It is very likely that smaller communities will form, based on the networks of trust. The local feed will begin to mean more, and local-only communities will proliferate.

You could still visit the rest of Fediverse, should you need something specific.

My memory seems to come online surprisingly late.

The first memories kick in around 6, but really it’s just a few small disoriented flashbacks. At 11, I vividly remember my first relationships, but not much more.

Comprehensively, I remember myself since about 16. That’s when I can finally tell the order of events, and can visually recall key points.

Interestingly, I have otherwise good memory.

First, because it protects otherwise vulnerable groups of people who fight for freedom and justice. Whistleblowers, journalists, independent intelligence groups need privacy to uncover the crime and abuse of the powerful without fearing repercussions.

Second, because being watched forcibly changes people’s behavior. People are forced to be “normal”, they do not allow themselves the same liberties they have when they’re in private. When this becomes default, it negatively affects mental health, inducing severe stress and anxiety.

Third, because there are cultural conventions at the backbone of our society and the way it functions that are trampled by the invasion of privacy. You are taught to be uncomfortable when naked around others, to close off when you go to the toilet, to talk through your deeply personal or intimate matters exclusively with a select few etc. This isn’t merely an isolated cultural quirk - it defines how we treat each other, how we communicate, how our sexuality and reproduction function (and who gets reproduced to begin with), how our relationships work, what kind of language we use, and more. Letting anyone or anything in just like that naturally makes many uncomfortable, and has the potential to be ultimately disastrous for the society we know - a kind of society built with expectation of privacy as one of its cornerstones.

Fourth, because the main groups that are interested in private information are governments (see the first point), those willing to manipulate you into buying something, denying your autonomy in the name of profit off your back, and those willing to manipulate your opinions, mainly political, to serve their interests.

Fifth, because private information is not always adequately safeguarded. Leaks can provide sensitive information used in fraud, blackmail, and by other malevolent actors.

I’m kinda sad that netbooks mostly died off as a device class. I’d love to explore newer options.

Self-hosting is cool! But having played around with it myself, I just found thin clients to be not so useful in a single-user environment. At most, it could be useful if you want high battery life and the ability to run something heavy from time to time. But being tied to a high quality network connection even for something that could be 100% local gets annoying very quickly.

Still, as a printing machine + occasionally connecting to the server for something more, it does deliver.

Recently got OpenSUSE Tumbleweed installed on an old 32-bit Eee PC.

The thing was an absolute ultra-budget potato 14 years ago when it was released, and yet, it still works just fine if all you need is editing some documents in LibreOffice. And, it lasts 6 hours on a single charge! (Originally 10-12 hours)

Running something meaningful on a $20 hardware is a pleasure like no other

As far as I know, it is still reliant on the whims of Google through shenanigans with AOSP, and of course having to use a Pixel.

Linux offers a more solid and independent foundation, and while it is less polished yet, to me it’s the only real way out in the long run.

Still, GrapheneOS is a big step in the right direction - hope it wouldn’t come across as me being against the project.

Made me wonder if they introduced CSAM detection to fill their collection…

Yeah, not the most impressive hardware, but it is what we have

Solid option

Beginners will always gravitate to what is easier.

The upstream tools (Docker in this case) must orient themselves more towards the newbies, not only the pros, if we want to see the progress here.

Personally, as a non-IT guy, I find myself fighting uphill battles every time I want to do something seemingly simple, because the basic tools we’re offered are not made with common folk in mind. And I’m sort of an enthusiast - most people just won’t bother if it’s not plug&play, they don’t have time and energy to figure everything out.