And I can’t do anything about it.

When people said I was going insane from taking my time to learn Linux, to remove google from my life, to resist using non-free software, I just scoffed and kept going. In retrospect, I should have explained my reasoning behind doing most of the shit I did, and I feel bad about not doing so. But with everything going on about ID verification for using basic online services and all the data-collection for AI training, perhaps my actions showed I was ahead of the ball-game in that regard.

Of course, it wasn’t completely intentional, but I did see a pattern before with how Microsoft killed Skype, and I assumed Discord would eventually hit the same fate (I first got this thought when I had to start using plugins to make Discord bearable to use) & I was trying to be ahead of the ballgame by moving people I knew to something FOSS before some large corp saw it and would take the plunge to make something marginally better than the current platform (before enshittification would start all over again).

Of course, everything will eventually succumb to bitrot. Steam is finally starting to get hit by it, but not of their own volition. The real problem is that the modern day & age’s politics are just absolutely fucked up and filled with retards and old people (not mutually exclusive) who don’t know what they’re doing with electronic devices.

Requiring ID for basic services is also fucking stupid - there is a reason that nobody has really tried this in the past. Now there ARE exceptions, don’t get me wrong, but they are few, mostly regarding sensitive parts of people’s lives, banking and utilities, stuff like that, but most of the time they have their own ways of doing this stuff, mostly, like… y’know, showing up in-person and actually having your ID in hand??? Rather than sending in a photo?!? That shit is COMPROMISING if someone gets a hold of it, no fucking thanks.

If things keep going this way, I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I promise it won’t be pretty.

If you wanted some replacements for appliactions, and my reasoning behind why which ones are good, see here.