Google takes away our ability to block ads. Elon takes away our ability to block content. HP takes away our ability to print with ink we purchased, unless we also pay a subscription. Adobe takes away our ability to own software. Interesting world…
Everything you mentioned is simply a subset of “[corporation] takes away our ability to own property” (i.e., trying to usurp our fundamental property right to control our computer). You can also add Apple and John Deere “right to repair” to the list, along with automakers trying to lock capabilities of the machine we already payfor behind paywalled subscriptions. It’s all the same underlying issue.
Make no mistake: corporations are waging a war on the public’s right to own property, and we’re going to be forcibly returned to serfdom if we don’t start fighting back.
Damn, I’ve been eyeing the Affinity suite for quite a while, but I still couldn’t bring myself to buy it, because they don’t have a Linux version. I do have a Windows on my computer, but it’s only for Rocksmith basically. And I don’t even remember the last time I used it. I don’t wanna buy anything for Windows anymore.
For now I have to stick to Inkscape, which is amazing in functionality, but I wish it would crash less often when I’m handling large files.
“Most browsers’ default tracking protection focuses on cookie and fingerprinting protections that only restrict third-party tracking scripts after they load in your browser. Unfortunately, that level of protection leaves information like your IP address and other identifiers sent with loading requests vulnerable to profiling. Our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection helps address this vulnerability, by stopping most 3rd-party trackers from loading in the first place, providing significantly more protection,” Weinberg writes in the blog post."
“Previously, we were limited in how we could apply our 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection on Microsoft tracking scripts due to a policy requirement related to our use of Bing as a source for our private search results. We’re glad this is no longer the case. We have not had, and do not have, any similar limitation with any other company.”
“Microsoft scripts were never embedded in our search engine or apps, which do not track you,” he adds. “Websites insert these scripts for their own purposes, and so they never sent any information to DuckDuckGo."
Ahh yes, the legalese that says, “no we toootally weren’t doing the exact oposite of what we said!”
Sure, they might not tag you with a unique ID that never changes like Google does, but to think Bing is untracked it to fundamentally fail to understand how privacy on the internet works, or doesn’t work.
As far as Brother, that appears to be an optional service. Our business has a contracted printer rental and service because the damn things are so expensive to keep running. Our old office printer used to break down all the time under light usage. We had the maintenance tech out at least 1-2 times a month.
It’s an optional service for now (hopefully forever), but I can see them go the required route, as so many others have gone, and I wouldn’t even be surprised
Regarding the Adobe part: I see what you’re saying, and I’m uncomfortable with the subscription model too. But to be fair, you never really own software, unless you write it yourself. When you purchase a software license - no matter for what software - you’re purchasing the right to use such software. You aren’t purchasing the software itself. But yes, even that feels better than just a subscription.
Btw, I’ve read an interesting conversation elsewhere about subscriptions. In some cases it’s not a bad thing at all. If you’re seldom using a software, why would you pay a full boxed price, when you can also just pay the fraction of the price for one month of usage? In my opinion, subscriptions do have their place, but companies should offer a dual pricing model: a boxed one-time price for one version, and a subscription for always the updated version. And it would be up to the customer, which one suits best for their use case. For example, JetBrains does something like this.
I agree with you that subscriptions can be useful in making things affordable for people in general but companies instead set the price at a level where it’s barely less expensive and if you pay for a year or two it ends up as more than you would’ve to outright buy the software or at least from what I remember of Photoshop pricing was that
@01189998819991197253@band_on_the_run in all fairness the ability to block a user is a lot different than the ability to block ads as Google is selling you a service by serving you ads.
Google takes away our ability to block ads. Elon takes away our ability to block content. HP takes away our ability to print with ink we purchased, unless we also pay a subscription. Adobe takes away our ability to own software. Interesting world…
Everything you mentioned is simply a subset of “[corporation] takes away our ability to own property” (i.e., trying to usurp our fundamental property right to control our computer). You can also add Apple and John Deere “right to repair” to the list, along with automakers trying to lock capabilities of the machine we already payfor behind paywalled subscriptions. It’s all the same underlying issue.
Make no mistake: corporations are waging a war on the public’s right to own property, and we’re going to be forcibly returned to serfdom if we don’t start fighting back.
You’ll own nothing…
Clearly nothing fundamental about these rights if they can be so casually stripped away.
Luckily there are alternatives to all of these.
Duck duck go can replace Google search. Dropbox can replace Google drive. Firefox can replace Chrome.
Mastodon replaces x / Twitter
Go buy a brother printer instead of HP
As far as Adobe, we do have photopea… The rest are harder.
…
Illustrator → Inkscape
Lightroom → Darktable/CaptureOne/Rawtherapee
They may need some getting used to if you come from adobe, but they are all very capable.
Inkscape doesn’t support typeface tracking which is a problem for me. I use Affinity Designer, which isn’t free, but also isn’t a subscription model.
Damn, I’ve been eyeing the Affinity suite for quite a while, but I still couldn’t bring myself to buy it, because they don’t have a Linux version. I do have a Windows on my computer, but it’s only for Rocksmith basically. And I don’t even remember the last time I used it. I don’t wanna buy anything for Windows anymore.
For now I have to stick to Inkscape, which is amazing in functionality, but I wish it would crash less often when I’m handling large files.
Affinity generally is the closest you get to a proper publishing workflow,imho.
I absolutely love it. And their pricing is more than fair.
I can see how that might be a deal breaker for some applications. Good to know that there are alternatives around!
DuckDuckGo contractually uses Bing’s ad tracking.
Looks like you’re wrong:
https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/05/duckduckgo-microsoft-tracking-scripts/
Ahh yes, the legalese that says, “no we toootally weren’t doing the exact oposite of what we said!”
Sure, they might not tag you with a unique ID that never changes like Google does, but to think Bing is untracked it to fundamentally fail to understand how privacy on the internet works, or doesn’t work.
It’ll be interesting to see if Abode turns out to be a worthy alternative or just a stunt.
That’s a confusing name to read
I suspect that’s the idea.
GIMP / Krita.
non-free bad.
Eh. We’ll see how long that lasts. All these big firms tend to follow the pack.
Honestly, best hardware decision I’ve made in a while.
I wasn’t saying there aren’t alts. And it’s not just Google search. It’s Google, as a company.
Also, brother is not a good alt anymore :(
As far as Brother, that appears to be an optional service. Our business has a contracted printer rental and service because the damn things are so expensive to keep running. Our old office printer used to break down all the time under light usage. We had the maintenance tech out at least 1-2 times a month.
It’s an optional service for now (hopefully forever), but I can see them go the required route, as so many others have gone, and I wouldn’t even be surprised
For a adobe you have the affinity suites.
Never heard of them. I use individual software as needed (GIMP, DarkTable, etc.). I’ll take a look at them, though thanks!
Regarding the Adobe part: I see what you’re saying, and I’m uncomfortable with the subscription model too. But to be fair, you never really own software, unless you write it yourself. When you purchase a software license - no matter for what software - you’re purchasing the right to use such software. You aren’t purchasing the software itself. But yes, even that feels better than just a subscription.
Btw, I’ve read an interesting conversation elsewhere about subscriptions. In some cases it’s not a bad thing at all. If you’re seldom using a software, why would you pay a full boxed price, when you can also just pay the fraction of the price for one month of usage? In my opinion, subscriptions do have their place, but companies should offer a dual pricing model: a boxed one-time price for one version, and a subscription for always the updated version. And it would be up to the customer, which one suits best for their use case. For example, JetBrains does something like this.
I agree with you that subscriptions can be useful in making things affordable for people in general but companies instead set the price at a level where it’s barely less expensive and if you pay for a year or two it ends up as more than you would’ve to outright buy the software or at least from what I remember of Photoshop pricing was that
@01189998819991197253 @band_on_the_run in all fairness the ability to block a user is a lot different than the ability to block ads as Google is selling you a service by serving you ads.