While not ideal, it’s totally standard state of affairs. Even in PC Linux there are often some binary blobs required for proper function of some hardware. E.g. non-free firmware in Debian.

I understand that feeling. If it’s strong enough to drive to using a different base I wouldn’t care much even if it’s more work. The staffing and funding is the real difficult part.

From technical perspective, other than perhaps the software license choice, there’s nothing in AOSP that I’m aware of (not the closed source parts) that’s driven by the oligarchy. I’ve been involved with AOSP at the OEM level for some ten years, some in the early 2010s and then since 2020. AOSP has been fairly well isolated from non-technical decisionmaking at Google, in part due to how many third parties heavily depend on it, and in part because of how pluggable the APIs are. The plugability allowed all anti-features so far to go into installable components that don’t need to be a part of the OS. I think this bullshit with the app “sideloading” changes is the first major change that has no technical basis whatsoever that I’m aware of and requires AOSP surgery to accomodate. There may be more to come from here on out.

I guess you could chalk up the lack of open source app development as part of the oligatchic shitfuckery. I guess it is, but the base apps really are separate from the OS and they’re a pretty small effort compared to the rest of the OS and frameworks.

Anyway. I’ll get this next Jolla phone to try out. Sailfish is an evolution of MeeGo which was the most promising Android alternative in the early 2010s. 😁

It can run Android apps!

On the software front, our fastest way to independence is a state-funded software org to fork Android and begin development and maintenance full-time. Whether one goes with non-Android or Android OS, it always comes down to funding development. Starting with Android would likely be significantly cheaper since a lot of work has already been done. And if you fund its continued development away from Google, then Google isn’t a factor anymore. Make an independent app store, Play Services replacement, etc. As I said in another thread, the social infrastructure (people, labour) is more important than the exact technology used. If we have that, we can make a usable phone out of Android or Sailfish, or anything else. It’s a matter of doing the work.

Having independent software with PRC-hardware isn’t a bad compromise. Especially in the near term.

We really need an Android alternative with no involvement from American or Chinese companies.

This won’t occur without state intervention. The market has already decided to move design and production of phones and phone components to China (and Vietnam to some extent). In order for a European phone to be made, in Europe, the necessary supply chains need to be buit. But there’s no market for them as their output would be more expensive and the market already figured the maximum profit is in the China-Vietnam manufacturing mix. So the state would have to create these supply chains. Minerals, displays, diodes, MOSFETs, ICs, caps, PCBs and small cells. Once that’s in place, creating a European phone manufacturer becomes possible. That’s a decade long process that simpy won’t occur without deliberate and persistent state support. I think it should be done, however you may find a lot of opposition by free market fundamentalists, or interest groups that represent capital in other industries receiving state support.

That’s just them going back to their historical norms.

Fun fact, Igalia is a worker co-op that does open source development for hire.

I think there’s research to that effect.

I don’t think so, not by DFRobot at least. That said, I think 2.5G is only useful for >1G internet connections. On the LAN side, the switch is what matters for LAN throughput.

Also the new retro coasters are fabulous:

What the actual fuck.

Unbelievable

Why? Syngenta gotta make money and the EU is only responsible to its own citizens and firms. So they banned paraquat use in 2007 to protect its citizens, while letting Syngenta continue making it.

Nothing could possibly go wrong. /s

Don’t slander me like this. I’m suggesting holding parents liable. 😄

The parents can.

It’s so sad, yet entirely unsurprising to see the EU cave to the pressure of capital again and again…

We’d likely have to go through socialism before that anyways so yeah.

Of course he does. But false dichotomy aside, China has a good chance “winning the AI race” anyway. Given their existing work, the investment they’re doing in higher education, the additional internationally trained talent they get every year, and the industrial base that lets them make cheap energy and hardware, I think at the very least China has a decent chance to create equivalent tools at a lower price than whatever the US AI industry creates. If they come out with a competitive hardware and sell it at lower margins, along with free models as they already offer… I think a lot of firms and governments would opt for that instead of paying for NVIDIA and OpenAI.

Why is the media peddling scaremongering propaganda tho?

And people in France compare their own wealth share declining from yesteryear to this year, not to Americans’ wealth share.

Now look at the bottom 50% and extend the horizon a little further.

From the peak of their share in 1988 to 2023:

• UK: 12.3% to 4.6% = -2.67x
• Germany: 7.6% to 3.4% = -2.23x
• France: 9.7% to 4.9% = -1.97
• US: 1.8% to 0.9% = -2x

And since wealth isn’t evenly distributed in the bottom 50%, this means the bottom parts have fallen even lower.

Then add the fact that government-provided services and safety nets like welfare, pensions, healthcare, education etc. function as a the largest part of the bottom 50% wealth. Consider how austerity and climbing retirement age affect that.

What you’re saying is that things aren’t as bad as they are elsewhere. True. But people notice and react to changes in their environments and the trends are in the the same direction as in the US. Which makes sense because the processes giving rise to the those trends are the same. E.g. declining union density. The slopes and starting points of the trends are different since the EU does a better job at slowing down accumulation, and so the current states are different, but without a change in direction, for now the US is Europe’s eventual future.