The one with the M was the open source and federated one, correct?

You guys having meatballs in Godot? Insert image of Will Coulter

No my initial point is, that if you are boarding with how to setup a VPN you are probably not the main user that TikTok is generating money from.

Plus companies will probably not use a platform that is banned in a country to target people in that country.

And plus if you are willing to just Google or look up a single video tutorial about what a VPN is or how to set it up you are probably above of the average Internet user today.

That’s exactly what I just said? My grandma could just do it. That’s no effort at all. Still so many people refuse to do just one little extra step or think about why something is not working anymore. That’s just reality.

If people start questioning those things that would be a good thing. And again people not using a VPN is not my main argument here.

Meanwhile people still arguing Fedivers will never succeed because it’s to complicated to pick a server :D

If someone goes the extra mile to get informed about and use a VPN, this person is no longer the average user of TikTok. I’m sure everyone including a 90 years old grandma is able to setup and use a VPN on it’s own, put it requires a change in mind that definitely impacts you behavior online for the better. So again would be a Win.

It’s directly controlled by Chinese government so please don’t tell me TikTok would be out of reach… maybe for US Government :D It is only effective in spreading stuff that CCP supports or doesn’t effect them.

Just because it’s much more common in those countries compared to USA or Europe to use a VPN it doesn’t mean the average user there is actually using them. If there are even regions where it’s forbidden to use a VPN (than that’s highly concerning more than a TikTok ban or anything else!) it’s even more unlikely the average user will have VPN access.

And again all of my other points I think are much more important in that thought process.

Sorry to say that but that sounds like a “Hitler built the Autobahn” argument for me. Don’t be fooled TikTok is highly controlled and influenced by the Chinese government. Yes TikTok is promoting the oppression of the Palestinian people because this topic coincidentally proved to be quite effective in supporting Chinese government agenda and distract from their own problems. The voices of other oppressed people are still silenced on that very same platform, see almost every inner chines dispute.

And it’s not that TikTok would be the only platform that Palestinian voices could be and are actually heard. You can speak about this on almost every other platform. Plus: if all this people would just leave TikTok and use the Fidivers instead this would be a double win for everyone including the other oppressed voices on TikTok.

Yet, despite that, it’s working as one. Effectively No it don’t! It is a platform designed to get peoples attention and forward it to a scam add. Everything that goes beyond surface level is not suited for this platform and sorted out and even worst it’s highly controlled by the chines government. This is not a platform for political discussion and public dispute. Maybe people think they could use it for that but that’s a big mistake!

IDK is the average TikTok user really installing VPN software on it’s phone? And if something is banned in a country companies are far less likely to put in effort in it.

So even if people can still use it, technically, TikTok lifes of selling scam shit to people… If you have the skills to install a VPN your probably also not falling for that stuff.

I actually see that as a win. TikTok is not a platform for political discussion or private communication (by design) so I don’t hate the idea of it getting banned.

Sony has committed official drivers for PS5 controller under Linux. The experience with it is really plug-and-play… just that you don’t plug it in.

Some people don’t like the layout others prefer it. I use it myself on my Linux computer. So I wanted to name this option here.

Yes they probably will.

But my point would be that with AP being W3C and not management by meta or a different company the ecosystem of it can survive.

And too be fair until recently I still used XMPP so it was never dead. I think it was just that almost no one ever heard about it before Google used it and also almost no one really cared about it while Google used it. So the resulting consequence was that once Google dropped off completely it went back to no one really using it (like it was before).

AP already having a decent user base (some million active users, official accounts and instances of big institutions like the EU commission e.g.) even without threads and a big eco system(very diverse platforms and projects), there is no need for any platform to adapt to anything coming from meta. Things are good (enough) how they are currently.

It’s not that we need to compete or couldn’t exist without Meta.

Yes this EEE fear exists but I think it’s unreasonable in my eyes. AP being managed by W3C is one reason for it.

Sure Meta will probably extend AP for their own use but it’s not that they can simply decide that the new feature that they introduced and is at first only working on their platform is the standard from now.

I definitely agree that Nostr is something to keep an eye on but for me that’s more about to see if there is stuff that works and can be introduced in AP as well. Because of all the arguments above I don’t think we should all switch to Nostr now.

But amount of users is actually more a product of marketing than any technical protocol so I don’t really see that point either. Also I don’t see that being true, especially if you count in all the threads users.

My point of it being a W3C standard is more that it is a protocol that is in somewhat responsible hands. When using a protocol that was developed by and only for one (commercial) application in minds other players are always one step behind.

Mastodon (or threads) as the main platforms that implement AP don’t have any more influence on the protocol than any other platform as well.

but it’s been a W3C standard for a long time, and is still very niche.

Is it really? I mean there are already many completely independent platforms built on it (Lemmy, Mastodon, PeerTube, Pixelfed… To only name a few)

Plus recently existing platforms changing to use AP like Flipboard for example or threads (even if nobody is happy about the last 😅)

Additionally AP protocol can be adapted and extended over time if it’s really needed. That would also be an option in the long run.

I don’t get the first point. Do you think having variety in clients is a bad thing or do you think the variety in clients is not big enough and actually what does this have to do with the protocol?

The other points do appear that strong to me if we talk about developing a service and more about people who don’t want to host or do anything themselves but still want to have full control… Actually I think the better moderation structure that comes with AP is a plus point. I want a free web and not total anarchy in which the loudest wins.

Biggest strength of AP in my eyes is that it’s a W3C standard. AT was developed by a company to fulfill that company’s goal.

Can you give a more detailed explanation why Activitypup is garbage? And why AT should be any better?

Also the Dutch…

My best advice is:

Don’t listen too much about what strangers on the Internet say you should do or use.

Non of us has statistics to pull from. Mostly it’s individual experience mixed with personal preferences. All that could be different for someone else. E.g. some people will have problems with Nvidia, other with AMD.

Stick to the basic and add fancy stuff later on.

Don’t pick a distribution because of the Desktop environment. Or because someone said it has a nifty feature. People create new distros all the time just for fun and not because there would be a real reason for it. Looking on the release cycle would probably be the most basic decision you should take. Read about the differences between “rolling release” and “long time support” and decide base on you personal use case.

Have a backup strategy

This is nothing limited to Linux but since you are planing to switch your habits, there is a high possibility you will mess up at some point. Best would be you try to stimulate the worst case and look if you would be able to setup your system in a VM or something.

Don’t be afraid to try things out

Especially when you know that your backup is working. There is not much you can lose. Don’t be afraid of using Arch Linux e.g. just because someone on the Internet said it’s just for pros or something.

So this last one is maybe just the consequences of all the above. But yeah I guess that’s all I could say for now 😅

That’s my take on it