You are absolutely right! Part of the horribleness is exactly companies like Google who were the ones teaching people that everything should be "free" as in usable without explicit money transaction, and now they are the ones who are (thanks to EU I guess) trying to revert that and make the business model viable through subscription.

So I do get why the problem exists and I feel no empathy for the companies that are to blame for that. But, I do worry that we have a whole generation of people who think that stuff should just exist and have no monetary value like it just materialized out of thin air without anyone working on it before and neither having to keep it running. That is not a healthy mental model and it will contribute to predatory companies being able to harvest data out of these people in the future meanwhile privacy-first companies can't get them as customers because they have to actually ask for money for their services.

Weird to see this downvoted. Youtube is actually a good service that also isn't cheap to run, and it also pays good(?) money to the people producing popular content on the platform so why not pay for using it? Or, you know, live with the ad infestation. Businesses need money to run, and if you don't pay for the content, then either it's the ads or eventually the whole platform needs to be shut down.

It is a separate discussion if Premium pricing is appropriate etc. But it's quite horrifying to see people around the world having been taught into thinking that everything should be "free" even though at the same time everyone is complaining about privacy violation and ads being everywhere all the time.

Same! I started with Ubuntu back in the days and was shocked how weirdly bad it is nowadays when I was forced to use it at my current project with the client's laptop. I mean the happy path is still all fun and easy but after having Ubuntu installed, it's almost like a Windows experience trying to get stuff installed vs. having AUR available :D

I have to give huge thank you to Valve for making gaming on Linux actually a valid option. I've been mainly a Linux user since 2006 but always had to have a dual-boot setup for gaming. Seeing the progress on Proton, I decided a year or two ago that Windows 10 was going to be the last one I'll have on my PC and since my SSD died a couple of months ago, I didn't even bother to preserve the Win10 installation anymore.

Funnily enough on my front page, the next link below this post was "Microsoft starts testing ads in the Windows 11 Start Menu". I think that pretty much sums it up why I don't want to even try to mess with the thing anymore. It's been a good run and Windows has improved A LOT since XP days but oh dear god all the data harvesting nowadays...

EDIT: Yeah the link says pretty much the same things (and more) than I did below.

I think it says more about Epic's launcher and sales tactics than about Valve's dominance. I mean, up to a certain point you can compensate your inferior product with a lower price point but if the trade-off is too high, then even giving something out for free doesn't help. Epic's launcher has been quite bad without any clear development in my eyes for a long time, and I can as well relate to the other commenter about not being able to use it natively on Linux. It's just not something worth a few saved euros to put up with.

I do wonder what's the Steam users' demography nowadays. Are there so many adults who earn a decent salary that they can afford actually paying for their games and enjoy a working platform (Steam) instead of saving a buck and losing their hair on the rare occasion they have the time to play something? That can be a tough crowd to lure in with some occasional free games.

But doesn't Creative get rid of the need to actually collect the materials you need? It was so fun back in the days to dig out huge holes in the ground just to build a castle, and also die a bunch of times because you were a bit careless and dug straight down only to discover a large mine right below you :D I don't miss the buggy trains though. If I remember correctly, it took quite a long while for them to actually work properly in multiplayer.

But oh how time files - I just bought the damn game back in 2010 😂 IIRC it was right around the time Notch bumped the version up from Infdev to Alpha and I think there wasn't even proper multiplayer implemented yet then, or it was so much in it's beginnings that it had pretty much no features, like not even spawning mobs or having damage or anything. Later during my university studies we were actually using Minecraft to get our heads wrapped around electronics and latches in our study group and as a part of our course work first built our digital clock in MC with redstone before actually making the assignment on paper 😄

Even if Minecraft isn't exactly the same game anymore as it used to be, it's still nice to see it exist and be available after all these years. The core mechanics are still great and one can still play the older versions if they so wish.

It varies wildly. Sometimes its Skyrim or Fallout 4, sometimes it's some strategy game like Cities Skylines (2) or Factorio, or for a while now I've been playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 after I found out how awesome the gaming wheel support is on Linux. Latest Doom games have also been great for just venting out.

Yes.

I'm curious, what exactly gives a sense of OP being an Israel supporter? I read the post as good pondering about the reasoning for Israel's reactions and some good analogy for US readers through the 9/11 attacks and reactions for it.

It's pretty much required that a nation will either defend themselves or even counterattack heavily if someone attacks them or otherwise they won't stay independent very long (see Ukraine currently or Europe in 1930-1940s) and understanding that doesn't make someone automatically a supporter of either side. Now, it's a good thing to discuss about the size of Israel's reaction because completely destroying another country over a terrorist attack is not going to end up well either. This is something where the 9/11 comparison works well in my mind.

Many people also seem to forget that not everyone has a dedicated room or otherwise extra space to work in. Sure, if you live alone it doesn't matter but with other people living in the same apartment/house and perhaps them also working remotely, you suddenly need extra space just for good working conditions. Working space has a cost, be it in an office building or at employees' homes. Also good ergonomics means one needs a good desk and a great office chair which are not cheap to buy. Sure, I wouldn't necessarily demand more pay just for WFH, but I would never ever ever take a lower compensation in exchange either.

That said, I love working remotely from home and wouldn't go back to office. It's just that even if you save time and money in commutes, there are other costs in place that wouldn't otherwise necessarily exist.

It's the same here in Finland. Only one provider (DNA) offers IPv6 for residential customers and others are "working on it" still.

No wonder! I've lately noticed that some non-AAA games run way better on Linux than Windows on my computer (5950X, RTX3090). For some reason Barotrauma seems to lag heavily while playing on Windows but runs buttersmooth on Linux. Valheim has similar effect as well.

Also I have already decided that Win10 is going to be the last Windows version on my machine ever. Gaming on Linux has gotten so damn good over the last few years that I see no reason upgrading my Windows installation anymore.