I don’t know why but I thought they were some special inaccessible computers.

It’s their marketing. Marketing, marketing, bullshit and marketing. Macs get viruses, Macs have vulnerabilities, Macs crash. Doesn’t matter how much their indoctrinated fans might claim otherwise, Macs are just weird PCs. In that context, their refusal to allow their owners to control them is all the more jarring and makes owning the older models like you mentioned all the more sensible.

Corrections:

MacOS:

• Featureless Apple™-branded oblong with 195% profit margin (support for 160% profit margin dropped in Apple™ Mac™OS™ 12.8.3.1.6.4 West Coast Yuppie Resort)
• Devices no more than two years old
• No pride, self-respect, personality, etc, except that provided by ownership of Apple™ products.

For Windows:

• CPU generation newer than an arbitrary, shifting and easily-bypassed watershed.
• 1, 2, 4, 16 or 128GB of RAM, depends who you ask.
• Windows License 😉
• Copilot+ AI requires Microsoft CoPilot+ AI compatible Microsoft CoPilot+ AI CoProcessor+ and Microsoft CoPilot+ CoProcessor+ AI Microsoft CertificAItion+
• A lack of awareness or interest in operating systems.

For Linux:

• Turing-completeness.
• Memory, networking, inputs, outputs, power (optional).
• Another computer to occasionally Google who ‘initramfs’ is and why he won’t let you boot.

Depends where you live, but in my area pizza boxes go with the cardboard.

GDPR. Honestly, one of the greatest laws ever passed by anyone, anywhere. No hyperbole, it’s so simple and pro-dignity. It also offers a simple litmus test: if you oppose GDPR, I oppose you.

Fear of missing out, or FOMO, is one of the advertiser’s most powerful tools.

And before newspaper?

Ten pictures of Feddit users reacting to clickbait headlines that will make you say “no, these are all trains. No, I’m complaining as such, I like trains, I just… I thought… No, the headline said something about… reactions, yeah, and ins- actually, hang on, how did you get in here?”

Fedi Punter in Media Lingo Rant Slam: Reaction

Bought? Never. I have a 2024 Western Europe road atlas in the pocket behind the driver’s seat, but I don’t know who bought it. I like to look at the pretty lines and funny names from time to time, but really OSM and it’s various client apps are what I actually use.

FWIW the EU’s eCall system doesn’t actually require a GSM module in the car; it’s enough to use a phone connected to the Bluetooth handsfree kit… That said, since most manufacturers already have the module for data-harvesting anyway it’s kind of moot.

Also, st can fuck off. Just in general. It’s harder to write than it’s constituent letters.

WINE is WINE Is Not Emulation. It’s right there in the name in the name.

Good bot.

Two videos for you to watch:

Hyper-Reality, a PoV short film featuring an overqualified gig worker in a world of ubiquitous, ad-laden and heavily enshittified AR. https://youtu.be/YJg02ivYzSs

This Euro-News article which features a Murdoch-owned advertising agency trying to get train windows turned into bone-conducting acoustic transmitters so weary travellers are forced to listen to ads as they resr their heads. https://youtu.be/1KZATgg7bJo

Man, wait until these people hear about the filesystem and kernel.

MacOS: “The world came into existence fully formed ten years ago so it would be silly to even try running software older than that.”