Folks, let me share some random observations with you, because I can’t wrap my mind around those.

  1. People have Zoom, Teams, Slack, Discord, Messenger, Telegram, and Viber, all happily installed on their phones at the same time. When you then invite them to Matrix they are like “Is this necessary? Why install yet another one of those?”

  2. People who use Chrome by default without ad blockers, and you just hint there is a massive intelligence and surveillance operation are quick to respond that “I am getting this services for free, so it is fine to give something back” [1].

  3. People thinking that OSS is not secure enough for their devices. Surprise surprise, it is the exact same people who fall for obvious scams and their devices are ad-ridden, bloated horrors that have not been updated in a million years, but they think that Libre Office will break their computer and lose their emails.

  4. People thinking that privacy and anonymity enthusiasts are shady freaks who want to go live in the woods and possibly terrorists. There is a slightly insane take here that we are against technology because we refuse to “just” install an app to make our lives easier[2].

So they do not complain about being exploited and disrespected, while ripped off and offered crap services, as long it is a capitalist corporation shaking them down with vendor lock-in and network effects. They are grateful even. But just the idea of installing a single free/libre OSS app or extension to protect their privacy is a red flag and pushes their buttons big time, even for just suggesting it.

So, what are your own examples of anti-OSS stupidity, and how do you explain its prevalence in society?

  1. It is how quick they are in responding that way, which makes me think that the idea is already crystalized in their minds, by some “anti-OSS” discourse. ↩︎

  2. But just installing a Matrix client is a big deal. ↩︎

  • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
    22·
    11 hours ago

    Most people are just not technically minded or have the patience to figure stuff out on their own. All most people understand is “buy thing, it works, I go on internet and play games” … then after a year or two their laptop, phone or device starts to run slow because they never maintained it … “thing slow, thing no good, throw away, buy new thing” … then start again.

    I have several intelligent, highly educated, professional friends who have bought expensive phones and laptops, never maintain them, complain about them, dump them and buy new ones within a year or two. Literally buying $1,000 phones every year or second year.

    Meanwhile I bought a galaxy S20FE a couple of years ago. I got it on special with my phone company and paid $100 for it over two years. I added it to my collection of just about every phone I’ve ever owned over the past 15 years, that are all still working, along with laptops I’ve upgraded to Linux and tablets I’m experimenting with.

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
      2·
      10 hours ago

      What did you think of the 20FE? That was my last phone. I quite liked it in a lot of ways. My one point of major annoyance was the low volume of the ring tones. I know it can get louder because media being played on the speakers gets significantly louder, but I can’t make the ringtone be audible from my pocket on a busy street?

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.caEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        Love it and I still have and working. After having it for three years, the only problem I’ve had with it is my battery is spent. When I first had it I literally only ever thought of charging it once a week. I don’t game or use my phone for much other than taking pictures, video and as a phone to call people. I used a few small apps but mostly to go on Lemmy and they other site that shall not be named.

        I have an S22 now and it performs a bit faster but there is a serious battery problem with this line as it quickly drains in a day with moderate use.

        I’m considering replacing the battery on the S20FE just to bring it back to full use again.

        The other bonus with the s20fe was the card slot. I think it’s the last FE line to have a micro SD card slot.