My HL2030 is incredibly easy to use from Linux

Because it’s a disproportionate amount of effort to natively support an extra OS (particularly one as fragmented as Linux), especially one with such a small userbase that largely isn’t interested in using proprietary cloud services in the first place because of data privacy and security concerns.

Obviously not all Linux users are super worried about that stuff (I mean, I use Linux and have a google pixel), but on average the Linux userbase is way way more aware of that stuff than most users who just want their photos backed up without having to worry about it.

The motherboard itself is also open-source: https://github.com/system76/virgo/

The x220 is quite easily the best laptop ever made imo, and I’ll never understand why they just don’t slap modern hardware into it and re-release it.

I’ll play devil’s advocate here – I hate Meta, but Meta apps supporting activitypub would be a huge benefit for adding users to the platform.

Like other small social platforms, the fediverse has a fundamental choice to make between quantity and quality. The quality of Reddit took a nosedive in the last 5-6 years as the platform grew. I’m not saying it was always great in “the old days”, but recently all of the big subs were just page after page of the same memes, stupid arguments (“it’s called soccer! It’s called football!”) that have been had a million times, and the same jokes.

So the question is – how much does the fediverse want to grow? The thing keeping me from deleting my Reddit account right now is some of the sports communities there, and things like a local urbanism group from my hometown.

Having Meta apps support activitypub could help establish that kind of userbase. At the same time, the influx of users could drastically reduce the quality of the platform. It’s a balance that has to be struck by the community.

The cool thing about the fediverse compared to other platforms is that the structure allows this kind of thing to be decided fairly democratically – each instance can “vote” by deciding whether to federate or not, and if we all agree we don’t want them, everyone can defederate. If we’re 50/50 they’ll federate with half of the community.

I didn’t get it either, but this video does a pretty good job explaining why it’s different: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMQWirkx5EY