That is true only to some extent. Frances Wright, who admittedly lived later than Washington (1795-1852), was one of the most vocal public abolitionists in the USA to the extent of my knowledge. Specifically, she was a feminist and abolitionist. Both she and Jefferson were Epicureans and knew the sources well, but she drew other, more ethical, conclusions, and supported the fight for abolition.

It is important to keep in mind that she was living later than Jefferson, and thus had access to different sources than he did. However, her example demonstrates that it was not impossible, even back then, to recognize that owning slaves was wrong and unethical. While I agree that it was typical for the elites to do it regardless, I want to emphasize that the sources to recognize that slavery was wrong were already there. Many people simply chose to ignore it.

Thus my stance is that it definitely was a sign of the times that it was widespread, I think the defining feature of the time was that people chose to ignore ethical conclusions. It isn’t just a sign of the time that people kept slaves - it was sign of the time that people chose to keep slaves even though they could’ve recognized that it was wrong and unethical.

I hope my point is understandeable. Just adding my two cents :)

My eyes…

Ubuntu actually. I hated Ubuntu for a long time, until there was a game which only ran on Ubuntu. And now, after installing it, I’m actually pretty impressed and like it a lot. Yaru is a very good-looking theme, and the customizations Ubuntu made to stock GNOME are actually pretty logical (like adding windows buttons). It has among the best documentation and package support in the whole Linux universe. I’m a guy who likes to tinker, but for whom it is more important that the PC runs well, and I haven’t encountered a single problem with Ubuntu yet - no kernel panic, no weird Bluetooth stuff, no apps which don’t run for some reason,…

Everything just works. And that makes me happy. So Ubuntu it is.

Thank you - I’ll try it out again. I had exactly the same feeling about KDE5 - too fractured, too inconsistent, too many weird options. GNOME just was more polished in that regard. But your post makes me hopeful that KDE 6 fixes these things :)

Overall I’m just happy that Linux has multiple competing DEs which often inspire each other and give great new design ideas. As long as we have GNOME, KDE, Cinnamon, Budgie, Pantheon etc., I will be happy. I have learned lots of things in regards to my design preferences (and about quality of design in general), and I’m glad knowing that I can switch DEs anytime. RIP for Windows/Mac users who don’t have thus luxury.

That changes my perspective on them a lot. Well, another lesson taken - don’t jump too quickly onto conclusions.

It was a difficult wordle - I wouldn’t have figured it our without my gf.

Spoiler: It is

Gnome, hands now. Before coming to Linux, I was an Apple user. I was a fan of their design philosophy - minimalism, clarity and simplicity. Well, I can’t tolerate Apple as an enterprise, and there are also a lot of very weird design desicions which I discovered while using their devives - but the core principle is something I stand by. Gnome in my opinion is exactly that - KISS, and all the options are really polished.

I’ve tried KDE as well, and have a lot of respect for the developers of it. But after using it for a few days, there are just a lot of inconsistencies in the KDE applications which don’t make sense to me.

Gnome for the win!!!1!1!1!1!1!

True, hood point. I remember to have read a study according to which a disproportionate amount of people at the top (aka CEOs) display narcissistic behavioral traits - so it can make sense to suspect the same applies to other personality disorders. It just feels ahhh to me - that these people dont utilize their talents and itelligence to improve the world, but to build up ways to monetize every last bit of your time. Like come on :/

Am I the only one who gets the feeling that this is kinda dystopic? Like come on, this just gets crazy. It amazes me that some people think this is an ethically acceptable way to earn money.

… And Fedora Silverblue. Perfect for tinkering. I love how I can always install apps and remove them at my leisure, without leaving traces ;)

Yeee, I use the F-Droid version, so they’re clean.

Still a shame though…

RIP Simple mobile apps. You were amazing while you lasted.

Yes! I like it a lot as well :)

I am using Fairphone (great company, they make ethical phones) together with /e/ OS, a fork of LineageOS. The great thing about Fairphone is that they officially support /e/ and offer a waranty of 5 years. In the past, they offered their Fairphone 2 a support of 7 years, including Software and Android version updates , which is absolutely mind-blowing. Also their phones are highly modular, you can switch basically everything (Battery, camera, speakers,…), they actually make an effort to improve production and manufacturing processes by e.g. using Fairtrade certified Gold, they obviously like Open Source,… And /e/ basically goes the route of “degoogling without making life inconvenient”. They have an App Store preinstalled (Aurora Store), with which you can access Google Play apps. They include MicroG, if you wish to, which makes using apps depending on Google services a lot easier. Also they offer their own ecosystem with e.g. Mail, Calendar, etc. And they are nonprofit! So seriously, if you want to get a degoogled Phone, I’d recommend the Fairphone (5 or 4 both are okay, although 5 would probably be better) together with /e/ OS combo without any doubt. The phone is amazing and hasn’t let me down, and although it has been quite a journey, I wouldn’t want to have chocen otherwise.

Just my take :)

Seriously, is that how far we came?

laughs in LineageOS

But seriously folks, you can survive without Google Play Store. While it definitely is sometimes not easy and there are obstacles put in your way, after a certain time you learn to accommodate. And I have a peace of mind knowing that no one is selling my pictures to data foraging companies God knows where.

You just made my day better, I had to laugh. Thank you ;)

Admittedly, good point. I completely forgot by now how annoying the experience was :)

Admittedly, when you run apt-update on a freshly installed system, you get a whole lot more updates. But at least they finish in a a few seconds, compared to Windows’s somewhere between now and the end of time. Who knows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

No… The true Linux users are white, mid-40 men who only use Arch Linux on an old Thinkpad and who will comment “I use Arch BTW” under a video with a random dog eating a ball just to prove that the dog should use Arch as well, because it is objectively better than anything else.

Yesss, Linux gang for the win!