The past year or so I've used Debian exclusively. It was my first year using Linux for all my PC needs. The year began to close, and I reflected on Debian's performance. Before I praise or bash Debian, I'll let you know that I spent time with Linux previously, but only for a two year program training my over-inflated ego basics of Linux, networking, etc.

Goodly:

Debian served me well most of the year. The fudgery of no sudo user confused me at first. It was a minor matter. I moved on pushed it down my computer experience memory hole. Out of the USB Debian performed flawless! I was impressed to a degree that I tried to convert others to Debian. "You can ditch Windows now," I would exclaim! 

Long have I disliked Windows. It goes back to 2002. I was a 28 year old returning to school for Journalism. I only had money for a cheap all in one computer without an OS. I decided to buy an OS at the school bookstore. I can't remember the flavor they were selling of Linux, but I wanted it. However, the bookstore fellow talked me out of Linux. 

"You ever use Linux before," He asked with an error of caution.

"No. I don't want to pay for Windows though," I replied.

He went on to tell me that Linux was mostly text based and I couldn't return it whether it worked for me and my hardware or not.

I believe it was $150 I paid for a copy of Windows Me. It was a piece of shit. My long road wanting to go Linux began. 

I'll save the history for another time...

I was happy with Debian but not always. I can chalk up my minor peeves with Debian to my apprentice level knowledge of Linux. Six months into use, I repeatedly received notifications that my /var storage was near full. About every two weeks I'd clear it by looking up commands online. 

I did try to set up recurring purging of /var. I never got it to work correctly. Later, updates and mirrors started error messaging. Wine I could never get installed. Did I want to creep through the Internet reviewing dependencies and conflicts -no. 

Ubuntu isn't cool. It isn't edgy. It also isn't tweaky. Yes, it's created from Ubuntu and distributed by a server company. I don't care at this point. I installed Ubuntu and it's working flawlessly! They software depository even runs smoothly! Debian's wouldn't load half the time or glitch out.

So, I'm happy again and I didn't have to buy a key or spend $150 on a disc with a key. Windows is good. It servers a large population. But it has become an advertising OS. Who wants to pay for advertising?

I admit it. I’m a dreamer! I’ve been a proponent of open source since early 2000s. Was I actually using open source then, well sometimes. I always dreamed of a year like 2026 where Linux became popular enough that distros are reliable. Where a Windows world is almost obliterated, almost.

Life is a numbers game. We hear it all our lives. Now open source has more numbers than ever. What’s popular is a majority. Majority is a number. There was bound to be bad actors along with all the good. How naive we all are to think someone with a bad disposition wouldn’t create attacks on open source.

Today’s Axios poisoning is an example of the road we’re headed. Open Source is going to need to remain, well, open but less naive that only idealist will us the software.

GitHub is lucky there hasn’t been more poisoning. 

Apple products are worth the price. The fee paid to purchase Apple products. The fee paid knowing the product has limited life span. This debate has flourished since Apple began. I'm not sure it's a real argument or a fallacy. Many other electronic companies don't allow their products upgraded. Many companies do not have the software polish Apple products contain.

I've used a recycled iPhone Max 11 four years. The lightning port is too loose now to work at all. After tax returns I picked up Lark M2 mics for content creation. I was going to use my 11 for voice recording storage, but it wasn't possible due to the port. I remembered weeks later that I had an iPhone SE 2nd generation unused. 

The SE is going on six years old. It's smaller. It's port is still good. I reset the phone because I couldn't log into my old deleted Apple account. It didn't take long to wipe the phone and get up and running. I added garage band and plugged my mic receiver into the SE. The phone's software automatically switched to the external mic and that was that. 

A week earlier I'd tried the same on a Samsung tablet I've had. Yet, the tablet wouldn't recognize the mic. I tried several types of voice recording software. None worked. Typical Samsung.

My SE cost about $500 when I bought it. It still works and works well. My recycled iPhone Max 11 is still working for the most part. My conclusion is that Apple is worth the money when you are a creator. Apple is worth the money when you want to have easy connections because all other Apple users have the same free software. Apple is for busy people. Android is for tinkerers. 

Sources in Order of Use:

perplexity.ai

Prompt: Why do some companies start by offering free services, later move to revenue and later try to control the user

Perplexity responded, freemium, an entity that offers basic free services at initial launch is only attempting to get as many users as possible. This seems like a given to me. The Ai then responded that the second phase is to introduce moving some free features to paid features, which causes user friction. It's not enough friction to get users to stop using the service. This second response uses the term, negative option, due to free trials introduced. At this point the organization is starting to maximize something of value whether it's for profit or social capital. The new user is enticed to start a trial and the organization hopes the user never cancels the trial. 

A final stage per the Ai is the organization trying to tie as many services as possible together to persuade the user to not leave the organization's digital eco system. Additionally, what Perplexity terms as dark patterns begin, which includes confusing cancellation breadcrumbs, introducing various channels of advertising for profit increase.

Perplexity replied that the final stage has reasons for the negative user experiences. They are investor pressure, competition and economics particularly of digital products needing as many users as possible. 

I next went to Wikipedia, "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification", to look up the term enshitification I've heard lately. Wikipedia credits Cory Doctorow for the terms conception. 

"Enshittification, also known as crapification and platform decay, is a process in which two-sided online products and services decline in quality over time. Initially, vendors create high-quality offerings to attract users, then they degrade those offerings to better serve business customers, and finally degrade their services to both users and business customers to maximize short-term.

I then searched YouTube with the prompt I used for Perplexity.ai. The results were many videos bragging on how to grow a business quickly. I scrolled about twenty videos and decided YouTube had no quick return of information.

Wrapping up search sources, I searched the original prompt again in Google. I received several links regarding freemium and why launching software companies should offer free services. 

Me

I have begun searching the topic to understand why it exists. I also am wondering if open source software programs are a long-term goof for dreamers or if it should be considered a charity? Well, really at my core for asking is data flow whether digital or analog. I mean data flow in the simplest of terms as well. Data goes into a hammer to be made. I am now getting into weeds or confusion. What compels some to seek profit of capital and others to seek social capital?