Pirate

I mean, anybody using deepin kinda is getting what they asked for. It was always a dodgy distro.

I don't think China is good. I think China is a strong country doing normal superpower stuff.

The difference is China doesn't start wars and isn't out to overthrow other countries governments.

Their leadership doesn't act like clowns either, they have the seriousness that the western world seems to have lost after everyone collectively decided that voting far-right is "based" for "owning the libs".

So all in all I expected people to hate China less than the US. But online propaganda speaks louder than reason these days.

I do the same as you. Although i probably report the most blatant cases of astrosurfing, political propaganda, trolling and so on.

It's simple: America Good, China Bad.

There isn't much more depth to it than this. BTW even Lemmy is sadly suffering from the same brainrot.

Yeah, this conversation is pointless. Feel free to isolate yourself, the rest of us are still gonna try to work with what the world can offer.

China is a bad relationship? I've got some bad news for you but 90% of what you own is made in China.

No, I don't. Samsung and other authorized OEMs run stock Google services so there's no benefit to using them. Those devices are also substantially inferior to the Pixel in terms of security features anyways.

The only phone I recommend is a Pixel with a properly set up GrapheneOS install, making use of profiles and private spaces depending on which apps you want to expose to Google Play Services/Framework, and which you don't.

Ideally your most used profile is filled exclusively with FOSS or privacy-respecting apps that can run without Google services. And I'm talking about going really deep even on elemetary things like using an offline keyboard like Heliboard or FUTO that won't send everything you type to Google/Microsoft/Apple. Or using Gboard but with network access blocked.

Yes, this set up takes time and some research, but it's the only way you can guarantee your data is properly split between what is just for you to see, and what others see.

A device that is truly yours and not someone else's to mine for data and spy on you, possibly getting you in trouble in the future when a government demands your data from Google/Apple.

But if you're not willing to put in the work to set it up, then I don't recommend any other Androids. Stay on iPhone instead.

Hold on, you think GrapheneOS isn't perfectly private (and you'd be right, it isn't, and their main focus is security anyway) but you think iPhones are better?

Why, because Apple told you it is? Because they have some gimmicks that sound good on paper but don't actually protect your data in any real way?

Okay dude. Reach out to me whenever cus i got a bridge to sell you.

Also, everything you said is incorrect, and so is your conclusion. But I don't think we'll ever see eye to eye on this so why bother.

I understand all of that and I agree with you. Not wanting to pay monthly storage fees is perfectly reasonable too. I know I did everything to avoid giving Google any money for storage.

But microSD slots on phones aren't coming back, and manufacturers are giving you 512GB of internal storage at most, so we need to move on with the times.

I don't have a home server (yet) either, but I do have 2 TB disks I use to store all the important stuff I want to save forever. Nothing lives on my phone so I'm fine with 128GB.

Local syncing can be done just by installing Syncthing or Omnisend, and everything gets transferred through your home Wi-Fi. No need for complicated setups. I mentioned home servers as an example but you certainly don't need one.

MicroSD cards also die so I don't know why you used that as a slight against internal phone storage. You should always have backups.

Storage is dirt cheap these days, it makes no sense to hinder yourself buying niche phones, often at inflated prices, just for a feature that is easily worked around. In my opinion.

What's the use case for microSD slots on phones these days anyway?

If it's (just) to avoid paying Google or Apple storage fees, you can work around that by buying one or several HDDs to keep at home and sync stuff over the local network, possibly even build a server and access your stuff remotely.

I really don't understand the need for that much space on the go, though. Are you watching entire series on your phone?

Are you saying China DIDN'T aggressively take over Hong Kong and all of the businesses that operated there?

Uh, i kinda am, yeah.

Last time I checked, Hong Kong is still a tax haven in the middle of Asia. Western companies are still opening offshore subsidiaries and bank accounts there to engage in tax evasion, and the welfare system is still as pitiful as it was before China took over.

Retirees living in literal cages or under bridges is still common, and the same 3-4 families that ran Hong Kong's banking, industry and real estate are still in control like they've always been.

China took control of Hong Kong on paper only. By any economic metrics, everything stayed the same.