Problem is if older Chromebooks are used for Linux in an educational environment there would be nothing stopping a student from whipping up a bootable USB and dumping another distro (bypassing restrictions). I’m also not sure if there is a enrollment mode equivalent Linux (there may be but not sure).

They could just disable booting from USB drives in the bios and password protect it. They could install something like Fedora Silverblue, or even customize the image used to include whatever modifications they want. Any changes they made to the image would be propagated through autoupdates. Kids wouldn’t have root, so they couldn’t forcibly install a different OS. Of course they could install flatpaks to their home directory, which is probably something administrators would want to prevent, but a knowledgeable student can always find ways to do what they want.

This of course requires schools/districts to hire people to manage that stuff, which could be a problem.

Weird. I’ve been using my MX Ergo for years and haven’t had a single issue. Maybe they’ve changed something recently?

The EFF’s How to Fix the Internet is an interesting podcast which talks about various issues with the current landscape of the internet and potential ways to improve it.

I listen to Linux Unplugged and I also am not a fan of the crypto stuff. I remember they actually addressed the whole crypto thing in an office hours episode, which I found incredibly disappointing as Chris essentially said crypto is a scam and we hate it, except for bitcoin. He talks about how long he’s been using bitcoin and how you should trust him because he knows what he’s talking about. It was very patronizing, and I took a break from unplugged for a while because of it.

I still listen to it because it’s the only free Linux podcast I’m aware of, and I understand the need to make money so I can deal with the boosts for now.

I wouldn’t worry about the command line too much, you’ll learn what you need when you need it. I’ve been using linux for over 15 years and I still have to google even simple commands sometimes because I don’t use them often enough to imprint. The important ones will come with repetition.

The thing about using the command line is that once you get comfortable with it, it becomes faster than using a GUI for some things. That being said, on modern user-friendly operating systems you can probably get by with never using the command line.

I just use freetube. I can subscribe to the channels I want without an account, use sponsor block to block sponsored content, and even use invidious to proxy connections if I want. No ads, not even in-video ads.

I’ve used RedReader for many years. When the api changes were announced I was certain I would never use reddit before, as I usually browse it on the phone. I still want to migrate away from reddit fully, but since RedReader has an api exception it’s going to be more difficult to break my addiction.

To be fair, I think most governments would refuse to leave if the people they represent don’t want them anymore.

Unfortunately none. I have an S10e with a locked bootloader. This is the first android phone I’ve owned that I hadn’t used a custom ROM on. The last Samsung phone I owned was an S4 and I hadn’t kept up with the custom ROM scene, so I hadn’t known the locked bootloader nonsense when I got the S10e.

It sucks because there are no note security updates for the phone even though the hardware is still in good condition. I can’t justify replacing a working phone even if I could afford a new one. I’m hoping eventually a vulnerability will be uncovered that allows unlocking the bootloader. There was one a few years ago I think, but it got patched before I even knew about it.

I used to run an OpenBSD mailserver for my personal email address for a few years. It wasn’t that difficult to setup, more tedious and annoying than anything. I stopped doing it when I started searching for a job as I was too paranoid about my emails getting rejected without me knowing about it. I don’t send many emails, but when I do send them I want to know they are getting to where they need to go. I know I was never blocked by gmail, but I couldn’t be sure about other providers.

Now I just use my domain name as a catchall on mailbox.org and access it using offlineimap. All my emails are saved and backed up, so switching providers is no problem at all.