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F’ing suck, used to be available to the masses. I hope it will again, but even a raspberry pi is a luxury good these days.

I have failing hard drives in my NAS but they are nearly 4x the price from when I bought them, so I’m struggling to save for replacements. I’m so pissed off that even used enterprise stuff that used to be cheap, is now also luxury goods priced. I will be paying 259.99 for a drive I used to pay 69.99 for.

I agree that the functionality is sometimes nice, but I would never keep data in just the cloud, at least anything sensitive or valuable. Beyond not trusting someone else with the integrity of my data, I also do not want to be subject to control of it or access to it. Lastly, my data is mine, and in most cloud providers, my data will also be used for AI training.

So, I enjoy using the cloud for some things, I still keep my primary data under my control, in my own known and backed up locations.

As for the forcefulness, there are a lot of us who care deeply about ownership and privacy, and there are a lot of those that dismiss our concerns as invalid or unimportant. Not that you are by any means, just that is what I see frequently.

Bicameral mind due for a comeback I see.

Most of the time it does work, which is why it’s so goddamned hard to undo. I’ve been working on de-appleing, I’ve nearly completely de-Amazoned and am also working on de-googling. But these damn providers make it so difficult, they get in so deep. It’s not even me that makes it hard, I’m willing to make a little extra effort for a more privacy focused platform I control. No, it’s the family and friends that all are perfectly comfortable handing control of their data and frankly lives (everything is in these fucking things, schedule, contacts, financial stuff, all digital communication, photos, videos, etc..).

As long as you keep spending a lot of money, and upgrading to the newest devices, you will have a decent experience. As soon as you try to extend the life, find alternatives, look for ways to control your own data, then it gets real hard.

To be fair, it’s not just Apple. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, any of the big players are the same. They all manage to make it easy, so long as you are comfortable being captured.

Yeah, I got your incredible wordplay, clearly mine sailed over your head (unsurprisingly).

I can tell this is how you see the world.

Dude, I don’t get why you are so very interested in carrying water for billionaires. I’m truly baffled in these conversations why people just insist on defending people who will never know they exist.

lol, good for those in power maybe.

You are walking away with the opinion that there are good billionaires who have your best interests in mind. I mean, that’s an opinion, just a really stupid one.

I’ll be fine here in the actual world.

Sigh, steam has zero support, like actually none and it’s well known in the industry. It’s 100% a drm platform, you must have an internet connection and a valid account to play your games that you purchased. You only have access to any of them because they allow it.

Again, I don’t care about your opinion because it’s wrong, and I will judge it the same as I judge people who have other similarly bad opinions. I do wish you would realize that your idea of a good billionaire is bullshit, but that’s to protect you from falling for the shit they are peddling. No skin off my nose if you choose to continue to suck up to them.

I will stand by my original statement that there is no such thing as a good billionaire. It’s this statement that I’m defending and your “nuh-uh, he’s really cool” has done nothing to convince me otherwise.

No, but I definitely have knowledge of what you don’t.

Look, suck up all you want, but there just is no good billionaires. There are ones where the goals are temporarily aligned, but to think that any of them do what they do for the benefit of others is just a moronic take. Some probably started that way but ALL billionaires alive do what they do for themselves, their own power and control. Gabe is better than most, but he’s still on the list and has done many terrible things. Valve is better than most gaming companies, but it’s still a DRM platform that has no customer support and dictates how the industry has to bend to their will.

I can tell you haven’t done your research because there are many stories of valve fucking people over, and again, valve is arguably a net negative for gaming in general due to how it’s completely destroyed the idea of ownership. We all only have access to our shit due to their good graces. I personally hate having thousands of dollars of things I’ve paid for, controlled by one single company (I too used to assume they were the good ones).

Because you don’t do much research outside of the ways that it’s impacted you.

There is factually no such thing as a good billionaire, and to pretend it’s an opinion based thing is just yet more lickspittle behavior.

There are less bad ones, but you cannot become a billionaire without hurting a shitload of people. It’s arguable that valve has been a terrible thing for pc gaming since it’s led to the death of ownership. But this is one of quite literally thousands of things that can be litigated in his case.

Update- this is like saying “in my opinion, donald trump is the best president we’ve ever had.” You can think this, it can be your opinion, but it’s wrong, and tells people a lot about who you are. Sticking up for billionaires is one of the more pathetic things a person can do.

There is no such thing as a good billionaire and to say otherwise is just lickspittle behavior. Gabe does not care about you.