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ExtremeDullard@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I’m paying for my open source preference and the support / community instead of the most modern fancy features. I want both, but I’d still choose the former

I try to apply the same logic whenever I can too.

For instance, my laptop is a MNT Reform: it’s a very good laptop, but it’s literally 6 times the price of a comparatively-specced laptop from a big-box store.

And my cellphone is a Fairphone 5 running Ubuntu Touch. I chose the Fairphone for the repairability and increased openness, but it’s also 2 to 3 times the price of a more common brand cellphone with similar performances. And Ubuntu Touch itself comes with its own set of restrictions, but that’s the price of trying to be as free from the Android ecosystem as possible.

So yeah, you can do open, but the choice is very limited and you pay a lot for the privilege.

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Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

I chose the Fairphone for the repairability and increased openness, but it’s also 2 to 3 times the price of a more common brand cellphone

Only outside of Europe or their free-trade partners, in Europe I can get a Gen 5 for 400€ and Gen 6 for about 550€. It’s extremely annoying for most countries, but regarding the US it’s 100% their regime’s fault for not having any comparable company (they get immediately smushed by Google, Apple & Co by any means necessary) or at least low / no tariffs with the EU zone (Trump literally killed a done deal in this regard one week before ratification with his threats of invading Greenland).

For instance, my laptop is a MNT Reform: it’s a very good laptop, but it’s literally 6 times the price of a comparatively-specced laptop from a big-box store.

Now that’s really special. :D There are a lot of “normal” (x86) devices on the market that are way more affordable as well. For a while Slimbook offered a modern native Linux laptop for <500€, and there are also companies like System76 (US), NovaCustom (NL) or Star Labs (UK) with laptops running on open firmware that come with less restrictions and powerful hardware.

For people who aren’t (yet) poor it’s mostly a problem of discoverability and lack of knowledge not to go with the more sane products. We get bombarded with ads promising the best experience on the usual platforms (that are as manipulative as possible). BambuLab also plays this game perfectly, their influencer marketing paired with VC-funded undercutting prices are top notch in getting people locked into their garbage.

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