You too? I started with Android 1.5 (or whatever the first Motorola Droid shipped with). At that time, Android felt so much closer to my OS of choice - a Linux distro - that I was excited to own a Google phone.

Over time I’ve been less than enthusiastic about what each iteration of the OS brings. Now that it’s near impossible to have root and not have to play Whack A Mole with hiding that root access from specific apps (never mind finding phones where you can unlock the bootloader), I’m out. Google is making it impossible to use your phone the way you want. Pixel phones aren’t attractive to me based on really spotty history.

Linux phones just aren’t there yet. I’ve owned a couple of Pinephones, but I want more from them than they can currently offer.

That leaves Apple. They have their issues, sure, but if I can’t have root control of my phone without massive hassle, then I might as well have a more polished experience. I’m envious of the free features my wife gets on her 2nd gen SE.

He should be fired out of a cannon and into a volcano

Canonical has completely torched my original opinion of them. I started with Red Had Linux back in the late 90s, but it wasn’t until I could get a better-than-dialup Internet connection in the mid 2000s that I was able to finally dump Windows.

At that point, I was hearing a lot of good things about Ubuntu, so I gave it a go. Like most Linux users, I’ve distro hopped. I kept coming back to Ubuntu though. It was just so nice to have a polished Debian available out of the box.

Once they moved the default UI to Unity, I became less enchanted and would use the alternative releases instead. But then came the Amazon ads. And then Snaps and other not-so-hot choices. And now shit like this.

And IBM has destroyed Red Hat now too. Sigh.

MBAs and VCs

Yo ho!

Hell is other people

Excellent! Thank you for doing this!

I just had to replace the heat cartridge and thermister on my hot end. The print I had going when they failed was 35/37 hours in.

I still have massive affection for my 3D printer, but the HP inkjet printer my wife bought during the early days of Covid is my mortal enemy.