We need to remember that there are people making unimaginable amounts of money every time we believe some AI is good enough to replace half of the human workforce.

Good job Cosmic team!

I really hope Cosmic can be the first DE to close the gap between tilling window managers and DEs we have today. Very excited for it!

I’m in the exact same boat. I would really like to use Vivaldi. I’m a sucker for feature rich applications (that a lot of people would call bloated). But I think that giving Google more power by using Chromium is just wrong. And I’m not even the paranoid type, I still use some Google services.

Yeah, no difference whatsoever between those services…

I just don’t think the majority of people are motivated enough. I have met many people who have no hobbies and no ambitions and just don’t want to do anything productive. They would like to spend their entire lives playing video games or partying or something similar.

And this is just about the lack of motivation, but what about malicious actors? People who would sabotage other’s efforts or try to profit in an unfair way? How would you ensure this won’t happen?

What about shitty and unpleasant but necessary jobs no one wants to do?

The idea that once you remove the money everyone will suddenly feel the desire to serve the society is bonkers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t love capitalism. I want to believe the world like that is possible, I really do, but I just can’t see it working. I live in a society where I have to use a 3 kg bike lock in order not to lose my bike and even then I have to detach the $10 light and take it with me because otherwise it won’t be there when I come back. I have zero trust and belief that such society can magically self organize and work together towards a common happiness.

In such a system, people work on what they want, when they want, and provide for society because it’s their true desire.

I find it kinda hard to believe that people would be able to achieve the level of organization and would be willing to put in the effort required just by doing what they want when they want, without any outside incentive. I’m not talking about a painting or a book, that’s why I specifically mentioned things requiring large investments. And by investment I didn’t mean just money but time and effort in general.

That might be true in many cases but do you actually believe that things requiring immense investments and years of work like AAA games and high budget blockbuster movies would be created in any system?

Yeah, I didn’t mention this but if it’s just impossible to buy something then I don’t see anything wrong about piracy. No one looses anything.

I definitely mean “stealing” as “depriving the publisher of the cost”. Limiting the term “stealing” just to moving physical objects really makes no sense in the current world.

it only holds if you’d actually have ponied up were the content not available for free

That’s an interesting case I never really considered. If you only genuinely pirate stuff you would never buy otherwise then… I guess it’s fine? But this alone doesn’t put the end to the discussion because I find it really hard to believe that people would just give up all of the stuff they pirate if they had to pay for it. But in some cases, sure, sounds reasonable.

Artistic content is, believe it or not, produced outside of capitalism as well.

That’s true of course but I don’t think just pretending we don’t live in a capitalist world and taking stuff for free is making this world better in any way.

Let’s say something costs $20, from which 75% goes to make some rich guy even richer and only 25% goes to the actual author who put in the work. It’s more important to me to give that $5 to the author than NOT to give the $15 to the rich guy. Would I prefer there wasn’t a rich guy in the equation? Yes, of course, but that’s often just not possible.

In the end, I genuinely want the world to be a better place but I don’t really believe in extreme solutions. I appreciate your civilized answer despite different opinions. Peace!

No, I don’t, because I can afford stuff and pirating in this situation would be just pure stealing which I believe is morally wrong. Yes, being a billionaire is usually morally wrong too but I don’t think it just cancels out.

Justifying piracy by saying capitalism is bad sounds like a hypocrisy to me. You want to use something that exists thanks to capitalism without participating in it. You want to eat your cake and have it too.

Now, the case is different for people that can’t afford stuff, especially when they genuinely need it (but I don’t draw the line at entertainment, after all people NEED entertainment too). In that case, please pirate away. Everyone deserves a decent life. In general, I largely agree with OP’s friend.

I see that Framework and System76 were already mentioned. I would add Slimbook and Tuxedo Computers to the list.

I was just in a market for a Linux laptop and I really wanted a Framework but it’s not available in my country so I settled on Slimbook Executive 14 instead. I have it for around a month now and I’m very satisfied.

If you’re on the edge right now - do it! Taking care of my body and diet was the best decision of my life.

Off topic but I’m surprised by the amount of smart tv hate in this thread.

I have a Philips TV with Android TV. I use it for YouTube, Twitch, Spotify and occasionally for other streaming services. I actually really like the experience. Everything is a few clicks on a remote away, the UI is clean, it works reasonably fast.

I’m not going to argue about privacy though, that’s definitely terrible.

FWIW I never experienced any of the above besides the tracking, that’s there for sure.

Yeah, there are reasons to criticize snaps but the fact that it takes a lot of space in some UI is not really one of them.

I bought a new smartphone a few months back and I didn’t realize it doesn’t have a headphone jack until recently. That was the first instance when I wanted to use it. But it turned out that BT was supported in that case too.

I absolutely see how removing jack is a problem for some people, but there is also a significant group which couldn’t care less. I haven’t used wired headphones in years.

Of course they want a constant revenue stream. I want a constant revenue stream as well, isn’t it normal?

Whether the price is worth paying for you is a different matter but wanting to profit off your hard and good work is completely natural to me.

This is the first time I hear about it and I have to say it looks really promising. I’m a sucker for Vivaldi style customization but I really don’t want to use Chromium based browser. Definitely will give Floorp a chance. Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

Some people mentioned Framework and I would definitely look into it, however you didn’t specify your country and they don’t sell everywhere in Europe. I was just in a market for a new laptop and really wanted it but it’s not available in my country.

Another options for an out of the box Linux laptop are Slimbook, Tuxedo Computers and Starlabs. I personally just ordered Slimbook Executive 14 yesterday.

Agreed. Considering how much I use YT, and how much high quality content I find there, the price for premium is incredibly low. I would definitely pay multiple of it if I had to (maybe I shouldn’t give them ideas though…).