I must say that American companies are getting better and better at making me ditch their products and services.

Art of the Deal at its finest.

The majority of people don’t need so much security, for example I don’t use SELinux even on desktop.

Privacy goes hand in hand with security. If you don’t have strong security then you can’t say that you have privacy. Governments and hackers will exploit your oversight to breach your device, rendering your distancing from Big Tech pointless.

I’m sorry but I won’t give Google more money, I think they have enough billions of dollars already.

I understand and I feel the same way. It’s ironic that in order to obtain the highest level of security and privacy you have to first degoogle and then go back to Google, but life is funny that way. If you are adamant about it, then I suggest you buy a refurbished Pixel.

I prefer to support business projects and developers who are for open source and the independence from the Big Tech

And I encourage you to do so! More than 90% of my apps on my mobile devices now come from either European devs or FOSS projects. Similar situation on my laptop as well that now runs Linux instead of ChromeOS.

However, I strongly urge you not to compromise your online security and privacy. Choosing a weak Android ROM as your OS is one way you can do that and it can have more negative effects on your life than just staying with your default Android. If you really feel the need to ditch Android immediately, then go for Calyx if you can, but try to switch to Graphene when you can. I also can’t immediately switch, but I will probably choose Graphene when I’ll be able to.

I’m sorry, but choosing an OS solely on the nationality of its developers is just careless and should not be encouraged. You should primarily aim for functionality, privacy and security.

The only OS on your list that meets these requirements is Graphene which remains the only true alternative for Android and IOS on mobile devices. The main drawback is that it only works on Google devices due to their superior hardware. The rest of Android Roms lack severely in terms of security features and in some cases are even worse than simple Android. /e/ OS is one of them. The unlocked bootloader and the delay in security updates substantially reduce the security of your device. Mobile based Linux OS are underdeveloped and do not have access to most apps available on the market. They can be considered an alternative only if you use your phone for its basic features and for emailing.

If you can, get a Pixel and install Graphene on it. If not, degoogle your device as best as you can, use a vpn, a password manager and a private email provider.

It also includes the people that deleted their Twitter accounts following the acquisition. I’m one of those people and I’m especially annoyed because I only used that blasted app only to register to some giveaways when I was in middle school. I have since discontinued that email account, but still.

As someone who had a Samsung Flip3, I miss how easy it was to carry it around. It didn’t feel like a brick that I had to take out of my pocket every time I needed to check my notifications. It was also surprisingly durable. Price is the main downside of these phones.

There’s a fair chance I’ll buy another one in the future if I have enough money when switching phones.

We should be grateful for every single nation that contributed to ending the suffering in Europe at the time, so I find it a bit disingenuous to only name the US when we talk about these events.

I fully agree with this statement, just not the manner in which you express yourself when referring to these events. A lot of people would view your initial comment as being hateful over your interpretation of the word “saved”. I have no problem saying the Americans saved us. Just like I have no problems saying the Canadians saved us, or the Australians or all the other non European nations that took part in the World Wars on the side of the Entente/Allies. The people that fought chose to leave their countries and risk their lives for us. I think it’s disrespectful towards their memory to be bickering over this just because of a nepo baby that’s causing us headaches right now.

It is not an arrangement, nor attachment to Zuckerberg. It is not beneficial to Zuckerberg or Meta for this to happen and I assure you that they are not fans of the ideea either.

The EU did this to break Meta’s monopoly on communication. Right now I can’t ditch Whatsapp no matter how much I want to because everything in my life is connected to that blasted app. My university, my employers, my family, my friends, EVERYONE is using Whatsapp and Whatsapp only. If I were to delete it, I would be isolated. I would be able to convince my family to switch to another app and probably a few of my friends, but I sure as hell won’t be able to convince my workplace or my faculty to. Allowing third party apps to communicate to Whatsapp is the only way I can ditch his app.

I should also mention that this will only apply to the European Union. Meta will still maintain its monopoly everywhere else. The EU is the only one that actually cares about consumer rights enough to pick a fight with the US over it and I’m thankful for that.

I understand that tensions are high right now and that we’re angry at how we’re being treated, but I don’t agree with your statement.

The US contributed massively towards ending both wars. If the US didn’t intervene in WW1, the war would have dragged on even further which would have caused additional casualties and destruction to an already exhausted continent. The Americans saved a lot of lives and Wilson’s 14 points were the foundation for European democracy for years afterwards. Many nations would not have been able to establish their own states in Europe otherwise.

In WW2, while it wasn’t the primary reason the Third Reich fell (that would be the Soviets), the US was in large part responsible for liberating most of Western Europe from German occupation. Additionally, American post war monetary aid allowed Europe to rebuild at a faster pace and their security guarantees maintained peace on the continent throughout the Cold War.

I think it’s important to differentiate between the US right now and the US back then. We’re talking about two different societies here. Let’s not mix in the Americans that fought and died for our freedom with Trump and his cronies.

Edit: fixed some grammar.

And that the US could ensure they can use the digital part to “turn the aircraft off” for their “national security”.

No, they can’t shut the software off for everyone by turning off a switch. No military in the world would ever touch that aicraft if that was the case. It is true that the F35 runs on American software (except for the Israeli variant) and that for optimal performance it requires updates that are developed by the US. But the jets aren’t connected to a network in order for the US to send a malware type update to compromise the system. The updates need to be manually reviewed and installed. It’s not like how Google sends out automatic updates for Android that pop up in your notification bar. That’s a security risk that could be exploited by enemy agents.

And while the US can’t brick the aircraft from the other side of the ocean, it can stop providing updates to the system. It would drastically reduce the aircraft’s capabilities in the long term, but it would still be operational provided it has the proper maintenance. It just wouldn’t be that good. To put it into crude terms, think of two gaming pcs owned by you and your friend. Both of them are top of the line and both of them can only run Windows. For whatever reason you upset Bill Gates and he refuses to send you anymore updates for your Windows and doesn’t want to sell you a newer OS. Your computer works fine it’s just that you can’t do certain things on it because you’re running Windows 7 while your buddy is running Windows 11. Might not be the best example, but that should give you an ideea.

Regardless we shouldn’t stress about this. Like I’ve said, there’s already a stealth fighter project in development at a European level and we have both the technical expertise and industrial capability to further develop. The only downside is that our stuff is more expensive since we lack the economies of scale the Americans have in the defense sector. But that can be easily solved through joint borrowing and increased investment which is what we’re currently doing. The only losers here will be American defense companies that will see their sales to Europe decline as we shift to domestic alternatives.

Ironically enough Trump might be the best thing that happened for Europe since the formation of the EU. By trying to make America great again through his constant bullying tactics he is not only making America worse, but he is also making Europe great again by forcing us to loosen our ties with the US and invest in our own industries. Through sheer incompetence and ignorance that chucklenut is paving the way for us to become a superpower that can challenge US dominance over the globe.

relegating your aircraft to a very heavy paperweight

There’s a bit more to this. It wouldn’t immediately render the aircraft useless. It would just heavily restrict its usage and capabilities in the long term.

Iran still has US made fighter jets from the '70s, most notably the Tomcat and the Phantom. They’ve managed to keep at least some of them operational despite the lack of spare parts by cannibalizing parts from other aircraft and keeping flying hours low to reduce maintenance. The Iranians tried to reverse engineer a lot of parts with limited success which is why they’re so desperate to get their hands on more Russian jets like the Su-35.

The key difference between Iran and Europe is that we actually have a strong military industrial complex and experience in manufacturing combat aircraft. As such we would be able to switch to domestic aircraft especially since there’s already a stealth fighter project in development between France, Spain and Germany.

Thanks for sharing. I’ll be sure to try it out next month.

At the moment I’m trying out Arte (French) and Play Suisse (Swiss; you’ll need a vpn for this one). Both of them are free and I’m surprised by the quality of service. I also discovered some great bangers there. The two inconveniences I found are the identity card requirement for Arte to access all of their catalogue (some of the stuff is age restricted) and the fact that Play Suisse is region locked for whatever reason.