#Microsoft ALL ACCESS subscription

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An adversarial iMessage client for Android

Adversarial interoperability is one of the most reliable ways to protect tech users from predatory corporations: that's when a technologist reverse-engineers an existing product to reconfigure or mod it (interoperability) in ways its users like, but which its manufacturer objects to (adversarial):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

"Adversarial interop" is a mouthful, so at EFF, we coined the term "competitive compatibility," or comcom, which is a lot easier to say and to spell.

Scratch any tech success and you'll find a comcom story. After all, when a company turns its screws on its users, it's good business to offer an aftermarket mod that loosens them again. HP's $10,000/gallon inkjet ink is like a bat-signal for third-party ink companies. When Mercedes announces that it's going to sell you access to your car's accelerator pedal as a subscription service, that's like an engraved invitation to clever independent mechanics who'll charge you a single fee to permanently unlock that "feature":

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/05/carmakers-push-forward-with-plans-to-make-basic-features-subscription-services-despite-widespread-backlash/

Comcom saved giant tech companies like Apple. Microsoft tried to kill the Mac by rolling out a truly cursèd version of MS Office for MacOS. Mac users (5% of the market) who tried to send Word, Excel or Powerpoint files to Windows users (95% of the market) were stymied: their files wouldn't open, or they'd go corrupt. Tech managers like me started throwing the graphic designer's Mac and replacing it with a Windows box with a big graphics card and Windows versions of Adobe's tools.

Comcom saved Apple's bacon. Apple reverse-engineered MS's flagship software suite and made a comcom version, iWork, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote could flawlessly read and write MS's Word, Excel and Powerpoint files:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

It's tempting to think of iWork as benefiting Apple users, and certainly the people who installed and used it benefited from it. But Windows users also benefited from iWork. The existence of iWork meant that Windows users could seamlessly collaborate on and share files with their Mac colleagues. IWork didn't just add a new feature to the Mac ("read and write files that originated with Windows users") – it also added a feature to Windows: "collaborate with Mac users."

Every pirate wants to be an admiral. Though comcom rescued Apple from a monopolist's sneaky attempt to drive it out of business, Apple – now a three trillion dollar company – has repeatedly attacked comcom when it was applied to Apple's products. When Apple did comcom, that was progress. When someone does comcom to Apple, that's piracy.

Apple has many tools at its disposal that Microsoft lacked in the early 2000s. Radical new interpretations of existing copyright, contract, patent and trademark law allows Apple – and other tech giants – to threaten rivals who engage in comcom with both criminal and civil penalties. That's right, you can go to prison for comcom these days. No wonder Jay Freeman calls this "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Take iMessage, Apple's end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) instant messaging tool. Apple customers can use iMessage to send each other private messages that can't be read or altered by third parties – not cops, not crooks, not even Apple. That's important, because when private messaging systems get hacked, bad things happen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak

But Apple has steadfastly refused to offer an iMessage app for non-Apple systems. If you're an Apple customer holding a sensitive discussion with an Android user, Apple refuses to offer you a tool to maintain your privacy. Those messages are sent "in the clear," over the 38-year-old SMS protocol, which is trivial to spy on and disrupt.

Apple sacrifices its users' security and integrity in the hopes that they will put pressure on their friends to move into Apple's walled garden. As CEO Tim Cook told a reporter: if you want to have secure communications with your mother, buy her an iPhone:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tim-cook-says-buy-mom-210347694.html

Last September, a 16-year old high school student calling himself JJTech published a technical teardown of iMessage, showing how any device could send and receive encrypted messages with iMessage users, even without an Apple ID:

https://jjtech.dev/reverse-engineering/imessage-explained/

JJTech even published code to do this, in an open source library called Pypush:

https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush

In the weeks since, Beeper has been working to productize JJTech's code, and this week, they announced Beeper Mini, an Android-based iMessage client that is end-to-end encrypted:

https://beeper.notion.site/How-Beeper-Mini-Works-966cb11019f8444f90baa314d2f43a54

Beeper is known for a multiprotocol chat client built on Matrix, allowing you to manage several kinds of chat from a single app. These multiprotocol chats have been around forever. Indeed, iMessage started out as one – when it was called "iChat," it supported Google Talk and Jabber, another multiprotocol tool. Other tools like Pidgin have kept the flame alive for decades, and have millions of devoted users:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/tower-babel-how-public-interest-internet-trying-save-messaging-and-banish-big

But iMessage support has remained elusive. Last month, Nothing launched Sunchoice, a disastrous attempt to bring iMessage to Android, which used Macs in a data-center to intercept and forward messages to Android users, breaking E2EE and introducing massive surveillance risks:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/21/23970740/sunbird-imessage-app-shut-down-privacy-nothing-chats-phone-2

Beeper Mini does not have these defects. The system encrypts and decrypts messages on the Android device itself, and directly communicates with Apple's servers. It gathers some telemetry for debugging, and this can be turned off in preferences. It sends a single SMS to Apple's servers during setup, which changes your device's bubble from green to blue, so that Apple users now correctly see your device as a secure endpoint for iMessage communications.

Beeper Mini is now available in Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima&hl=en_US

Now, this is a high-stakes business. Apple has a long history of threatening companies like Beeper over conduct like this. And Google has a long history deferring to those threats – as it did with OG App, a superior third-party Instagram app that it summarily yanked after Meta complained:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

But while iMessage for Android is good for Android users, it's also very good for Apple customers, who can now get the privacy and security guarantees of iMessage for all their contacts, not just the ones who bought the same kind of phone as they did. The stakes for communications breaches have never been higher, and antitrust scrutiny on Big Tech companies has never been so intense.

Apple recently announced that it would add RCS support to iOS devices (RCS is a secure successor to SMS):

https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/

Early word from developers suggests that this support will have all kinds of boobytraps. That's par for the course with Apple, who love to announce splashy reversals of their worst policies – like their opposition to right to repair – while finding sneaky ways to go on abusing its customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

The ball is in Apple's court, and, to a lesser extent, in Google's. As part of the mobile duopoly, Google has joined with Apple in facilitating the removal of comcom tools from its app store. But Google has also spent millions on an ad campaign shaming Apple for exposing its users to privacy risks when talking to Android users:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/21/23883609/google-rcs-message-apple-iphone-ipager-ad

While we all wait for the other shoe to drop, Android users can get set up on Beeper Mini, and technologists can kick the tires on its code libraries and privacy guarantees.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor

[terramythos]

It's 2030, windows 12 has just launched. Everything has been forced to cloud storage you have to pay a $15/month subscription for and have a working high speed internet connection to use. There is no native functionality to access local files. You are required to watch an unskippable 2 minute ad every time you access or close a program. A mandatory webcam is on at all times, which pauses the ad if you aren't paying complete attention to it. If your monthly subscription lapses all of your files are deleted forever unless you pay Microsoft an additional $300 restoration fee within a month. By turning on the OS you automatically sign a waiver which forfeits your right to sue Microsoft or pursue criminal damages for the next 1000 years. Within 2 months of release it is discovered that Windows 12 installations somehow cause 5% of GPUs to explode into deadly shrapnel, killing dozens and maiming hundreds

[autolenaphilia]

The main reason to use Firefox and Linux and other free and open source software is that otherwise the big tech monopolies will fuck you as the customer over in search of profits. They will seek to control how you use their products and sell your data. When a company dominates the market, things can only get worse for ordinary people.

Like take Google Chrome for example, which together with its chromium reskins dominate the web browser market. Google makes a lot of money from ads, and consequently the company hates adblockers. They already are planning to move to manifest V3, which will nerf adblockers significantly. The manifest V3 compatible chrome version of Ublock Orgin is a "Lite" version for a reason. Ublock's Github page has an entire page explaining why the addon works best in Firefox.

And Google as we speak are trying to block adblockers from working on Youtube, If you want to continue blocking Youtube ads, and since Youtube ads make the site unuseable you ought to want that, it makes the most sense to not use a browser controlled by Google.

And there is no reason to think things won't get worse. There is for example nothing stopping Google from kicking adblockers off their add-on stores completely. They do regard it as basically piracy if the youtube pop-ups tell us anything, so updating the Chrome extensions terms of service to ban adblocking is a natural step. And so many people seem to think Chrome is the only browser that exists, so they are not going to switch to alternatives, or if they do, they will switch to another chrominum-based browser.

And again, they are fucking chromium itself for adblockers with Manifest V3, so only Firefox remains as a viable alternative. It's the only alternative to letting Google control the internet.

And Microsoft is the same thing. I posted before about their plans to move Windows increasingly into the cloud. This already exists for corporate customers, as Windows 365. And a version for ordinary users is probably not far off. It might not be the only version of Windows for awhile, the lack of solid internet access for a good part of the Earth's population will prevent it. But you'll probably see cheap very low-spec chromebookesque laptops running Windows for sale soon, that gets around Windows 11's obscene system requirements by their Windows being a cloud-based version.

And more and more of Windows will require Internet access or validation for DRM reasons if nothing else. Subscription fees instead of a one-time license are also likely. It will just be Windows moving in the direction Microsoft Office has already gone.

There is nothing preventing this, because again on the desktop/laptop market Windows is effectively a monopoly, or a duopoly with Apple. So there is no competition preventing Microsoft from exercising control over Windows users in the vein of Apple.

For example, Microsoft making Windows a walled garden by only permitting programs to be installed from the Microsoft Store probably isn't far off. This already exists for Win10 and 11, it's called S-mode. There seem to be more and more laptops being sold with Windows S-mode as the default.

Now it's not the only option, and you can turn it off with some tinkering, but there is really nothing stopping Microsoft from making it the only way of using Windows. And customers will probably accept it, because again the main competition is Apple where the walled garden has been the default for decades.

Customers have already accepted all sorts of bad things from Microsoft, because again Windows is a near-monopoly, and Apple and Google are even worse. That’s why there has been no major negative reaction to how Windows has increasingly spies on its users.

Another thing is how the system requirements for Windows seem to grow almost exponentially with each edition, making still perfectly useable computers unable to run the new edition. And Windows 11 is the worst yet. Like it's hard to get the numbers of how many computers running Win10 can't upgrade to Win11, but it's probably the majority of them, at least 55% or maybe even 75%. This has the effect of Windows users abandoning still perfectly useable hardware and buying new computers, creating more e-waste.

For Windows users, the alternative Windows gives them is to buy a new computer or get another operating system, and inertia pushes them towards buying another computer to keep using Windows. This is good for Windows and the hardware manufacturers selling computers with Windows 11 pre-installed, they get to profit off people buying Windows 11 keys and new computers, while the end-users have to pay, as does the environment. It’s planned obsolescence.

And it doesn’t have to be like that. Linux distros prove that you can have a modern operating system that has far lower hardware requirements. Even the most resource taxing Linux distros, like for example Ubuntu running the Gnome desktop, have far more modest system requirements than modern Windows. And you can always install lightweight Linux Distros that often have very low system requirements. One I have used is Antix. The ballooning Windows system requirements comes across as pure bloat on Microsoft’s part.

Now neither Linux or Firefox are perfect. Free and open source software don’t have a lot of the polish that comes with the proprietary products of major corporations. And being in competition with technology monopolies does have its drawbacks. The lacking website compatibility with Firefox and game compatibility with Linux are two obvious examples.

Yet Firefox and Linux have the capacity to grow, to become better. Being open source helps. Even if Firefox falls, developers can create a fork of it. If a Linux distro is not to your taste, there is usually another one. Whereas Windows and Chrome will only get worse as they will continue to abuse their monopolistic powers over the tech market.

[onestepbackwards]

I've been following the Unity situation and its so fucking insane like holy shit. We have everything! - Absurd fees for devs! That may or may not be retroactive and illegal, but we won't say until you cause a stink about it! (We totally aren't shh we wouldn't break the law. Totally :) ) - Getting rid of one of their levels of subscriptions during all of this, The 'Plus Plan', and allegedly putting you on the more expensive 'Pro' subscription if you auto renew! - Insider trading! Selling their stocks not even a week before they released this new change in their company! x x They've since backpedaled from what their original plan was. Originally, they told everyone that every Install, reinstall, dlc, demo, and pirated copy would now cost a fee (with few exceptions, such as charity games and bundles) It's not hard to see how this could tank an indie company with ease. Mad at a dev/company? Just mass install/uninstall. Now they are apparently saying that 'nonono! We only meant the original install :)' Which also opens the door as to how they are tracking installs. They so far have seemed to be avoiding as to how on earth they are going to do that without breaching privacy on a computer. Especially when it could just be easier to make a fee based on purchases, but no. x

So you know, don't worry guys, they have their own 'proprietary data model.' But so far (As i type this, or am aware of) have not given details about how that model works. When asked about stuff such as Xbox Gamepass, Unity mentioned it would be Microsoft paying for the fees. As of now, I have no idea if Microsoft was even told this, and I doubt they are going to agree to it either out of nowhere. x Another fun thing, is if you change your Unity plan, you are added to the revenue threshold immediately. Interesting that this is after they sneakily got rid of their Plus plan, which a lot of devs seemed to use.

And interesting enough, they seem to contradict themselves from their QnA and their official twitter post regarding Demo's and Early Access, or at least tried to be sneaky about the wording?? x x

They won't charge for demos or early access, until they do, apparently. Or if the demo has data that can be transferred to the main game, anyway. Unity also claimed this would only affect 10% of its users. Which is funny when you look at all the Indie devs and studios who are coming out on twitter saying that this actually directly hurts them. Not to mention all the people that have spent years learning this engine, for themselves, or so they can apply to companies using it. And now all of that was just spat on by Unity themselves. There's also the games that have been out and are built on this engine, and can't just be tossed and rebuilt. Such as Among us, Genshin Impact, Pokemon Go and the Diamond/Pearl remakes. Overall, it's a huge mess. Unity majorly screwed up. I'd recommend looking into what games you like, and if they run on Unity. If you don't have them yet, you may want to purchase them so they are in your steam library, or whatever console you play on. With the uncertainty of all of this, I wouldn't be surprised if some companies delist their games on steam. If you buy from them now, you'll still be able to support the devs before Unity implements this new fee plan. Plus, since you paid for them, they will still be on your console/in your steam library. Please stay safe ya'll, and support your local game devs during this storm. They need it.

[pintsizebear]

A guide on using RSS

This is an extension of my previous post about diversifying your internet use!

What is RSS?

RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication) is basically an update log for a website. When a site has new content the RSS feed will update, and an RSS reader will show what's on the RSS feed. Think of an RSS reader like a centralized timeline/dashboard for all your favorite sites.

Why use RSS?

The most important reasons are to reduce your reliance on any one site, and to save time by compiling all the websites you check in one place instead of having to visit each one individually.

There's also no algorithm that decides what you see (or don't see.) No more shadowbanning, it's all where it's supposed to be. Plus, it makes it incredibly easy to jump ship from a platform that's endlessly fucking up, without having to start over entirely or maintaining profiles on 20 different sites.

Examples of websites that have RSS feeds:

Blogging + Social media sites (tumblr, cohost, blogspot, livejournal, mastodon, bluesky social, reddit, etc)

Video sites (youtube, dailymotion, vimeo, etc)

Podcasts

Forums

News sites

Personal websites (if the person running the site has added one. Here's a guide on adding an RSS feed to your own website! And here's a shorter one!)

How to use RSS?

You will need an RSS reader. I personally like and use Feedbro, which is a free browser extension (available on chrome, firefox, and microsoft edge.) Feeder is free and popular on android. Chrome on android also has a built-in RSS reader that can be enabled. Feeeed is a good free option on iOS.

How to find RSS feeds?

Some RSS readers like Feedbro are able to automatically find the RSS feed for a page with minimal effort on your part, you just click a button and it'll pull up the info.

Others will need you to paste the feed URL into a box, which isn't particularly hard either. There's a few ways to find an RSS feed URL. Some sites will have a direct link to it. It'll usually be an orange icon that looks something like this:

Less commonly, it'll be a link that says "subscribe", "web feed", or just a + icon.

Many sites don't have a direct link listed anymore, but that doesn't mean they don't have an RSS feed. A simple tool for finding unlisted feeds is Thirdplace Discovery. On that website, you paste the URL of the site or page you want the feed of, and you're given the URL of the feed if it exists.

Some sites simply don't have their own RSS feeds. That can often be worked around with tools like OpenRSS, RSSHub, or RSS.app!

It's also worth suggesting for websites you like to add their own RSS feed or to add the link in an accessible place. The more interest people show in it, the more likely it is to be supported.

That's about all you need to get started!

RSS is infinitely useful and customizable, it's worth trying out at the very least. Once you get settled in, it's very easy to use.

There's a huge amount of RSS reader options out there. Don't like the reader you started out with? The vast majority of them will let you export your subscription list as a file that can then be imported into a different reader! Feel free to experiment with different options to see which one you like best.

Also feel free to ask questions if you have them!

[maypop-the-dragon]

PSA: Free Software

Reading this may really save your time, privacy, and money! Reblog or share to spread awareness!

Folks often use software that’s expensive and sometimes even inferior because they don’t know there are alternatives. So to those unfamiliar: basically, free and open-source (FOSS) or "libre" software is free to use and anyone can access the original code to make their own version or work on fixing problems.

That does not mean anyone can randomly add a virus and give it to everyone—any respectable libre project has checks in place to make sure changes to the official version are good! Libre software is typically developed by communities who really care about the quality of the software as a goal in itself.

There are libre alternatives to many well-known programs that do everything an average user needs (find out more under the cut!) for free with no DRM, license keys, or subscriptions.

Using libre software when possible is an easy way to fight against and free yourself from corporate greed while actually being more convenient in many cases! If you need an app to do something, perhaps try searching online for things like:

foss [whatever it is]

libre [whatever it is]

open source [whatever it is]

Feel free to recommend more libre software in the tags, replies, comments, or whatever you freaks like to do!

Some Libre Software I Personally Enjoy…

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an office suite, much like Microsoft Office. It includes equivalents for apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, which can view and edit files created for those apps.

I can't say I've used it much myself yet. I do not personally like using office software except when I have to for school.

OpenShot

OpenShot Video Editor is, as the name suggests, a video editing program. It has industry-standard features like splicing, layering, transitions, and greenscreen.

I've only made one video with it so far, but I'm already very happy with it. I had already paid for a video editor (Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro), but I needed to reinstall it and I didn't remember how. Out of desperation, I searched up "FOSS video editor" and I'm so glad I did. There's no launcher, there's no promotion of other apps and asset packs—it's just a video editor with a normal installer.

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program is an image editor, much like Photoshop. Originally created for Linux but also available for Windows and MacOS, it provides plenty of functionality for editing images. It is a bit unintuitive to learn at first, though.

I've used it to create and modify images for years, including logos, really bad traceover art, and Minecraft textures. It doesn't have certain advanced tech like AI paint-in, but it has served my purposes well and it might just work for yours!

(Be sure to go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Colors. I have no idea why that's not enabled by default.)

Audacity

Audacity is an audio editing program. It can record, load, splice, and layer audio files and apply effects to them.

Audacity is another program I've used for a long time. It is not designed to compose music, but it is great for podcasts, simple edits, and loading legacy MS Paint to hear cool noises.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file manager and archive tool. It supports many archive types including ZIP, RAR, TAR, and its own format, 7Z. It can view and modify the contents of archives, encrypt and decrypt archives, and all that good stuff.

Personally, I use 7-Zip to look inside JAR files for Minecraft reasons. I must admit that its UI is ugly.

Firefox

Firefox is an internet browser, much like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. While browsers are free, many of them include tracking or other anti-consumer practices. For example, Google plans to release an update to Chromium (the base that most browsers are built from these days) that makes ad blockers less effective by removing the APIs they currently rely on.

Aside from fighting monopolies, benefits include: support for animated themes (the one in the picture is Purple Night Theme), good ad blockers forever, an (albeit hidden) compact UI option (available on about:config), and a cute fox icon.

uBlock Origin

As far as I know, uBlock Origin is one of the best ad blockers there is.

I was on a sketchy website with my brother, and he was using Opera GX's ad blocker. Much of the time when he clicked on anything, it would take us to a random sponsored page. I suggested that he try uBlock Origin, and with uBlock Origin, that didn't happen anymore.

Linux

Linux is a kernel, but the term is often used to refer to operating systems (much like Windows or MacOS) built on it. There are many different Linux-based operating systems (or "distros") to choose from, but apps made for Linux usually work on most popular distros. You can also use many normally Windows-only apps on Linux through compatibility layers like WINE.

I don't have all four of these, so the images are from Wikipedia. I tried to show a variety of Linux distros made for different kinds of users.

If you want to replace your operating system, I recommend being very careful because you can end up breaking things. Many computer manufacturers don't care about supporting Linux, meaning that things may not work (Nvidia graphic cards notoriously have issues on Linux, for example).

Personally, I tried installing Pop!_OS on a laptop, and the sound output mysteriously doesn't work. I may try switching to Arch Linux, since it is extremely customizable and I might be able to experiment until I find a configuration where the audio works.

Many Linux distros offer "Live USB" functionality, which works as both a demo and an installer. You should thoroughly test your distro on a Live USB session before you actually install it to be absolutely sure that everything works. Even if it seems fine, you should probably look into dual-booting with your existing operating system, just in case you need it for some reason.

Happy computering!

[mareastrorum]

I’ve been trying to get into meal planning, and like the other 10 or so times I tried to get into it, I get too frustrated with privacy issues to focus on that initial intent.

First step: hey, there’s probably apps, I���ll browse apps. Every highly recommended app has ads and/or collects my data. Also, I don’t mind paying for an app one time (especially if it’ll be ad free), but all of them only offer a subscription, as if access to the equivalent of a fancy excel sheet is an ongoing service. No, I’m not paying per year for a fancy excel sheet. No, I don’t want any of my data collected. Fuck apps.

Next step: someone has surely made this excel sheet anyway. Problem is Excel is now also a subscription, and I’m not going to pay for limited term access to a completed product. Also, Microsoft is increasingly imposing data collection on individual users and collecting data via Copilot anyway. No.

Next step: someone surely has made a Google sheet. But all the ones I can find want me to enable scripts (hmmm, don’t like that), and Google tracks all that anyway because it’s part of their terms and conditions. No.

Solution: I am going to pen and paper it. Like, not even looking up calories and such online, just getting them off the labels of the groceries as I buy them.

I used to be able to document things about myself on my own computer without worrying that someone else has access to that data. I could just buy a program, install it, and no one could get it without physically being at my computer.

Why the fuck isn’t that even an option anymore?

[c-rowlesdraws]

The real crux of the whole discussion is that windows and Mac are both closed proprietary systems that want to withhold your own hardware and software from you and give control of it to a company with the explicit goal of extracting more and more profit from you.

Use whatever environment that you like best, but understand that ultimately both suffer from Capitalism Problems, and those are only averted by the Free and Open-Source philosophy (which Linux is a project of). Remember that if they could get their way, both Apple and Microsoft would happily charge you a fee every time you turn on your own computer and lock access to your files and software behind a subscription service. In a lot of ways what's sold to you as user friendliness and ease and convenience is walls, locks, and a loss of control of hardware that you wholly own.

Whatever system you do use, I recommend doing everything you can to learn how to tear down those walls. Pirate stuff, use FOSS programs, learn enough about your hardware and software to confidently bypass the restrictions built into it by people who want you to be a product.

I'm not interested in selling you on a particular OS, but I deeply passionately want everyone who depends on technology to feel a confidence and sense of ownership over their stuff.

Personally I use windows as my daily driver, and I have for decades. There are shockingly easy ways to wrest control back from Microsoft within it, and if you'd like some help or advice in that direction I'd love to provide that for you if you reach out to me.

You don't have to learn disk architecture or command line operations or throw your iMac down a well in order to make your computer truly yours, but you do have to proactively choose not to accept the cages these capitalist entities try to force you into.

Whatever you do, *do not* use the windows app store for software.

I appreciate all of this, I really do. I would love to give a big ol middle finger to capitalism and seize my computer destiny with both hands. But I am, for now, completely willing to sacrifice freedom for convenience and suckle meekly at the teats of Microsoft and Apple if it means never having to mess around with the intricate and fragile and expensive insides, hard or soft, of my computer where basically my entire life and work are stored.

[tea-earl-grey]

google docs alternatives?

alright i've known that i need to switch off of google docs for awhile because of their shitty business practices & AI but i've been really struggling to find an alternative that does everything i need.

i'm just looking for a word processor that:

can edit documents on multiple devices (specifically a mac laptop & an android phone so unfortunately Scrivener & Pages are out).

be able to share documents for other people to view (not even necessarily edit).

doesn't have any AI/shady business practices in regards to privacy. or at least is better than Google on this front.

doesn't require a subscription. i'm more than willing to pay a reasonable one time fee for a good service but.... no subscriptions.

is a somewhat established service/app that won't blink out of existence in the next year along with all of my files.

i've heard that LibreOffice is good but from my understanding – you still have to use either Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive in order to access files from multiple devices (and i've heard people say that the android app is a little glitchy). if anyone knows a workaround for LibreOffice or another alternative please let me know!!! i want to escape the monopoly!!

[madootles]

sorry if you’ve already answered this but what brushes do you use? I especially love the ones you use on sketches, your art rocks!!

thank you so much!!! I pretty much just draw with Photoshop (it's the 10 USD/month subscription, definitely recommend although I completely understand that many don't have the means or access) and occasionally Microsoft Paint or Fresh Paint.

All the brushes I regularly use are accessible on Photoshop. I haven't been very adventurous with brushes (although I'm always down to try new ones!).

For sketches, I rely on textured brushes and bright colors. Usually I will keep the brush size very small so I can be looser while drawing.

Here's a lil png with all the brushes I use regularly and what I use them for :)

Thanks again!

[nanobreaker]

BBC Article: Microsoft killed my online life after I called Gaza

11 July 2024 | Mohamed Shalaby and Joe Tidy

Palestinians calling home to Gaza on Skype have had their digital lives destroyed, after Microsoft closed their email accounts without warning.

BBC News has spoken to 20 Palestinians living abroad who say Microsoft, which owns the voice and video chat app, kicked them out of their accounts. The total number affected is thought to be much higher.

In some cases, these email accounts are more than 15 years old and the users have no way to retrieve emails, contacts or memories.

Microsoft says they violated its terms of service - but will not say how - and the decision is final.

The Gazans say they have no links to Hamas - designated as a terrorist organisation by some Western countries, including the US, where Microsoft is headquartered - and accuse the technology giant, the most valuable company in the world, of persecuting them unfairly.

Switched off

Salah Elsadi is living in the US and, like many Palestinians abroad, was using Skype to call his wife, children and parents on their mobile phones in Gaza.

The internet is frequently disrupted or switched off because of the Israeli military campaign - and standard international calls are very expensive.

With a paid Skype subscription, it is possible to call mobiles in Gaza cheaply - and while the internet is down - so it has become a lifeline to many Palestinians.

But in April, Mr Elsadi, like many others, was kicked out of his account - and all services linked to his Microsoft Hotmail account.

He has missed out on job offers and can no longer access his bank accounts, which are tied to his Hotmail account, he says.

"I've had this Hotmail for 15 years," Mr Elsadi says.

"They banned me for no reason, saying I have violated their terms - what terms? Tell me.

"I've filled out about 50 forms and called them many many times."

Others have complained on social media of similar treatment.

Some fear they are being wrongly accused of being a part of Hamas.

'Fraudulent activity'

“We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families," Eiad Hametto says. He was calling his family from Saudi Arabia.

"They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years.

"It was connected to all my work."

"They killed my life online.”

Microsoft did not respond directly to the accusation these people have been labelled as Hamas - but a spokesperson said it did not block calls or ban users based on calling region or destination.

"Blocking in Skype can occur in response to suspected fraudulent activity," they said without elaborating. And users could appeal.

But many of those BBC News has spoken to say they have tried many times and are receiving the same blanket response.

One, Khalid Obaied, has lost faith with Microsoft.

"I don't trust them any more," he says.

"I paid for a package to make phone calls - then, after 10 days, they ban me for no reason.

"They have never provided a reason.

"That means it's only because I’m a Palestinian calling Gaza.”

[plasteredwalls]

Rant incoming

WHY IS TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SO GODDAMM DIFFICULT I SWEAR TO GOD.

So. I want to play minecraft online. I don't really use my Microsoft account often but I figure it should be fine. I get signed up for PS Plus, I pay my £6.99, and now I just have to link my Microsoft.

I do the link. I submit the code, then the email, then the password...then the code again then the email then the password and so on so forth until the link expires.

I make a new Microsoft account, as suggested, and it actually seems to be getting somewhere. Until the game is like "Oh you have to sign into the account linked with your game. Yknow, Jyan, which we can remember the name of but not your freaking details".

So I try that. Get in a loop again because it's that outlook email. I sign into Gmail outlook, everything looks fine. I have a string of very recent emails from Amazon about a refund so I know my email *works* at least.

But log in still won't work. So I look on the Microsoft question thing for answers and someone has had the loop issue. There's a link about account recovery. I'm desperate, I mean what the hell nothing else is working, so I use that link. They ask for an alternative email to send me a confirmation where they explain that I did not give them enough details and, as a really really kind courtesy (BECAUSE THATS HOW THEY PHRASED THIS, LIKE IT WAS A COURTESY) they've locked me out of my account :). Yay :). Because they take security reallllly seriously. Except they haven't Because I can still access my emails on the Gmail app but still can't do anything else.

By the way, did you know once you link a Microsoft account to a ps4 account you can NEVER UNLINK AND RELINK A NEW ONE?! Why. What do you GAIN Microsoft. Oh also because ps plus is a paid service they really hate you using it on other accounts of the same ps4 device or really any online features on any account other than the main one. Because what.

So clearly my issue is too complicated for online articles. I've tried and got no where, in any case worse. Let's try reddit - SYKE ALL THE BOTS RUINED REDDIT AND I CANT ACCESS ANY TECH SUPPORT GROUPS TO ASK QUESTIONS MYSELF UNLESS I GET SO MUCH KARMA. GREAT.

So. Microsoft tech support. Please be a good - OH OF COURSE ITS NOT

To summarise this amazinggggg service

1 - CAN'T FIND A RELIABLE NUMBER BECAUSE OF THE SCAMS

1.5 - Google AI summarise RECOMMENDED ME A SCAM NUMBER AS THE OFFICIAL ONE

2 - I can't find anywhere where I can submit a text complaint.

3 - All the search bars just take me to pre written articles as if I haven't read enougj

4 - THEY THEN OFFER ME A PAIDDDDD SERVICE TO "GET FIRST IN LINE FOR GPT TO SOLVE MY ISSUE"

What. The actual. Fuck.

I just want to talk to a human who knows something PLEASE. No none of the articles have helped. No I don't want AI to tell me, it has PROVEN its USELESSNESS. I just wanna talk yo a freaking human, preferably over the phone, who can tell me what to do or initiate some stiff themself because clearly the design has self imploded and IM JUST SO FREAKING FRUSTRATED IM SAT HERE WITH £7 OF A WORTHLESS SUBSCRIPTION AND NO RELIABLE TECH SUPPORT TO FIX IT ALL BECAUSE EMAIL BROKE BUT NOT REALLY.

And that doesn't even BEGIN to worry about whether I'm gonna be able to get my money back on this completely useless service.

So I'm turning to Tumblr. What's tumblrs tech support like??? I don't know, maybe there's a genius out there SOMEWHERE. Because clearly I can't use reddit, thanks barrier to entry :/ and I can't just ring up a human who can actually listen to my words with the nuances that don't fit into the fucking booklet.

If anyone knows anything that could help, please leave your wisdom here I'm frustrated and desperate and don't wanna lose £7 on something I can't even use.

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on the Microsoft Third Party news?

I mean if Xbox is getting to be a big enough brand that people are raising questions of whether or not exclusivity means monopoly, then yeah, spreading more of your games out across multiple platforms makes legal sense.

More and more of the game industry is regrettably going to be moving in the direction of "account ecosystem" rather than hardware platform. Years ago there was talk about how one day there would be no Xbox or Playstation console, just an Xbox or Playstation App you launch on something like a Roku.

The final disgusting endpoint in all of this "no more sales, just service" drive. No discs, not even local data, just a monthly streaming subscription. Forever. No ownership, no ability to mod games, no way to play offline.

Even in the best case scenario, we're looking at a Netflix where you stream 90% of what you play and only "buy" the 10% of games you truly love.

The only thing that flies in the face of that is, like, Steam. The state of movie ownership is what it is because Netflix got there first. The streaming arm of Netflix is the entire reason the "Hollywood Streaming Industry" exists right now. It predates Prime Video, it predates Tubi, it predates everything.

Fewer people probably remember this, but the original premise of Hulu was to get TV networks signed on to simulcast their newest shows online, because none of them were doing that yet. "Netflix Instant" (the original name for Netflix streaming) even predates that. Hulu was trying to fill a need that Netflix could not because Netflix did not actually stream TV shows at first. Not even syndicated rerun stuff. It was just movies. Streaming Seinfeld or The Simpsons or The Office was just outright impossible.

Netflix got in there and shifted the direction of an entire industry, before borders had been staked out or consumers had built up substantial libraries they were protective of. So we went from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray to Streaming, where "Streaming" usually means a subscription service and not any form of ownership.

But that's not the case with games. Users expect backwards compatibility, they expect their libraries to carry forward, and in some cases people may own hundreds or even thousands of games in a digital library. I know on the Xbox 360, I own at least $200 worth of digital games, because I won a sweepstakes specifically for a $200 Xbox gift card. And my 19 year old Steam account will gladly tell the entire world I own over 1600 PC games.

That's just on Steam! Epic is still always giving away free games (200+), GOG is occasionally giving away free games and holding sales where you can get stuff for a couple bucks, etc. etc. etc. It's like the warehouse of mythical items from Indiana Jones over here.

People own gigantic libraries of digital games they expect to keep and willingly modify in perpetuity. It's a lot harder to push people to stream everything off the cloud as a result. It's why the big selling point for game streaming is "No downloads!" and it's why it's struggling to catch on. Sure, a 100gb+ game is huge, but if I take my download limiters off, it doesn't actually take that long. A 90 minute download for a 30+ hour game seems like a pretty fair exchange, all told.

But Microsoft is still going all-in on "account ecosystem." It's like, think of it this way: every game publisher is in a constant war to have the one big holiday game that everybody buys. And for guys like Microsoft, that one big game a year is their primary moneymaker. If they can get everyone to spend at least $60 on their game once a year, they stay in business.

Game Pass is $60 a year. They side step having to put out that holiday season's biggest game and get to say, "Well for the price of one game, you can get access to an entire library." It changes the perspective on so much of their business model. Suddenly they don't need the big flagship holiday blockbuster, they just need to get more people to pay for Game Pass.

And the ultimate end goal there is probably to get Game Pass in as many places as they can. There's already a PC Game Pass. If they can launch some version of Game Pass for Playstation? Game Pass for Switch? They'll do it. The Xbox almost doesn't matter anymore. The subscription and the ecosystem does. It's why Microsoft rebooted the Xbox app on PC a few years ago -- it used to be a "Companion App" for your console, but now the Xbox App on PC is where all of their PC gaming and Game Pass stuff lives. Xbox isn't hardware anymore, it's a service you subscribe to, and that's where the real money is. Especially considering what a gigantic money pit hardware is; I don't think Microsoft has ever, even once, turned a profit on Xbox hardware (and neither has Sony, as far as I know).

Get rid of the need for hardware and that $60/year looks even sweeter, doesn't it? Especially when you start to consider that something like Game Pass Ultimate is actually $180/year. If you can lure people in on the $60 but upsell them to the $180... well, gosh, that's almost the price of a whole new console every year, isn't it? That's a lot of constant cashflow without needing the years and years of deeply expensive research, development, and manufacturing.

Getting people to spend a console's worth of money on your service without actually needing the console itself is massively desirable. They'd be saving millions, if not billions of dollars while making millions more elsewhere. There's a chart out there some executive is drooling over where a line goes straight up by something like 900%.

The only problem is the whole consumer rights/ownership factor. Which I am not a fan of. I objectively refuse to support Game Pass for what it's obvious goals are. I will buy and own every game I want to play. No compromises. I will buy physical if space and money allows. I will not be bled dry by temporary access.

[demifiendrsa]

Microsoft’s $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard has been approved by UK regulators. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has concluded that the deal can proceed after Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. The decision clears the way for the deal to close now that the UK regulator has given the green light.

Press release from the CMA

In August this year Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, buy Activision’s cloud gaming rights. This new deal will put the cloud streaming rights (outside the EEA) for all of Activision’s PC and console content produced over the next 15 years in the hands of a strong and independent competitor with ambitious plans to offer new ways of accessing that content.

As a result of this concession, the CMA agreed to look afresh at the deal and launched a new investigation in August. That investigation has completed today with the CMA clearing this narrower transaction.

The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers. It will allow Ubisoft to offer Activision’s content under any business model, including through multigame subscription services. It will also help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA said:

The CMA is resolute in its determination to prevent mergers that harm competition and deliver bad outcomes for consumers and businesses. We take our decisions free from political influence and we won’t be swayed by corporate lobbying.  We delivered a clear message to Microsoft that the deal would be blocked unless they comprehensively addressed our concerns and stuck to our guns on that. With the sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft, we’ve made sure Microsoft can’t have a stranglehold over this important and rapidly developing market. As cloud gaming grows, this intervention will ensure people get more competitive prices, better services and more choice. We are the only competition agency globally to have delivered this outcome.  But businesses and their advisors should be in no doubt that the tactics employed by Microsoft are no way to engage with the CMA. Microsoft had the chance to restructure during our initial investigation but instead continued to insist on a package of measures that we told them simply wouldn’t work. Dragging out proceedings in this way only wastes time and money.

Martin Coleman, Chair of the Independent Panel who reviewed the original Microsoft deal, said:

Cloud gaming is an important new way for gamers to access games and this deal could have seriously undermined its potential development. On that we, the European Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission are in full agreement. Where we differ is on how we solve that problem. We rejected a solution put to us by the parties which would have left Microsoft with too much control. We now have a new transaction in which the cloud distribution of Activision games, old and new, is taken away from Microsoft and put into the hands of Ubisoft, an independent party who is committed to widening access to the games. That’s better for competition, better for consumers and better for economic growth.

The decision 

In its original investigation, the CMA found Microsoft already held a strong position in relation to cloud gaming and blocked the deal. 

The sale of Activision’s cloud streaming rights to Ubisoft will prevent the distribution of important, popular content – including games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft – from coming under the control of Microsoft in relation to cloud gaming. The restructured deal substantially addressed the concerns that the CMA had following its original investigation, which concluded earlier this year.   

The CMA did identify limited residual concerns with the new deal, but Microsoft gave undertakings that will ensure that the terms of the sale of Activision’s rights to Ubisoft are enforceable by the CMA. 

The CMA consulted on these undertakings and is satisfied that this will provide the safety net needed to make sure this deal is properly implemented.

For more information, visit the Microsoft / Activision ex-cloud streaming rights case page.

[s4intjust]

ooohh my god this pisses me off so much i absolutely hate these sanctions towards m country like ok whatever they banned twitter insta facebook spotify and so on i dont really use them anyway but. all the software i need for uni. its also banned. and THIS is pissing me off

i cannot download/buy matlab, they dont give subscriptions to jetbrains products, like they HAVE my uni in the list of unis which they give student subscriptions to but they simply dont deal with my country anymore, now i need orca input library for tomorrow and i basically cannot donwload it bc i live in the wrong counry. even none of the vpns are working bc apparently theyre also banned. not even mentioning that i literally cannot pay for any of them bc they dont accept money from my counry

thank GOD they didnt ban microsoft site and visual studio is still accessible i literally have no idea what would i do without it

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

y'know im about to go feral on how EVERYTHING is under subscriptions. want this viddy game to run better??? get *insert viddy company name here or or viddy game title here* plus or extra or up your plan to get access to EXTRAS!!

bc the other day, i was making a list of all the different games i might download on my xbox in the future. fallout 76, which has fallout 1st.... which is a $22.99 per a month or $179 a year subscription, just to get better skins etc in the game. i want to download trivial pursuit for me and my dad. but xbox and ubisoft keep recommending "get ubisoft+" which is ANOTHER subscription service through ubisoft. another like $25 a month. like given it could be worth it for me if i got into assassins creed on a bigger level than casual. get EA play to get exclusive sims content!! for ANOTHER $6.99 a month. get xbox games pass (which i have) for $18.95 a month!!! and to be fair, i get EA play for free through xbox game pass. but still.

for example, the other day i updated my nintendo online sub account to the extras pack or whatever.... all bc i wanted to look at the gameboy advance online thing...... but instead of letting me look at it and play super mario world 2 on it on my NORMAL SUBSCRIPTION (which i already had access to on nintendo online snes/game cube or whatever.... and plus i though the GBA platform would have more games than it did (like 10 games but i thought it'd have like 50 or something) i had to change my subscription to the nintendo online plus extras pack for GBA online. but that subscription, was $41.95 this year bc i bought it on sale,... however, next year it'll be $60. like at least its $60 a year and not a month. but i'm still pissed off. i should've been able to get access to this for the $30 a year i was already paying!!! and for a measly 10 games not the like 50 games on the game cube/snes online game offerings.

just. im so sick and tired of EVERY company demanding customers to pay a monthly or yearly subscription for access or extras or for something to run better. who the fuck is made of enough money to afford fallout 1st??? ubisoft+??? like dgmw, i get it if you're SUPER into any of these games. like it's worth $22.99 a month to access extras across the library of ubisoft+ if you're a hella fan of assassin's creed or their other games (ie trivial pursuit). or $6.99 for EA play for the love of sims or every single sports game ever.

just i guess it's burn out maybe that EVERYONE wants your money. a section of your wallet continuously until you cancel. i have to subscribe to my area's local newspaper for $179 a year. i subscribed to an app by the adf (australian defence force) to do job aptitude tests (im ignoring it tbh lol). i subscribe to the NYTs games app for $2.99 a month. i WAS paying $15 a month (but now it's closer to $20) for scribd, which is now everand, for audiobooks. for better use of my xbox, i subscribe to xbox games pass, as i said earlier, for $18.95 a month. and from next year, i'll pay $60 a year for nintendo online (unless i drop down back to the cheaper option to get rid of GBA online). i subscribe for $100 a year to microsoft for the essential apps of microsoft word/powerpoint etc. i pay $100 a year for norton antivirus on my windows laptop that i barely use now.

there's adhd apps that I keep getting recommended on fb that are like $150 a year or something. astrology app subscriptions (that i'll NEVER buy) that are like $15 a month.... as examples of apps that i won't use, but I get suggested all the time on social media. once i get a job, i'll be constantly asked about what tv streaming apps im subbed to as well (none). WHY does EVERYONE want my fucking money???? i am so sick to death of subscriptions.