scoobford

In the US, checks are much worse than paying with a credit or debit card. It is much cheaper for a merchant to take checks than either type of card, so that is why they're usually used.

Also, the person in question might be very poor / bad with money and unable to get a credit or debit card.

Honestly I just keep mine on airplane mode. Calibre was always a much better management tool, and libgen isn't nearly as creepy.

I don't think any human has sent an SMS message deliberately for about 12 years!

sweats nervously in American

Then people will find new things to do. The extra man hours can be dedicated towards the manufacture of luxury products, art, and other less utilitarian items.

I do worry about the transition period, however. Mass unemployment isn't a permanent problem, but in the short term it can be a very severe problem.

In the words of my old economics teacher, subsidizing a steel plant just because you don't want to fire people may be inefficient, but do you really want to go walk in and tell a bunch of big steel workers their work is no longer worth it?

They likely do. While they are extremely ineffectual, our state assistance agencies are staffed by very well intentioned people.

The problem is the corruption at the top, in political positions, and the idiots thinking they should pull the ladder up behind them by defunding everything that isn't a police or roadway agency.

I disagree. IE was incredibly proprietary, and SMS is at least an open standard.

IE is...idk Facebook messenger or Imessage or something.

Unfortunately, no, you don't. However, you can buy computers with Linux preinstalled. I haven't looked in a long time, but they were only marginally more expensive when I looked last.

Also, installing Linux isn't difficult at all, provided that your motherboard isnt weird about booting it (really just luck of the draw, but usually not a problem), and that you're willing to nuke all your files. Dual boot installations are where things get precarious.

Iirc you can just install a VPN app in the work profile to accomplish this.

Many do, or at least did a few years ago.

You can use android deblaoter or ADB to disable many of those packages, but not all of them. Be warned, that you can easily cause instability this way.

If there's a custom ROM without gapps and touchwiz or sense or whatever they call it these days, that would be a much preferable solution. Unfortunately, Samsung is determined to be difficult about custom roms, so very few are available on their devices.

When you have the means, I recommend a pixel with graphene or a Linux phone, depending on how serious you are.

Usually, yes.

Xiaomi isn't a thing here, but pixels are usually <$500 USD and get like 5 years of updates, plus I don't think graphene runs on anything else.

Mostly their attitudes towards human rights and past instances where those have been violated. Things like tianamen and the holodomor (sp?) didn't happen, and who needs civil freedoms or liberties anyways?