The problem here is so many people are used to tech running at a loss on the books and/subsiding operating costs by selling customer data and analytics.
The reality is running tech companies is hard and expensive. The money here goes straight back into development. It’s just out of beta since march, and they have increased their quotas since I have been a customer.
But people are spoiled by free where you aren’t a customer. You are the product. If you are cool with that it’s fine. This isn’t the product for you.
For me, I like the idea and the searches are better than DDG/bing and startpage/google. So it’s worth the cost personally. I would rather pay that than say…Amazon prime where I’m both the customer and the product.
They have quota controls as well. A soft limit that will send you alerts when you hit them and you pay 1.5 cents per search and a hard limit that will stop searches from being run.
Personally I went to a tier that I dont exceed (10/month). I ahve considered going to the annual subscription which is also unlimited but the same as the 25/month, just discounted a bit. I could probably write that one off for work too, definately could with taxes.
The tiers have changed over time. Originally $10 was 700, not its 1000.
I use search A LOT for work. I also have it on my phones etc because I dont feel like swapping engines all that often.
I find it giving me more acurate results quicker, without ads.
The only other subscription services I use are mostly Netflix for kids and family. I avoid them at most costs. But this one allows me to do my job a bit more efficiently and its privacy focused.
I could see using Linux as a daily driver for work and flipping to windows for games if work had a stipend or Byod option. But otherwise I seem to tend to stick to one or the other.
That said I do keep a Linux distro on my laptop mainly for gimp and kdenlive for making videos from my drone recordings for a buddy.
It’s not usable on my phone and now searches are basically buggered with a number of subreddits being nsfw. So for example I was searching something specific to pop_os and can’t view the thread. Just closed it. Will block Reddit returns in Kagi now most likely.
I think there may have been a day or two where I looked at it for a few minutes in the browser at work over the past couple of weeks.
There is a balance of money and time there are diminishing returns on money. Time is the one thing you cant get back. So if you are given of a choice of a solid paying job with solid PTO or a amazing paying job with little PTO or the expectations of 50-60+ hours weeks, that solid paying job is gonna be worth it every time.
I would argue the opposite. Kids are amazing. They see things clearer and arent jaded. They give you purpose. There are definately hard parts, and sometimes you dont get a break, but its not something I would trade for the world. They are little reflections of you, that you can improve on and watching someone with the wonder of awe of seeing and learning all these little things for the first time is pretty damn cool. Watching it "click" when they learn to do things like build stuff, ride a bike, swim, read etc etc is pretty awesome.
The best explanation I’ve seen, for gamers, is tha reddit is like Xbox live. Lemmy is PlayStation and kbin is pc (or however). And kbin and lemmy have cross play enabled so you can play together.