So a computer?
I don't think they enable me to inspect e.g. my CPU's firmware, or that they're able to provide any guarantees about the hardware itself.
So it still just makes for a large shopping bag sized trust-me-bro box executing hundreds of billions of instructions a second. But now with a false sense of comfort.
I'm more than happy to concede on this being overly dramatic though, provided you concede on having been engaging in a similarly unserious hyperbole of your own.
Me neither, considering that doesn't even work grammatically. Very clearly I was referring to "unless you're still using the spying machine" being the unserious hyperbole.
> It really does exist, even though big tech wants you to think it does not.
I must have been continually missing "big tech's" efforts on that front. They do engage in other efforts that go against either the spirit or the proliferation of software freedom, but what you describe I legitimately have not witnessed at all.
I generally appreciate source code access and independent auditability, and I do have an appreciation for the intent. But the way people discuss these topics is downright embarrassing, which is what I was hoping to shake out of this. "Just install Linux bro, it's better than pussy bro. What, u still got dat spyin machine goin on?? [links a 30 minute Mutahar video with him faffing about with some technologically trivial bollocks he visibly barely understands]" Please. I think it's pretty agreeable at least that this about as far removed from well supported decision making as one can casually get to be.
Most people switching to Linux and free software alternatives in hopes of better privacy do so based on vibes, not on any rigorous research. And that's fine. Just wish they didn't pretend it wasn't the case.
Such a person may exist but why do you insist that that person is here in the room with us? Let us talk and find out what the other people are like. You’ve already shown what you really are like: someone who will assert that the others are a certain way even before they talk
I can appreciate if you're of the opinion that the rest is mischaracterizing you, I just also obviously disagree.
Note the intentionally worse spelling to ridicule your original "question".
The rest just matches your archetype and is not a quote, as per my second remark. By all means, feel free to claim how it totally doesn't apply to you.