this is not the first time they do something like this

I don’t understand, sorry. what I meant is the way you as the user do upgrades. you grab a terminal, elevate and run the system update command (zypper refresh, zypper update). major version upgrades are more complicated.

I can do this sure. But this is not noob friendly the slightest. and the YaST graphical tools don’t make it much better either.
I won’t say that the update system of windows is good because why the fuck does searching for updates minutes, and other reasons. but the UI of it is much better. it tells you what will it update, it has a button for starting the process, an automatism for it too. there’s also a menu for the update history.

how do they do regular updates? how do they do major version upgrades?

I think both of these is a big pain point.

its still better in a sense. usb storage devices all have an internal “mini computer” that run their own code and have access to the USB bus of the connected computer, with the ability to even present themselves as a keyboard, a network adapter or a lot of other things. that’s not a good idea to plug in to the hospital computer after it was given to the patient, and it is also not the best idea to just plug these in at home.

optical media on the other hand does not store code that is executed by the drive.

the problem is that pendrives have a firmware, and too much capabilities, even when not accounting for errors in hardware and code that participates in making it work. some of them (maybe most?) is even writable with the right tools, and the computer’s user doesn’t even need to know that it’s happening.
the most famous web browser that allows any website access to your USB devices with just 1 or 2 clicks makes this even worse.

with digital media recording has become a lot harder, thanks to Digital Restrictions Management

I have been using the same CPU for half a decade. Not everyone is an impulse buyer.

why?

I thought you were thinking an AI based code generator klike copilot) does it, when you said the IDE does it.

username checks out /s

I disagree that users won’t do stuff on their own. They will, but they will allocate very little time to it, on average, especially when compared to a tech savy person. And that’s just because their computer is a tool.And if they cannot make their tool work for what they want to do, they’ll find another way. Or deem it impossible.

also don’t forget that many don’t even have the time and energy

and start off from a fundamentally wrong premise: that people are willing (let alone wanting) to manage their own operating systems.

people shouldn’t need to manage their own operating systems, to begin with

https://beehaw.org/comment/4094773

not the IDE, its the compiler. this is also not some AI shit, in many cases (not all) the compiler can actually figure out how to do this, because it’s not hard, it would just be a lot of boilerplate if written manually.

in my understanding OP was not comparing it to simple wireguard

to simple wireguard? there are wireguard based mesh network solutions out there

the AI thing must be something relatively new. shows they are all for using buzz tech

businesses are truly developing malware

because they don’t yet circumvent it. but also, are you completely sure everything is blocked? DoT, DoH traffic and such?

as an additional measure, sure. but these blocks are not hard to circumvent, so it’s not enough in itself

That’s undoubtedly useful, but won’t help with the google part, even if it uninstalls some google apps

GrapheneOS for google pixel phones, otherwise CalyxOS, DivestOS, maybe even IodéOS. All of these are Android but with better defaults, without irremovable spying garbage, and with some features nowhere else available.

if your phone is not supported by these, check LineageOS. or plan your next phone purchase according to the compatibility list of the above. if you’re going for longevity but you don’t need a flagship, Fairphone is agood choice, if you can look away from the lack of a JACK.