since GrapheneOS works a lot better, but once AOSP completely enshittifies to the point where people have no choice but to hard fork it or use Linux, I expect that Linux will gain a lot more traction.

As for why Windows phones died off, it’s because they were literally useless. Too restrictive for tech-savvy people (could get a OnePlus phone instead and put whatever open source Android distribution you wanted), and they couldn’t run anything except for Internet Explorer/Edge, Cortana, and Subway Surfers making them useless for normal people. And even through the web browser it wasn’t well-supported like desktop Chromium so even that wasn’t an option a lot of times. So nobody had a reason to buy one.

Linux already has much better app support, is the most powerful OS that’s currently functional in general, and has a solid community behind it. All hardware venders have to do is make it functional, and it’s already a better phone than the Windows phones with an audience that’s growing not dying.

As for Android phones, Fairphone is bigger than a “small hobby vendor” at this point.

Slack in particular is extremely popular with software dev shops.

Non-technical people don’t do software development though.

You can use WhatsApp as an even more mainstream example and it has the exact same problem.

WhatsApp is a bigger issue, agreed.

No not at all. If you mean any vendor at all, we already have smaller but increasingly popular venders selling devices with Linux and degoogled Android preinstalled. Even Lenovo/Dell sell some devices with Linux even though it’s more niche. In the past, Windows phones were being sold in mainstream shops even though you could barely do anything with them. There will always be an audience of people who want to freely install apps, and even among less technically proficient people a lot want to save money through mods and unpaywalled content and are willing to learn. And Slack/Discord are poor examples anyways because most people don’t even use Slack and as for Discord, it’s usable right now and if it becomes unusable it’s popular enough that someone will find a way to get it to work.

I think with Windows the main situation is that there’s barely any laptops that come with Linux and most people are going to use the OS their device came with until it becomes a problem for them. Unless you’re doing software development or want to mess with the internals, Windows isn’t that restrictive either in its current state. A counterpoint is iOS vs Android, where iOS is extremely restrictive making it one of two main reasons people will choose Android. I’ve met quite a few not-very-technical users who despite using proprietary OSes hate ads enough download modded apps, or even on iOS found ways to get them. If Android becomes like iOS then that will boost interest in alternatives for these people. If Motorola starts shipping devices with a freer OS option then that would also help. There’s also the type of people who are so confused by technology that you could give them a laptop with Linux and KDE and they wouldn’t realize it’s not Windows.

“Reduced functionality” is subjective, for the average non-tech user you’re right that they’d see it as reduced functionality, but there’s also plenty of people who want a phone that they can choose what apps they can install on it and remove tracking and bloat and ads for a large number of reasons. If Google starts doing what they say they’ll do, then using a web client/wrapper for a single app on a personal phone is a minor hoop to gain much more functionality out of their device, and if organizations use a user-respecting platform like Matrix instead they don’t have to jump through any hoops. Even among non-tech users there seems to be at least some interest in free platforms, so making them more user friendly is important but proprietary apps aren’t going to make that easy so the options to focus on are mods/wrappers or freer platforms, I find it unlikely that they will support such an OS seeing how Windows phones went and defeatism isn’t going to change anything. And if the non-tech users don’t care then they don’t care.

Facebook and Twitter

For social media those sites are such shitholes that I’m actually kindof happy their users aren’t on the fediverse

If people aren’t going to put effort into avoiding proprietary platforms, then the duopoly won’t change and nothing gets achieved there either

EDIT: Also this is about functionality not morality, proprietary platforms are functionally restrictive which is what makes them problematic in this situation

If your workplace requires proprietary slop apps and won’t offer you a phone and you’re doing your best to make it work on your phone, then it seems like their problem if it’s still an issue to them

it’s not the same as having official clients if you actually need to use these apps reliably for work for example.

The web versions are official clients though and they seem pretty reliable IMO

Why not use Revenge for Discord? Or on Linux Equibop and Slacky

Christianity has about as much to do with Naziism

Yet neo-Nazis will say that Jews are a primary opponent to Jesus Christ and have made themselves enemies of God to justify their antisemitism

I do know someone who sews. My concern with putting the lunchbox and laptop in the same pack is the lunchbox leaking somehow which I’ve had happen before. Right now I’m leaning toward getting a weatherproof messenger laptop bag and Lectric’s waterproof pannier and putting it in that, and getting another one of those panniers for the non-electronics. Or alternatively the Ortlieb commuter insert if there’s a good way to make the pannier attach since it would be sad if I have to waste them (but at least I could keep one as a backpack).

fortunately the Steam deck doesn’t have that problem

And right wing ghouls will argue that the protesters deserved to get arrested because they occupied a small amount of space

Thanks for the helpful advice!

But a laptop bag would work equally well, such as those which look like messenger bags.

That’s another option I was leaning toward, and it looks like a great size to contain my electronics. Do you think it’s a good idea to get both a sleeve and a laptop bag to protect the bag?

For rain clothes, presumably you would be wearing these while commuting? Do these need to be stored in the panniers? Or would this be in preparation for a rainy commute on the way back home?

Right now I have a rain coat and rain pants but I don’t want to wear them when it’s not raining since it gets hot. There are days where it rains in the morning but not in the afternoon so it’s still wet but I’m not wearing it.

My bike tools are stored in an undersaddle bag which never leaves the bike. This means I need them to be fairly compact, but I do keep the essentials on me wherever I may run into trouble.

I have a small container with most of the tools already, I think it’s designed to attach directly with the bike actually but I don’t know if it works well and I need to remove it anyways so it doesn’t get stolen so it was more convenient for me to put it in another bag.

I think the key thing to remember with a bicycle commute – electric or otherwise – is that things will bounce around. It’s not like in a car where something can be placed in the passenger footwell and it’ll mostly get to the destination in one piece. No, stuff in panniers will bump into things, the side walls, and sometimes even try to escape out the top.

Lol so true, I’ve had multiple things damaged in precarious setups since there’s no suspension to soften impacts. I was transporting a chest freezer once and it got dented.

Has a long lifespan with maintenance and repairs. I’ve got bikes from the 70’s and 80’s that are still doing well (though I wish my wife liked the Fuji more, she is more comfortable in a hybrid style than road though). I want a frame that lasts, a motor that can be replaced without losing my marbles, I don’t have any interest in built in lights that are just going to break and become useless because its all sealed, etc.

TBH I don’t think you’re going to get even remotely close to 50 years of lifespan with current prebuilt ebikes. A lot of them are either from newer small companies who haven’t completed the test of time, don’t have prior experience to learn from, or just want to make them as cheap as possible. And the nicer ones are full of DRM. Both of them have a lot of proprietary components that are dependent on them continuing support or aftermarket options (ruled out by DRM). So it seems like you want a DIY build.

I’ve used the original Lectric XPedition for a few years. It’s a great bike for suburbs when it works correctly, although I’m nervous about its longevity, but it is one of the least expensive cargo ebike out there and it’s not DRMed to shit