Well, it’s your choice, I don’t give either company my money. I’d suggest switching to Linux and start pirating everything.

Stop giving these companies your money!

Have people started to use Godot more?

It’s pretty messed up that schools enforce those things onto kids. Chromebooks, while cheap, invade the hell out of your privacy and are extremely restrictive. We should be teaching kids GNU/Linux, not ChromeOS… I honestly feel sorry for the future of free software. Students aren’t taught ethics, freedom, or privacy at ALL. I was in school, (graduated two years ago), and it seemed that every teacher adapted the “you don’t have privacy” motto. Absolutely terrible. Buy the kids a Dell Latitude E6400 and put Libreboot/Trisquel with KDE on it. Let them live and help each other out with issues. It would be super heart warming to see schools adapt something like this instead.

(I understand the convenience issues, but we should start adapting, its crazy that Gen Z barely know anything about computers)

Well shit, pirate everything I guess.

I would rather buy a gaming computer instead. Mainly, so I can pirate all my games and actually keep what I paid for. In any case, we should still support developers who develop games without DRM. I just buy my games from GoG instead, since all the games on there don’t have DRM. I lost all my Steam games because I had two factor enabled (this is my own fault). My phone disappeared in the ocean, and I didn’t save the recovery key.

I contacted Steam support and they didn’t do anything, I could show receipts, even my whole ID+SSN, still they wouldn’t recover my account. Ever since then, I’ve been pirating all the games I used to own, I think that’s more ethical than just straight up pirating the game without originally paying the developer.

(I know this had almost zero to do with the post but imo people should really avoid buying consoles)

Yes, you can create multiple accounts and get all text/call notifications in one app. I recommend you use the Cheogram app for phone or Dino-IM for PC.

It says this on their front-page:

“Note: While JMP does provide phone numbers and voice/SMS features, it does not provide 911, 112, 999 or other emergency services over voice or SMS.”

I meant Verizon for service on my phone and then have JMP.chat number for making calls/text. I don’t use the phone number that’s given from Verizon, I use the JMP.chat number instead. <---- This is my setup for my phone, not my laptop. JMP.chat works just fine over WiFi. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

For getting service on my laptop though, I use a USB modem that’s connected to my LibreCMC router. I travel around with the router/modem in my backpack. The LibreCMC router doesn’t need an outlet, it can be turned on by connecting it via USB to my laptop.

Yes. I have multiple accounts attached to my phone number and I’m able to receive OTPs from all of them (banking, shopping, etc.)

I use my carrier (e.g. Verizon) for service, and pay jmp.chat $5/month for my phone number.

Unfortunately, the flip phone route for doing daily calls/texts won’t work because I use multiple phone numbers, and those phones have proprietary operating systems/firmware. Though, I still keep one in a Faraday bag if needed for emergencies.

I’m only using hardware that allows the Intel Management Engine to be fully disabled (e.g., ThinkPad X200, T400, etc.).

The PinePhone seems nice, but its firmware cannot be freed to the same extent as that of one of the older ThinkPads.

The reason why is because I want to escape from non-free software.

Oh, I already use GrapheneOS on my Pixel; it’s a nice experience, but at the same time, it’s not enough for me. The firmware isn’t free, and I don’t like the fact that it can still spy on me to some extent. I also just don’t want to use my phone; I find myself to be a lot more productive with a laptop.

Not sure. Do you have any suggestions? I have my own domain name and VPS, I could possibly self-host. (Currently, I’m using snikket.chat)

It is convient, but I’m trying to avoid using proprietary software as much as possible. Those phones tend to use proprietary operating systems. Thanks for the suggestion though!

I signed into my JMP.chat account via XMPP on Pidgin. I can make calls and texts just fine.

Edit: Pidgin (installed from Trisquel repos) can be used for texting, but as of right now, calling seems to be bugged. I’m currently using Dino (installed from Trisquel repos), both calling/texting work fine on there.

Unfortunately, I can’t go that route. I use many different phone numbers through Pidgin, so I don’t think the flip phone would do.

The person was saying they couldn’t access a certain site with Firefox, that’s why I suggested a chromium based browser.

Yes, but Edge comes with a lot more proprietary components added.

I would recommend installing ungoogled-chromium or using another hardened FOSS version of chromium instead.

Why not use chromium or a hardened version of it? Edge is proprietary software.