I blame the iPad kids for this one. People are being raised on touch-based devices more and more, and with people using things like iPads and iPhones early on they learn technology is touch based. This is just the next step with that. I also think it reflects a larger concern with a lack of digital literacy for many people, where companies like Apple make their devices incredibly simple and locked down to trap the consumer, until they don’t know how to operate basic functions of the operating system like a file system. You already don’t have a real filesystem on an iOS device anyway. This is the next step in making the MacBooks like iPads and iPhones and making the consumers less technically skilled so that they can be exploited. After the hardware is basically the same (the same M-series chips that power MacOS now power iOS as well) then the software for MacBooks will be locked down over time, until there’s basically no escape from this walled garden, not that anyone would really be able to escape it, since people lack digital skills. (but that last part is just a theory)

The thing I’ll be interested to see is more what type of software support this will have in reality. Benchmarks might be good, but if it has the same issues Wine has (you have to look up which versions are compatible and change these settings and download these .net runtimes or whatever to get one app to work) then it really just isn’t worth it. I have a Windows virtual machine and I can run any EXE I need to on it, which isn’t many, usually just for testing Windows applications I need to test out. The thing that is most annoying for me isn’t necessarily performance, just the fact I need to change Wine settings for every app I install. I really hope this takes off, but I also hope it is better than Wine not just in performance, but also in simplicity.

But I mean, really, it’s all in what software you use. I used iOS with Linux for a while with KDE and KDE Connect along with Tailscale to connect the two with amazing results. Its not all bad. I like Android + Linux better, but iOS + Linux is definitely doable, at least it’s not iOS + Windows.

From my experience as someone who uses Ultramarine Linux currently: The download page is fine, but not great as a new user. That alone kind of pushed me away, since I wasn’t sure if I was downloading the right ISO. I can definitely tell the packages are outdated. I like GNOME desktop (which is what I downloaded), but I definitely know that other distros make customizations to GNOME that I had begun to take for granted (e.g. pre-installed taskbar via GNOME extensions). I could definitely use Debian but I find it just… a bit behind? Like it definitely works, but other distros are slightly more user friendly. Debian can be customized to match those other distros, especially with Flatpak, but any distro that isn’t user friendly out of the box I don’t want to recommend.

Give the government $30 to maybe stop violating your civil liberties

Well, yes, land is managed through state enforced violence but also the laws of physics. There’s only so much that can fit on an area of land. If I build a house that takes up the full extent of the property, then nobody else can use the land for, say, a parking lot without me removing my house first. Every bit of land used/bought is a reduction in the amount of land left to buy. But a JPG can have unlimited copies made of it, providing unlimited storage. If I make a copy of a NFT image, I don’t deprive the owner of the image. If I buy a piece of land and use it, I’m kind of depriving others from use of that land.

It makes sense using it for safety, but I would worry about whether all the information on there is accurate. Most of the feedback on the app is probably negative, I doubt anyone would really post anything on Tea that’s positive about their former partner. But people like to believe they are in the right. Someone who got in a fight with their partner might post something on Tea that isn’t accurate, but makes them feel better since they can spin the story how they want, and make the other person at fault. However, unlike regular social media, the person being attacked by their partner on Tea has no idea that it happened, and no way to refute what was said. It promotes the opposite of any type of communication between partners after a fight or breakup. It promotes safety, but at the same time it promotes some toxicity in relationships. What would you think if you knew that if your got into a disagreement with your partner that you could end up posted on this app, without any way of arguing back?

You can use another frontend app for F-Droid, such as Droid-ify. It has Material 3 theming.