Just a warning on MS email services. I stopped paying for OneDrive and the DAY my sub expired they stopped allowing me to receive or send emails on my linked Outlook and Hotmail email addresses. Not sure whether this same policy applies to stand alone legacy Hotmail accounts, but it’s the same company running the service.

In terms of which company I detest more: I think it’s still Microsoft hands down. At least Google doesn’t suspend send / receive if you stop paying. MS is a dumpster fire of tax evasion, monopoly, and predatory behavior.

Migrate to Calibre and use Calibre Virtual Libraries. However based on the comments I’m reading, it looks like you want something that is not application based. Good luck with that.

I do have to give it to Quiznos for pioneering guacomole on a sandwich. I don’t think any other nationwide chain had done that. Oh yeah and they made the worst / most addictive commerciala ever with the Rats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZrks-BPeLQ

The only Quiznos that I have eaten at in the last 3-4 years is in the Spokane Airport, and it is TERRIBLE. Like the worst microwaved rubber chicken you’ve ever had. Thankfully, Spokane Airport is finally getting a renovation with local restaurants in the terminal, so I think Quiznos will be down another location.

deleted by creator

Oh yes that’s much needed, thank you.

Who in FOSS hurt you?

Not sure whether this would meet you or anyone competent’s criteria for “good”, but here is mine:

• Syncthing my Calibre Library folder on my primary PC
• Mobius Sync to my iPhone
• Load books (saved in main folder by author name sortable by date modified) or news (they’re saved in “calibre” folder by publication name) to iOS Books app or PDF in native Files app

That way I load whatever I am currently reading.

deleted by creator

Oh yeah, and Kovid posts a tracker for most used news sources so you can see what works and what other people are enjoying. https://calibre-ebook.com/dynamic/recipe-usage

Also, if you like to view by covers, here is what it looks like in Cover Grid Layout!

Typical MS gaslighting and manipulation to subvert meaningful regulation.

It’s entertaining to me that our brand of monopolistic / oligarchic capitalism itself disincentivizes one-time costs that are greatly outweighed by the risk of future occurrences. Even when those one-time costs would result in greater stability and lower prices…and not even on that big of a time horizon. There is an army of developers that would be so motivated to work on a migration project like this. But then I guess execs couldn’t jet set around the world to hang out at the Crowdstrike F1 hospitality tent every weekend.

Ah I see what you mean(t). You would have to have working systems with clean-enough data in the first place to integrate with in order to develop a system like this. Not just the expertise to develop it.

If you ever want to go down a depressing rabbit hole, read about the tax-avoiding antics Microsoft pioneered between 2010 and 2020. They’re still refusing to pay a measly $29B tax bill (likely a minute percentage of what they laundered / evaded). It is a truly evil corporation.

Edit: changed M to B. Yeah they are delinquent on $29B in taxes. Different rules and laws apply for the rich & megacorps.

That’s a monopoly I appreciate. Although it’s marginal depending on a number of factors.

Comparing run of the mill government services with something as advantageous as a social credit app is not apples to apples. It’s not like they assign utility administrators to work for GRU hacking units. The people that build this tool will be highly paid technical experts. And there is no shortage of them in Russia. It’s definitely not 100% but there’s a decent chance they can cobble together a working system that tracks social scores for the vast majority of Russian citizens.

I wouldn’t underestimate the engineering competence of Russians especially when it comes to autocratic surveillance tools. There are plenty of Russian-built tools and web apps that function quite well - Yandex, VK, etc. The west does not have a monopoly on innovation.

Yes! Linux Mint is such a great project - it made me excited to get on my desktop again.

If it’s any comfort, it took me a few tries to get it to work. It was over a year ago so the details are a bit rusty. I started out trying to install Debian, and it also crashed during installation, so I went back and tried some of the bug fixes. (One was something to do with the MOK). Debian didn’t work after that but Ubuntu did. It was a strange experience, and there’s nothing that would motivate me to switch after I finally got it to work.

Perhaps you can give it another shot sometime and it’ll work. If you hate the custom arch that’s on it, and you don’t use it, you might as well try.