From what I understand, the rest of the Roman Catholic Church sees US Catholics as weird and a kind of lost cause. So I have doubts that the US would have too much sway over the conclave.

The lack of Neon Genesis Evangelion on this list disappoints me.

Nah. Hawai’i. But I didn’t search the correct mileage before I posted. It’s half that. (But feels like 5k when I think about that lingonberry sauce.)

The nearest IKEA to me is about 5,000 2500 miles away. This picture makes me feel all of them.

Edit: I failed to search the actual mileage between my home and the nearest IKEA before posting.

TIL lol

Bluesky is still pretty centralized and venture-capital backed. There’s been discussions about monetization. It’s only a matter of time before it enshittifies.

I would be totally fine with that tbh. Though I wonder if we’ll ever get to the place where a Mastodon client somehow incorporates an algorithmic timeline for those who want that?

I feel like the majority of people I see quit Mastodon do so because the platform (and Federation in general) don’t coddle their egos. With no algorithm to game and ingratiate themselves on everyone’s timelines, they make a public exit and talk about how broken Mastodon is and offer their takes on what it needs to be. Which, unsurprisingly, sounds like a non-Elon-ed Twitter.

I love Mastodon. I love discovering new people and accounts by happenstance (and not spoon-feeding).

Praise God other people see this connection! A friend and I have been referring to the GOP as Wimp Lo for the last couple of years and are always sad when others don’t get the reference. It’s perfect!

Guaranteed to make every album cover go harder AND signal to every kid which albums to look into.

The rich live better and I’m fine enjoying their leavings.

I want this as a sticker for all my repurposed old tech. This is an excellent quote.

Not sure if it fully counts according to the question, but I can’t imagine playing any version of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker that’s not the HD version for WiiU. That dual screen perfects the game and renders all other versions unplayable.

deleted by creator

The security approach was what first drew me to Apple back in like 2005. The whole focus on proprietary software that resulted in practically zero malware was definitely worth me having to do file-type conversions on documents and all that crap to keep up with people on Windows. And I loved it. And I kept adding every device and loving how seamless they all interact with each other.

But then there’s that shadow side you refer to. The gradual dumbing down of software, the constant hand-holding. The walled garden began to feel like a lock-in.

My last new Mac purchase was in 2011. I still use that machine. But I was not getting security updates and other things I use were leaving me behind so I decided to give Linux a try. Chose Ubuntu and the hardware was suddenly like new again. Apple makes beautiful machines but waste them on some increasingly basic software. My Linux-run Macs have made me fall in love with computers all over again.

If this somehow results in me being able to run like Graphene on my iPhone in a few years, or even connect my Apple Watch to a non-Apple phone, I will be pretty excited.

DOGEfighting

I think I understand your broader point as saying that a switch to Linux being as simple as switching from Coors to Miller is underselling the fact that Linux is a fairly different environment/ecosystem. You’re right on that. But as someone who’s made a switch to Linux (Ubuntu) after a lifetime of other OS use, I have to say that I think it’s worth it, even with the learning curve.

I have been exclusively a Mac user and Apple cultist for at least twenty years now and only knew Windows (3.0-ME) prior to that. I have a few 2011 Intel Macs that I use for work and home exclusively (two of which were hand-me-downs) and have not been receiving updates for awhile now. I’m not in the financial position to buy a new computer and I randomly read that Ubuntu runs great on these old Macs. So I decided to give it a try. It was a bit of work that was bolstered by the fact that I do have a bit more computer know-how than the average person (but nowhere near most of the people I see on the Fediverse). But I’ve come to love it and am now working my way over to this being a permanent change.

I’m only sharing this as an example that even deeply entrenched people can learn to use this stuff. And I was a Mac guy! Apple holds your hands and does so much thinking for you! I’d think with Windows, the switch over to something like Mint would be fairly easy, given the GUI (I specifically chose Ubuntu over Mint because Mint’s GUI is described as “Windows-like” and I personally hate all things Microsoft—which is definitely a “me problem” lol—but I’m probably going to load it onto an older ThinkPad of my wife’s that we want to set up for our son).

Similar to what was done in both Florida and Hawai’i too.

I switched over to LibreWolf recently. I discovered Vivaldi just a few hours before I learned about the Manifest v3 stuff for Chromium (which is a shame because I actually LOVED Vivaldi). I really want to try Zen Browser, but I’m using old, 2011-era Macs (running Ubuntu 24.04 on one) and it won’t install. LibreWolf is great because of its clean, minimal design and absolute privacy-forward thinking. I’ve enjoyed it so far (and I’m only running it on the Ubuntu machine).

Ah yes, my favorite literary index joke

The Ice Cubes app for Mastodon has a trending function, but it’s based solely on aggregating boosts and favorites (from what I can tell). The Impressia app for Pixelfed has this as well, but it offers the options to see trending posts or tags, etc. (I’ve found Impressia to be way better than the Pixelfed app on iOS, tbh).