Server options tend to be significantly more expensive, with fewer places to buy parts.

Desktops are just hardware.

Sure. But more important than what they look like or whether or not they’re sideways are the other properties of that hardware:

• Upgradeable and repairable with widely available replacement parts

• General purpose and capable of running any software you put on them

What I’m worried about is the desktop being replaced by something that meets neither of those points, resulting in a far worse experience for any person who wants to customize, maintain, and fully control their own computer, especially if they’d like to do so without interference from a huge corporation.

If you showed up at Microsoft HQ and started throwing out insults, why would that be acceptable?

Why wouldn’t it be?

the First Amendment (in the USA) is for protection from the government, not a private business

Increasingly becoming a distinction without a difference, as corporate and government interests become more and more intertwined.

(Suppose that the government politely asks Microsoft to ban all mention of “genocide” on Microsoft platforms, while making it very clear that it’s completely optional, the government just asking for a favor, and it’s not at all required, no penalty for failing to do so. Probably not even an official request. Just, say, the President rambling on social media about how it would be very “great again” if Microsoft did that. And Microsoft eagerly and voluntarily bans mention of “genocide”. Later, the government allows Microsoft to make a big merger without worrying about anti-trust laws, and also gives them a significant tax break. Were first amendment rights violated?)

Which companies always are.

Look into how companies are actually managed. It’s almost always an absolute dictatorship under the complete control of the owner and/or CEO, who gets the last word on everything and can fire anyone at will. Sometimes you’ll have a board of directors or something acting as a check on the CEO’s power and able to replace them if necessary … but even then, that pretty much never actually happens. Their power is pretty much never actually checked.

Which is why I think “workplace democracy” should be the phrase leftists rally behind. The right has put a lot of work into poisoning and slandering the terms ‘socialism’ and ‘communism’, but ‘workplace democracy’ hasn’t been attacked like that. And it sounds very good to workers. If you get to vote on what your country does, why shouldn’t you get to vote on what your company does? After all, your company actually has a lot more effect on you and power over you in your day-to-day life. Why should some out-of-touch rich guy (probably a pedophile) get absolute control over the whole thing based on his fucked-up whims and vibes? Instead, we should have workplace democracy, where all employees get a say in how the company is run. (And then, without propagandized workers even realizing that they’ve done so, they’ve taken control of the means of production and enacted a form of socialism.)

They would have run it into the ground with mismanagement and a new chat application would become the popular choice within a year, while Microslop’s new acquisition fades into obscurity, eventually to be depreciated and shut down my Microslop themselves.

As has happened multiple times already in history.

Because an 8GB RAM stick costs $9,000 and hard drives literally can’t be had at any price, but this shitty thin client thing is only $49.95 + $10/month subscription. ($25 per month if you want it with no fewer intrusive ads.)

Coming soon, to a dystopian AI future near you.

I’m still petty enough to hope this effort is a miserable failure

I hope this is effort is a miserable failure … because if it catches on, it could spell the end of desktop PCs in general as a consumer product.

Desktops will always exist, because you need the local processing power (and the cooling to support it) for certain professional workloads. But if everyday computing and even gaming becomes mostly done on thin clients fully dependent on internet servers, then desktops will become more and more of a niche, professional product. Which means they’ll become more expensive and harder to get. Replacement parts will become more expensive and harder to get. A desktop PC will be an expensive industrial machine, hard to justify the upfront price of for an average consumer. (Especially when a cheap thin client with a “cheap” monthly subscription can do essentially all the same things.)

It may also slow the adoption of open-source software because these thin clients are likely to be locked down and not able to install any other software without putting up a fight, if it ends up being possible at all. And if most people get used to the paradigm of renting their computing power from the cloud, they’ll be resistant to change that and go back to locally run software on their local machine that they then have to buy because their old thin client hardware can barely run anything, even if you do manage to install other software on it. (Imagine how hard it will be to convince someone to install Linux instead of using Windows if the first step of installing Linux is that they have to replace all their hardware with much bigger and more expensive hardware…)

The launcher looks like a standard box on the back of a large truck.

Looks a bit longer/taller than typical? So I’m guessing these hypersonic missiles are some real looooooong bois. But otherwise, yeah.

Given the kind of incompetent fuckwits they’ve been hiring, that’s not surprising at all, really.

ALL of them essentially.

The estimate I’ve found puts it at about 500,000 homeless people in the US.

With $500 billion, you could give each and every homeless person in the US $1 million. Easily enough to buy a house in almost every housing market.

The current fascist party has ties to a past fascist party? Say it ain’t so! How could this happen?

Well, the secret is that establishment Dems have been informed about it.

Now watch them change absolutely nothing.

You can’t educate stupid.

Well, you can, actually. You’ve just got to start early.

Yep. You need to present them a better alternative that will fix the real (or imaginary) problems in their lives, most of which are truly caused by rampant capitalism.

So you need specific, concrete strategies about how you’re going to get them better wages, better education, better infrastructure, better healthcare, etc.

Because if you don’t offer this, the fascists will. The fascists say all the problems are due to Outgroup and the solution is to give unlimited power to Ingroup so they can get rid of Outgroup and then all the problems will be solved.

That is, obviously, very stupid. But so are a lot of voters. And it that’s the only solution to their problems that they’re hearing, that’s what they’re going to gravitate toward. To win them over, you need to acknowledge their problems, paint a convincing picture that capitalist oligarchs are the source of those problems, and present clear and concrete steps toward solving those problems. You are NOT going to win them over by telling them that their problems aren’t real, or that their problems aren’t as bad as other people’s problems.

Yes, that’s true. The Fediverse is also susceptible to manipulation.

To a somewhat lesser degree, though, since there isn’t a pervasive and inescapable algorithm that aggressively pushes controversial engagement-bait posts on people.

(And also because public mod logs can make it more apparent when moderator capture is used to suppress and control narratives.)

switch to decentralized media apps, such as those provided by the Fediverse, and stop attributing so much credibility to legacy media.

Even here, most posts are just linking to an article in legacy media.

It drives me nuts how no one seems to get the bill of rights. We learned this in school.

Decades of propaganda have convinced people that the Bill of Rights doesn’t apply to ‘criminals’ and ‘illegals’.

you can’t follow the teachings of the anarchists who came before you. Therefore you can’t be an anarchist.

lol, Anarchism isn’t about following teachings of others. That’s completely optional. The entire point of Anarchism is to reject authority. It would be self-defeating if we set up prominent anarchists of the past as authority figures.

You can read their stuff and learn from them, if you want to. Learn from them, don’t follow them. And that might help. But, again, completely optional.

Well … yes.

I am an anarchist, after all.

I mean, look at the world around you right now. Look what became of your revered leaders in history. How’s this whole following leaders thing working out for you so far? Why do you think it will be any different going forward?