EmilyIsTrans

Oh yeah no fair enough, thanks for hearing me out. Those kinds people are exhausting

I agree, it feels like we've been arguing over semantics. When I (and I'm assuming the person you originally responded to) say "real", I don't mean to claim that it doesn't have material effects, I mean that it has no biological basis - i.e. it is socially constructed.

You do not need to believe race is a biological reality to acknowledge that the perception of others as you (+ your ancestors) being a member of a race has materially affected your identity

I don't really think I can come up with a more concise way of summarizing the idea than anthropologist Audrey Smedley did on the first result of the Google search "race social construct"

Race is a culturally structured systematic definition of a way of looking at perceiving and interpreting reality.

I would recommend you read something like "Feminism and 'Race'" from Oxford Readings in Feminism or some of bell hooks' work to understand the idea better.

Saying that race isn't real is not the same as saying that we live in a post-racial society.

I'm not going to remove this comment, but in the future please don't use misogynistic insults.

This feels more like two questions, so I'll answer them both:

1. When I'm not programming for my job, I'm programming one of many side projects I have going on at any time. Same with any other professional who has a career in their hobby. These are often projects I think would be useful to me and I believe would let me learn new skills.
2. I use Linux (and MacOS) because the Unix environment, particularly the command line tooling is far superior to Windows. Developers often work on Unix, so they build their tools for the platform and thus improvements stack up. I also just like the FOSS philosophy underpinning most Linux.

If you're trying to learn programming and know at least some basics, my only advice is to pick a project you're even a little interested in and get started. Don't worry about operating system, it doesn't actually matter that much unless you're working on iOS or MacOS! A weather app for whatever language/platform you're working with is usually my first suggestion for students.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons for Google to provide extra support and exceptions to parts of their guidelines to certain parties, including themselves. No one is claiming this is a consequence-neutral decision, and it's right to not inherently trust these exceptions, but it is not a black and white issue.

In this case, placing extra barriers around sensitive permissions like MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE for untrusted parties is perfectly reasonable, but the process they implemented should be competent and appealable to a real support person. What Google should be criticized for (and "heavily fined" by the EU if that were to happen) is their inconsistent and often incorrect baseline review process, as well as their lack of any real support. They are essentially part of a duopoly and should thus be forced to act responsibly.

Oh yeah for sure. Google, extremely large companies, and government apps essentially have different streams and access to support than the rest of us mere mortals. They all receive scrutiny, and may have slightly altered guidelines depending on the app, but the most consequential difference is that they have much more ability to access real support. I just don't think it was an intentional and specific attempt to be anti-competitive, this is better explained by incompetence and the consequences of well-intentioned but poorly implemented policy.

I've experienced this exact issue with the Google Play Store with some clients and it's just the worst. This kinda thing happens because Google is essentially half-arsing an Apple-style comprehensive review of apps. For context, Apple offers thorough reviews pointing to exactly how the app violates policy/was rejected, with mostly free one-on-one support with a genuine Apple engineer to discuss or review the validity of the report/how to fix it. They're restrictive as hell and occasionally make mistakes, but at the end of the road there is a real, extremely competent human able to dedicate time to assist you.

Google uses a mix of human and automated reviewers that are even more incompetent than Apple's frontline reviewers. They will reject your app for what often feels like arbitrary reasons, and you're lucky if their reason amounts to more than a single sentence. Unlike Apple, from that point you have few options. I have yet to find an official way to reach an actually useful human unless you happen to know someone in Google's Android/Developer Relations team.

I'm actually certain that the issues facing Nextcloud are not some malicious anti-competitive effort, but yet more sheer and utter incompetence from every enterprise/business facing aspect of Google.

It came to me in English class when I was 17. At the time I was unsure of why I became attached to the name. A few years later I realised why (and that it was a cliche, but I was attached at that point). I let my parents pick my middle name so they could have some say in naming me.

I cry literally every time my sweet elderly old lady cat meows at me, it's definitely taking some time to get used to.

(cat tax)