They call it “full self driving” even though it does not and has never done that in 10 years of being sold. That’s not an exaggeration, that’s not “overhype” that’s a lie. It’s fraudulent. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.

Is this because we’re still relatively small or some other reason?

Pretty much, yeah. Incredibly.

I’ve tried. They don’t want to. They already have jobs. They make what they want to make. Only way to get them to make it is to convince them they want to.

Everyone hates auto updates. But lets be honest, the average user isn’t going to do them unless it’s basically forced on them.

If there’s auto-updates, they don’t have to. This is what I don’t understand about Linux, every distro requires you to go in and, at the very least, click several buttons. Then 5 minutes later another notification pops up to do it again. Why?

Oh boy where to even start with this one…

Please, FOSS world, we need something like ChromeOS

may we have a dead simple bulletproof all-free OS that gets old PCs online without a Google account, and does nothing else? How come there is no all-Free Software tool that even tries to do what ChromeOS does without needing an account with The Borg?

Yeah I mean we already have several of them. Android and Linux do everything ChromeOS does, and so much more. Matter of fact any OS with a browser can do anything Chrome can do.

ChromeOS has forks like FydeOS.

It’s the number one thing non-Linux users complain about: too much choice.

I don’t understand why anyone would complain about that. If you don’t care for choice then just pick a random one. I mean you have to “choose” ChromeOS too.

ChromeOS does just one thing and it does it well enough that vendors sold billions of the things last year.

They sold billions because they’re cheap as shit. They can do the same with the OSes above.

Productivity apps? Use Google Apps.

No thank you.

Messaging or video calling? Log in to your chat system of choice in a browser window.

Lots of messaging apps don’t work in the browser.

what few settings there are are stored in your Google account.

You just said earlier you didn’t want a Google account.

All the components are there, including a potential revenue model. Strip out absolutely all the complexity that can possibly be removed, and leave something which can run on any old PC from the last 15 years and gets the user online – and nothing else. How hard can it be? There are no optional extra native apps, and no way to add any.

Again, I can’t understand why you would want to not have that option. If you don’t want the “complexity”, just don’t use it.

no fancy add-on cross-distro package managers like Flatpak or Snap.

Oof. Yeah that is a complaint that I share.

The desktop is just Windows-like enough to be instantly familiar, unlike GNOME

I find GNOME far more intuitive than Windows.

There are a couple of projects forked from the basis of ChromiumOS, such as FydeOS, which adds a second authentication system so it can be used behind the Great Firewall of China. We plan to return to FydeOS and take a deeper look soon.

Not sure what “authentication system” they’re referring to. FydeOS can be used with a Fyde account, a Google account, both or neither. I think when they take a deeper look it may be what they’re looking for.

That is until the console is reset, at which point you need a valid account just to boot into the launcher.

And as I said, such an app doesn’t exist.

They’re not helpful. OP asked specifically for editors similar to CapCut that are “so easy even a child could learn it.” None of those fit that usecase.

I don’t think there are any other “free” ones. The only other alternatives I can think of is Meta’ s Edits app or Apple’s iMovie.

The vast majority of Android devices come with an un-unlockable bootloader. If you have an unlockable bootloader then it should work, even if slowly.

GrayJay desktop is available but very Alpha.

GrayJay seems to work best. Although even there you have to rotate servers or close and reopen videos occasionally. But 90% of the time it works.

You should probably educate yourself about this app before you start arguing about it.

“Log in with Google” is a lot less friction than getting people to sign up to a new service.

There is no new service. You log in with your existing BlueSky, Mastodon, YouTube account(s). The Google account is only needed to download the app.

Isn’t it “just” a feed reader with a pre-curated list of feeds?

No.

making it as easy as possible to onboard them makes absolute sense

I don’t understand how one could possibly think that requiring a Google account would make it easier to onboard new users…

And if you already are out of Big Tech hell hole, then you likely already know how to find and manage and curate your own feeds.

The software necessary to do what Surf does, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t exist elsewhere.

There is a vast array of reasons why Linux is not more popular. Very few of them are proprietary Windows apps.

Not worth arguing with me and yet here you are…

I’m not trying to say anything. I said it. Many businesses use dedicated software (most of which is also available on Linux) but many many more are just logging into some cloud database to access information. Yes. Absolutely. 1000%. And it’s hilarious that you think otherwise.

I don’t think the vast majority of people have office jobs

They don’t have to. People use PCs outside of the office too.

Those people that use a computer at work are using windows, or in rare cases, macs.

That’s not the discussion we were having.

which is why most people don’t have PCs anymore when phones will do.

Phones cannot do the same job as PCs. It has nothing to do with compute power, it has to do with peripherals and multitasking and general work efficiency.

The point is, as I said, that the vast majority of work is done in the cloud, through a browser, which is something that Linux does absolutely fine.

Most businesses have Windows apps that are used all day every day

You’re mistaken.

Not what I asked.

Oof. Does this happen often?

Hmm I just learned it existed yesterday.