Kiwix works on mobile, with easy access to pre-download many books including survival books. No local LLM, but there are apps for this as well, so you could build your own setup without much effort.
Amazon and Steam work fine over a browser, as does signing in to Google. Why are you using Netflix on a phone?
The major problem is banking, although some banks still work with Waydroid, and a few banks have full featured websites that work. But you do have to be more selective.
Netflix has over 1 billion app installs on phones, so go ask 1 in 8 people.
Is a browser on compromised hardware supposed to be more secure than an app? Amazon, steam etc still risk exposing accounts authorized to make payments using your money. It's easy to think "I just won't use banks" and underestimate the risks of doing anything on compromised hardware, and the answer isn't to play the "what could possibly go wrong" game, it's to not use compromised hardware.
Oh I know this exists, I just think it’s ridiculous. My attitude was best put into words by David Lynch: “It’s such a sadness that you think you’ve seen a film on your fucking telephone. Get real.” (I realize he later moderated this for, uh, reasons, but I take this as the proper attitude.)
I’m not really worried about mainstream Chinese manufacturers stealing my bank credentials. Fly-by-night budget phones full of crapware, yeah sure.
Purism’s Liberty Phone is exactly this, but the security is poor compared to Graphene OS and it’s really expensive for the hardware you get. Regardless, I think it’s your only option if you want something that’s made here.
Typically when the US “bans” a device, it’s only banned for import/first sale or for government employees. Huawei phones still work on many US carriers, for instance, despite the “ban”.
Believe it or not, lawsuits and regulations are much more effective. Consumer behavior rarely moves the needle. It may make you feel better, but you can’t consume your way to a better world.
Conspicuous consumption has many forms, “ethical” consumerism is just the latest variation.
Would love to see some research on this. My libertarian friends are a dog with a bone in their belief that our individual dollar-votes are the foremost and correct way we shape the economic landscape. I can’t imagine how anyone arrives there from research or history or experience, but I guess it keeps their Ayn Rand-ian ambition fired up.
That being said i wish they were right. I pay a premium for organic and farmers market. As well as plastic free everything. It feels good to support those businesses, but they are still mostly just getting by.
Beyond lawsuits and regulations - I’ve personally seen what Europe is doing to deploy financial programs for transitions to, for example, regenerative farming. It really works. With the extra funds/financing, farms are able to plan 2-5 year payback instead 10+. The incentive alignment makes a huge difference.
Asbestos, lead, CFCs, DDT, there’s a ton of examples of where it worked. The question as usual is where regulation is appropriate and how far it should go. Banning lead pipes was obvious, and it worked once people understood the downsides and limited upside, but banning drugs has been a failure.
You have to look at the demand side of the equation, because creating black markets isn’t a good idea, and neither is creating widespread resistance and discontent. Governments aren’t all powerful (thank goodness), so regulation has to focus on the stuff that’s most harmful and has the highest chance of success.
If they were very profitable instead of just getting by, more of them would appear until they were just getting by again. So that's not a sign of lack of impact of your spending.
Bonus, the man in the middle can see what packages you’re downloading since you’re not using HTTPS, so they know if you’re vulnerable during an update.
I never understood the insistence on using HTTP as a default for apt. Once HTTPS transport was available and tested (which took forever btw) then it should have become the default. Maybe this will spur some changes.
If your scale actually makes caching worth it you can run a local HTTPS mirror. If you don't control the endpoints to do that, you don't get to MiTM anything.
(Also Marginalia for deep search)
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