I also started with LTS assuming they would be more usable, but the extremely outdated package have later driven me away from linux for a while.
Now I realize I can just run normal Ubuntu to get reasonably up-to-date packages. But I like the latest (non-graphical) software that is offered by fedora.
In their gnome version, during the setup process (first boot, not install), they would prompt for third-party repo and codec (Enabled by default, IIRC).
I think you might have unchecked that? or KDE not offering such experience?
EDIT: NVM, I just checked, and I have never installed the codecs… LOL.
Fedora is notorious for avoiding shipping proprietary software with their distro even at the cost of new users.
I think this might stems from the fact that fedora used to be a distro aimed for advanced users. It is slowly getting better at being new user friendly.
EDIT: sorry, I read it wrong, I thought the reply says the addon “doesn’t” use the remote API.
I digged a bit on the code, and every command indeed go through the cloud. So even if you use this addon, Haire can still collect a fair bit of data about you, since there is no way to communicate locally and directly to the AC.
But the addon only sends the minimum amount of data to achieve functionality, so definitely not as much data as using Haire’s app.
Can you link to where the documentation that specify they don’t use API?
Because I am looking at pyhOn (dependency of hon, and also being taken down), it seems like when executing a command, they do contact the cloud. Specefically
<span style="color:#323232;">url: str = f"{const.API_URL}/commands/v1/send"
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> async with self._hon.post(url, json=data) as response:
</span><span style="color:#323232;"> ...
</span>
I am no expert, but if we are allowed to design everything from ground up, I believe personal electric vehicle (e-bike etc, abbreviated as PEV) for suburb, transit/bike/walk in city, and high speed rail between cities are probably the way to go.
City should be mostly car free, people can transit to suburb via transit, and to other city via rail. People move within city using walk/bike/tram. Vehicle besides delivery and commercial vehicle should be discouraged from entering the city, by removing in-city parking and setup no-go zones for private vehicles.
Even in the U.S. most people in suburb live rather close to a town center (less than 15 mins with PEV or bike). Thus efficient transit from town center to city can be a good idea. People will be discouraged from driving to city due to the lack of road and parking within cities.
For long form travel, people should move via high speed rail. Then take local travel options once arrived. High speed rail provide a faster and more comfortable travel alternative to driving.
Finally, I believe for people living in rural areas (an hour to any town center on PEV), cars and electric cars are their only option. If they want to enter city or suburb, they can drive to the nearest town center and take transit.
There is a tradeoff between UX, user liberty, and user privacy. Traditionally, Linux is leaning heavily towards liberty. However now there are systems have locked down core system (like chrome os or mac os), so it is impossible to mess things up. Yet user might complain that they “cannot do anything”.
As for telemetry, privacy is a fundamental pillar of human right. I admire FOSS communities’ stance on privacy by default, and I don’t think they should change that. Although now opt-in privacy preserving telemetry is slowly getting implemented in Linux, I think it is a good thing, but needs still be treated carefully. Privacy-preserving telemetry is good, but it is notoriously hard to guarantee such correctness.
Finally, I think the bug Linus encountered is extremely rare. The flatpak install script is broken, and the apt install removes DE. I don’t think there are any documented incident of both installation methods to have such critical failure. It is even more unfortunate that it happens just as the most popular tech youtuber decides to try Linux.