Comment on Why aren't Linux based mobile OSes more popular?
BorgDrone@feddit.nl 2 days agoThey aren’t popular because there already is a very popular linux based mobile OS: Android. What would be the point of another one? Why would anyone want to use a new OS with zero app support and no advantage to using it?
If you want to overcome the obstacle of being a new platform with no support then you have to provide a significant advantage to make it worth the pain, and there simply isn’t one.
Why did people switch to iOS and Android phones when companies like Nokia had the market cornered? Because they offer a massive improvement in UX over the established players. What advantage do those OSes you mentioned have?
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 days ago
Ah, but there is. Privacy. Some of us are old enough to remember when that was an enshrined right instead of us just being data providers to rich guys.
I don’t know why you think you have the moral high ground here and are being so argumentative and making specious analogies, but, yeah, there are people who don’t like being part of a surveillance economy, and as paid-off lawmakers aren’t going to do jack shit, we need to have options out of just being pawns for Google and Apple.
How this escapes you is beyond me, but I’m not going to be an asshole like you’ve been in every response on this thread.
BorgDrone@feddit.nl 2 days ago
Tell that to the masses who post their entire private lives on bookface and tictac. The overwhelming majority of people don’t give a fuck. Especially if it means having to give up all their favorite apps.
What makes you assume I think that?
Of course there are. The question was why mobile OSes that offer that don’t take off. And the answer is simply that very few people care enough for it to be a viable market. Very few people care enough to be willing to get excluded from iMessage or Facebook groups just to take a principled stance on privacy.
If you want these to take or you have to offer way more than some abstract promise of better privacy. Think of what you’re asking people to give up. To get them to switch you need a massive incentive.
Powderhorn@beehaw.org 2 days ago
I mean, I left Facebook in 2014 and have never been on Instagram or TikTok. You act like it’s this huge endeavour to not be on such sites. I used WhatsApp to stay in touch with my family in Europe, but once Facebook bought that, I was done. Told them to message me on Signal.
I’m asking people to give up parasocial relationships. They aren’t useful, so no loss there.
And it’s not my fault they can’t see that.
BorgDrone@feddit.nl 2 days ago
I’ve never been on any social media, but we’re not exactly average people. For a lot of people it’s hugely important to their social lives. Giving up Facebook for them means being excluded from social events. They will no longer see event announcements from their social groups.
You and I may not care about these things, but to a lot of people these are hugely important.
It’s your fault for not being able to even consider that other people are different from you and have different needs.
You could put me on an uninhabited island for 10 years and I’d be perfectly happy. My brother by contrast will get depressed after 2 days without social contact.