I think starlink is more than that as even more things rely on a (good) Internet connection ingeneral than rely on satellites, and traditional connectivity methods leave many people underserved even in countries like America let alone the world.

It definitely has its problems, if nothing else that it’s privately owned and anyone who wanted to compete would then massively amplify those problems.

it sounds like the unlikely outcome of two reasonable policies.

1. you might not get back the device you send in - say it’s a simple broken screen and they’re willing to cover it. its easier to just send you an already refurbished identical model and then toss your phone into the queue to be fixed later.

2. unauthorized parts may violate your warranty and whatever you send in isn’t going to get repaired.

They should still just return it. but if you know it’s not covered you shouldn’t really send it in and it makes sense to cover their ass policy wise even if they do make an effort to just return them.

It depends on the package really. Sometimes you’re better off without the fixes that occurred in the last 2 years if it means avoiding the new bugs in the last 2 years.

IMO the more you try to stick to the latest releases, the more important it is to continue to stay updated. but every upgrade is a chance for new bugs or just breaking changes, so for new users starting with a stable distro is a good choice.

… except for browsers, where you both need the newest features but REALLY need the newest fixes.

yeah if anything the problem is everything is a TSR program now. the generous explanation is because they want to offer the best experience possible and implement everything themselves.

… but the real explanation is they want more telemetry data, not just when you are using the app. not just when you’ve recently used it. but no you launched it once we must indefinitely run in the background and install services to launch on startup

In the US that is not legal per the GINA act. Note that that is specific to health insurance. Life insurance can legally use that data. And laws can be broken often with less penalty than the profit made from violating them. And data can be retained much longer than laws exist so the GINA act could be repealed or updated at some point allowing companies to legally use the data already acquired.

see https://learn.adafruit.com/understanding-usb-type-c-cable-types-pitfalls-and-more/cable-types-and-differences for all the various things the cable alone can support

what devices can support is definitely an issue too though.