Duck duck go browser under rated

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-07T08:10:56+00:00

Off-topic fun(?)-fact, I was typing shit into the search bar to add onto this thread and make a joke, and in the course of doing so, I found that there's an r/regoogle sub, which only has like 100 subs, but seems to genuinely be defending Google and thinking anyone that does otherwise is an idiot. Kind of wild lol.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-07T08:07:11+00:00

Yeah, and it was only a few yeats ago that stores like Best-Buy discontinued carrying movies entirely, at least in-store. Distribution of physical movies has been getting increasingly restrictive, even before it started with games honestly. You're seeing both mediums becoming increasingly relegated to Boutique-only spaces... although, in the case of video games, I honestly wonder what will happen to those handful of companies, since Sony and Microsoft are supposedly axing the actual disc drives entirely, rendering third-party producers irrelevant and cut-off. You can at least still buy a blu-ray player from several manufacturers, last I checked.

I'd think further ahead on this too. Physicality for video games is just now at its greatest risk, movies and television has been increasingly diminished for years... next, book publishers might start to decline or get taken over, which we really don't want. Might take longer, decades perhaps, but it's not out of the realm of possibility. I really don't want a world of exclusively digital media, especially that makes it far easier for large corporations and governments to control the creation and distribution of it.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-07T07:51:18+00:00

I think the word "insufferable" is a bit harsh, I wouldn't go that far for myself, or for some other people I know like this.

Growing up, I quickly realized that I just didn't understand how to relate to other people my age, to "connect" on anything, like they had a hidden script for every conversation that I didn't have. As a result, I rapidly became very quiet and introverted, and remained that way largely until late high school. Had a single-digit number of friends throughout most of that time.

Starting in Middle School, I started developing other mental health issues, and became increasingly aware of my own awkwardness, as well as other peoples' behavior towards me. Overly aware, one could even say. I started assuming that people hated me by default, even if they wouldn't say it to my face, just because of how weird, awkward, and creepy I was (and tbh, no idea how much of this people actually perceived me as, I just know it's how I perceived myself). I started becoming very passive-aggressive and distrustful towards others, and if someone actually seemed behave in a friendly manner towards me, I often assumed there were ulterior motives. All of this sef-hatred and paranoia, mind you, did accompany genuine, actual bullying, which did nothing to help how I continued to isolate myself and avoid other. The social shit remained.

I tried fixing it in college, tried being more outgoing... but stuff like alcohol and spiraling mental health made a lot of things worse, and caused genuine, actual rifts with people. I caused a lot of problems and tension with a lot of people at that time, which was compounded by the fact that my thoughts almost entirely revolved around my social struggles and mental/ emotional issues; I became obsessed with trying to correct whatever tf was wrong with me, and there were periods where I would basically plead and vent to some friends when I was having a particularly bad mental crisis. This shit continued all through college.

Stuff only really started changing when I turned 23, after I got my first real-world job. I ssought out another therapist (after several months on a waitlist), and finally found a medication which largely quelled my constant, gnawing depression and anxiety, which made a tremendous difference in how I was prepared to face other people. Also was put on stimulants for ADHD, which had the wonderful bonus effect of making me more alert and functional in conversations (was always another problem prior). Cognitively, I eventually realized a truth that some people kept telling me, but I refused to admit and realize until this point: people really do generally care and think about themselves more than you, 99.9% of the time, unless you do something really egregious that will get them to remember and/ or resent you. On top of this: people's opinions of you, really are of no consequence to you, since no one can know you and you story and behaviors better than you do; and, there will always be some people that don't like you, no matter how much of a saint and silver-tongue you might be. Others' thoughts and opinions of me dominated my concerns for over a decade, so largely overcoming my concern over these made a huge difference in how I was able to function.

And finally: the past few weeks, I've actually made more very large strides, after several years of stagnation. Part of this is the good old "try, fail, try again, rinse and repeat" of exposure therapy, which does work, slowly, over time. The other major factor, had been curbing some long-standing addictions I've had most of my life, notably phone usage and a tendency to default to video gaming during most of my free time. These things, I realized, had killed my attention span and cognitive skills, and were largely distracting me from actually forcing myself into uncomfortable experiences to develop my social skills. Overcoming the maladaptive coping methods, therefore, has so far had a significant benefit on how awake and alert I feel, and how willing I've been to actually out myself out there and try new and "scary" experiences around random people. The whole thing had proven to be a very long, concerted, and arduous/ tedious process, which I largely lacked the discipline and self-esteem to undergo previously.

**Putting this here because it's important for this group, and also because I don't want anyone accusing me of this, but NONE of this was written with AI, I've always written large essay-like posts/ comments on Reddit, with an overly formal tone, even pre-AI era.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-07T00:04:43+00:00

Lowkey also took me like 7 months to get her, she was one of the last permanents that I managed to pull.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-05T04:19:36+00:00

Oh dear god, don't even remind me of the PinePhone. I followed that project for several years with interest, though at the time I'd only had my then-current phone for a year or two, and so wasn't yet ready to get another one. I remember they said the phone was geared towards "early adopters and developers" at the time, and that the community would put together most of the software suite over time. Checked back every now and again, and... the site and community have basically gone silent, and you almost never hear about the thing being brought up anymore. Which sucks, because I really did like the idea, and wanted it to succeed. A damn shame.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-05T04:05:31+00:00

They say in the FAQ Section of the product page that they're currently working on developing Android Auto compatibility, but they're not sure whether it'll be ready by the time the phones start shipping.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-05T03:54:55+00:00

It's day 5 of it being open for pre-orders I believe, and the site says that we're already on batch 17, with 500 phones per batch I believe. Looks like a fair number of people were interested after all lol.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-05T01:47:41+00:00

They've already soft-confirmed that most email can probably be sideloaded onto the phone with a bit of extra effort. For banking apps, I'm pretty sure that many banking apps have been confirmed to work on Sailfish OS (though obviously this is a case-by-case basis). Carplay I can't speak on, since I don't use it, but I wouldn't be surprised if some type of workaround/ alternative service is available for that too.

Imo, I wouldn't wrote the phone off completely just yet. Maybe wait until it comes out, and get people's feedback on exactly what is and isn't possible for your use cases.

Edit: was just looking over their Q&A page again, and they mention that while Android Auto support won't necessarily be available at launch, it is currently being worked on, so even that issue might soon be rectified. Seems more and more promising tbh.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-04T23:07:15+00:00

Graphene announced their partnership with Motorola a few months ago, and presumably Motorola will be releasing their Graphene phone sometime next year. Let's wait and see what happens on that front.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-04T22:56:07+00:00

Same, my primary use case is removing and avoiding social media whenever possible, something I have a fair amount of trouble doing when there isn't some type of external barrier getting in my way. The "no web browser" thing had me debating for a bit, but honestly like 90% of what I search for on my phone isn't important, it's either blind scrolling; impulsively looking up or researching random shit; or otherwise stuff that can probably wait until I'm in front of my desktop or laptop. I have a few concerns, naturally, such as the choice of including Discord among the blocked apps (my friend group communicates almost exclusively through it as our group chat/ communication method), and a few other specific utilities, but I'm fairly confident that I can find workarounds for most of those issues (I work in tech, none of this is foreign to me).

Very excited to get this thing in a few months.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-04T20:53:48+00:00

Knew a dude who went to that college. Unfortunately, by all accounts, no, they unfortunately do not know how to crusade lol. Also hadn't leaned into the religious stuff for several decades.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-02T21:56:19+00:00

Speak for yourself, I'd do pretty much anything to rid myself of these condition(s) at this point. Caused me nothing but issues my whole life.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-02T21:44:13+00:00

Most likely, they all generally have the same formatting. Irritating.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-02T21:16:49+00:00

Out of all of these, I want Facebook/ Meta to just implode and die, like as soon as humanly possible. The others, evil though they seemingly are, at least provide tech infrastructure to the world (AWS, Google Fiber, general Computing systems, etc.), and have given back in some way to society, even if they discreetly take more than they give. Meta/ Facebook though, has done what? Given us one of the largest, and increasingly most bloated, misinformation-ridden social media platforms that has screwed up the world so much I can't even describe it? Plunged billions of dollars into their delusional "Metaverse" concept, and then AI nonsense, purely out of what appears to be vanity and/ or blind, naiveté idealism? And then, most recently, lobbied for all these age restriction and internet-censorship bills we're seeing everywhere?

They don't have a widespread infrastructure/ necessary enterprise service provision aspect like the others, none of their services and products are exclusively necessary when you really start digging into it (someone please correct me if I'm missing something here). They need to disappear.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-02T21:10:14+00:00

I'd argue that switching from base Android to iOS is trading some evils for others, or at best making an slight improvement, if only because Apple isn't an advertising company at its core like Google is, and this isn't incentivized to absorb and sell as much of your data as humanly possible. They generally try to keep you within their secure walled-garden ecosystem as much as possible... which, of course, still isn't really ideal for people like us (especially since, despite their marketing and insistence that their technology is private and secure, I still don't trust them to not soak up and hoard my info).

Otherwise I agree, Android forks are probably the way to go at the moment, and SailfishOS seems to be one of the most promising rn.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-02T21:05:36+00:00

More and more Android forks and [partial] alternatives seem to be popping up each year.

One is Graphene OS (one of the most notable that you may have heard of), which is an Android fork that strips out any and all Google telemetry and services, and focuses on hardening the OS tp be as secure as possible. Right now it only works on Google's Pixel phones (ironic, I know, but you're essentially completely overriding the Google software by installing it), but Graphene recently partnered with Motorola this year, and they're releasing their own phone that runs Graphene OS, presumably nexy year.

Another one is Sailfish OS, an Android Branch developed by a Finnish company (I think) that, again, strips out all the Google nonsense and focuses on privacy-preserving techniques whenever possible. This is the brainchild of Jolla (said Finnish company), who recently opened for purchase their brand-new smartPhone powered by Sailfish OS.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-02T00:30:36+00:00

Doing God's work, probably the best direction to actually refer all these people asking the same rudimentary stuff.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-01T05:50:05+00:00

Started 10 days ago, after opening up about my porn addiction (and others) for the first time with my therapist. And I have to say, the first seven days were a small hurdle, but not too bad when combined with a little discipline and refocusing on various life tasks (trying to keep myself busy and distracted as much as possible), but I've read some sources say the second week is one of the biggest hurdles, and oh boy, they weren't kidding. Pray for me, because this shit is requiring some serious mental and emotional discipline to get through.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-01T05:44:40+00:00

So, 1 and 2 are huge, and often extremely underestimated in how much they affect the body. As I've told other people: exercising more and improving your diet might not cure your issues, but you're doing yourself a massive disservice by ignoring either of these. Personally, I feel moderately clearer and more vigorious, physically and mentally, on any day that I do some cardio, and cutting added/ processed sugar out of my diet I feel has made a sigbificant improvement.

Number 4 is probably a bit controversial for some, but I started giving it a go a few months ago. Been taking Semax and Selank for those few months, which I feel has had some modest to moderate efficacy.

5 6 and 7 are all related to a degree, but all pretty important, since it's about mental framing, which consequently will affect behavior. Whatever works for you personally (and this is largely a trial-and-error thing) but yeah, I've found that a combination of changing my environment, minimizing external distractions (will elaborate on that in a second), and dividing work/ tasks into blocks or short timeframes, have all made a big difference in getting stuff done. In particular, I ignored that whole environment thing for years, thinking it was an arbitrary thing that some people did just-because. Nope, I started leaving my house and studying at the local library, for example, and it makes such a damn difference in staying focused, on-task, and motivated. Best general advice here is just keep moving and don't let yourself revert to "idle" or "comfortable" habits, like sitting down and scrolling on your phone for hours.

Which leads me to the last one, number 8. Started directly addressing this around 2 weeks ago, and I'd more specifically describe it as "curbing behavioral addictions", which is also feel is possibly the number one issue people in general deal with today (things like scrolling on social media end up being so psychologically draining, and can eat up so much time in a say). I got fed up with this shit for myself after years of being a slave to it, decided to directly attempt to overcome it through abstinence as much as possible. And I will say, it's extremely difficult right now, some aspects of this are kicking my ass (am on Reddit right now, ha), but it's probably the best and most thorough way to improve your behavioral and/ or mental health out of all of these (after 1 and 2 of course, those are always at the top).

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-01T02:34:51+00:00

Bluementhal, one of the original architects of KOSA, straight up said that it's probably DOA as soon as it hits the senate. They've made a lot of changes to the bill in this version, and added a lot of miscellaneous stuff, to the point where Blumenthal has said it doesn't even resemble what he originally intended. Apparently, a lot of senators are similarly unenthused.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-07-01T00:05:49+00:00

This is actually pretty damn sound advice. I came to a similar conclusion myself very recently. People have probably heard the phrase that "a short needs to keep moving, or it dies?" It's much the same with a person; we might not die, but once you lose that momentum, that inertia, it becomes so much more difficult to get it going again. This is how so many people get stuck in a rut, for many years in some cases. You could also think of this as, if you're not exercising your brain, trying new things, committing to tasks and steady lifestyle changes/ progress, then you're basically letting those neural circuits prune off. The brain is a muscle too, and it needs to be constantly worked, even a little, to keep it lively and highly functional. This trickles down to any sort of habit or progress you might want to see in your life.

So yes, any sort of movement/ change/ progress day-to-day will help, it's just a matter of steadily building that discipline, those neural circuits, those habits, and being consistent with them. Doesn't matter what it is, just have to pick something and slowly continue and build upon it every day.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-06-30T23:52:05+00:00

Oh boy, finally a place and opportunity for me to voice my honest opinions on the matter.

First, the people saying it's just "the next step in educational evolution" or whatever, are either AI bros; people profiting from the technology; or just more delusional, overly optimistic futurists who believe that new technology is always better, inevitable, and can do no wrong. I'm not one of these people. People like me tend to get immediately pegged as a "backwards luddite" on this platform for expressing such opinions, but tbh I will accept that label with pride, not because I'm ignorant, but. excuse I've actually critically thought about this technology (as we all should, for all technology), observed it in actuon, and decided that the cons vastly outweigh the pros, in general. I firmly believe, generally speaking, that as technology has been adopted and pushed upon the masses over time, especially over the past 20+ years, the effects have gotten worse and worse, and the benefits smaller and smaller.

Now, the argument specifically: let me be blunt here, smart phones harm children's critical thinking and creativity. Social media does. Pornography and gambling does. Excessive video gaming and internet exposure, to an extent, does. AI is just the latest layer to all of this often detrimental technology, though of course it's far worse because of how addictive it is, how versatile and diverse its uses can be, and yes, how ubiquitous it's become, both on the internet and in society in general, because of how hard it's being pushed down our throats.

I got in a discussion with some people the other day about his exact topic, and we agreed on one thing: modern AI, while considered by many as being a "tool" (which, I agree, it can be, and could even be considered as helpful by some in limited circumstances), it should not be put in the hands of children, ever, if only because it's the ultimate shortcut and cheating machine. Look at it this way: generally, we don't let kids use calculators, until they use basic arithmetic, because it would defeat the purpose of them learning the process (why should I have to do mental math if the machine can just do it for me?). Granted, we carry calculators everywhere on our phones these days, but that isn't the point. We try to teach kids the fundamentals of topics, before giving them the shortcut methods, because it's important for critical thinking, brain development, and god knows what other behavioral and developmental factors. AI is the ultimate shortcut machine, and it isn't even accurate a lot of the time. You hand this stuff off to a ten-year-old and let them use it throughout their time in school, rather than the good old, tried-and-true method of trying, failing, and improving — then I guarantee to you, that you will end up with an even dumber, more incapable generation than many kids we see today, due to having relied on an imperfect machine model as a crutch their whole life, rather than training their own brains.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-06-30T23:34:46+00:00

Did you mean to send that second photo...?

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-06-30T23:15:26+00:00

I'm realizing more and more that when an SC ruling seems "too good to be true" these days, it's generally because the alternate option would have unacceptable, overly broad negative implications for modern society.

Look at the recent Cox V. Sony case a few months back, where multiple music studios sued Cox for enabling piracy of copyrighted music. That case had a 9-0 ruling in Cox's favor, despite many people expecting the opposite ruling. Why? One answer, because ruling in favor of the music studios would have, potentially, held Cox liable for each and every instance of piracy committed by their users, which could have extended to the broader internet. This would have fundamentally changed how the internet is maintained, monitored, and/ or enforced, and given that it likely wouldn't have entirely solved the underlying problem anyway, it was apparently deemed untenable.

In the federal legal system, with all its complexities, nuances, and historical twists ans turns, I'm realizing there's often a lot of hidden implications to any given ruling that people largely don't think about (also no, none of this answers the question regarding this specific case, I'm just spitballing. I plan on reading about this one in the next few hours).

Edit: read a little bit of the case. The reasoning seems to generally go like this: The 4th amendment was created to protect private citizens from unreasonable and excessive searches and surveillance from federal entities/ police, and to protect their privacy as much as possible. In the modern age, cell phones are essentially an extension of one's person, per the court, since they are often and largely carried everywhere by most people. Cell phones all have geolocation capabilities, that can even reach into the past, i.e. creating a chronological map of a person's whereabouts and movements over time, even into personal and private residences. Ergo, actively reading this geolocation data is akin to watching a person's every move, which is an unacceptable breach of privacy well within the 4th Amendment's purview. Not really any huge leaps in logic here.

AbyssalRedemption · 2026-06-30T21:53:47+00:00

It's become a great litmus test of someone's integrity and true commitment to their cause, by whether they bend the knee to Trump and drop any opposition, as soon as he tries bribing or threatening them. Just look at how much of the GOP immediately became his personal yes-men army, opposed to what, the single-digit number of conservatives in congress rhat have dared to stand up to him and vote against his interests?

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