I have indeed noticed Google (and Google-based search engines like Startpage) has got worse in the past months. Even DuckDuckGo is better now (which as a long time ddg user is wild)

Bitcoin is often used to buy gender affirming hormones from online clinics in areas where it’s illegal

If it’s an old enough game, archive.org could have what you’re looking for

The Reddit website began stopping me from browsing on mobile

No. The most intensive game I play is Skyrim. Someday though I might take an used SFF pre-built (like the thinkcentre), plop a low profile GPU into it, and play some slightly heavier games lile Dark Souls 3

I personally don’t see the benefit over regular Mint since it removes snaps anyways. And the newer software from Ubuntu is nice

unhelpful answer

I imagine many people don’t know about tipping culture. But I’d imagine it’d pop up if you look online for American customs. I’d say this one’s on the tourists for not researching appropriately

Being vegetarian or omnivorous isn’t very different, morally, as producing milk still requires killing calves. I think the better comparison would be with veganism

sometimes you want to sent text messages to normal people

I tried using Konqueror once, but Cloudflare websites (like WineHQ) would verification loop me. Niche browsers are discriminated against

because it’s the de facto sms replacement in many european and south american countries

Installing Linux turned my life towards computers and now I’m doing a compsci degree

That one season of Yu-Gi-Oh where they rode motorbikes for no reason

If the straight remain closed, gay sex should look better and better, too /j

You may have some luck with ADB

Then “reinstall without Google” isn’t a solution you can suggest universally to everyone even if you don’t know their phone model

Can you do that even if the bootloader is locked (as it is on many phones nowadays)?

Android is open source (and also Linux), so there are many custom OSs that aren’t “fancy linux”, but just Android without Google apps. See: LineageOS, GrapheneOS, e/OS. You might be able to install one of them on your phone if it’s compatible!

I don’t know, I’m not hopeful.

Stallman played a BIG role in the insurgence of Linux (and FOSS in general), but he famously disregards smartphones as he thinks people should just not use them.

Plus, phones are built different: many have a locked bootloader, and there is no standard like BIOS/UEFI, meaning you must compile a slightly different OS for each model.

What I’m saying is the mobile ecosystem is built in a way that makes it very difficult for a serious AOSP ecosystem to build up, let alone a different kind of Linux