I know people prefer to complain instead of act, but what is something people don’t like but has an alternative?
Dungeon and Dragon. There is a ton of TTRPG out there and things like Level up 5e are direct replacement with better content.
Hell even just D&D 3.5e is better than 5e imo. Though I mostly play Pathfinder 2e nowadays (I’d be happy with Pathfinder 1e as well).
Just 5e is boring as hell to both DM and to play.
undefined> 5e is boring as hell to both DM and to play.
My experience this is 100% the group, the system is secondary to the quality of DM and other players. A good group will have fun in any system.
Sort of. I personally a more engaged with the system if it’s more mechanically intensive and provides a lot of character customization options (such as feats at every level or every other level from leveling up), with lots of actual hard rules to follow and not just guidelines.
5e is not mechanically intensive enough for me.
iPhones. Love my Pixel and I don’t care how much my co-workers bitch about bubble colors.
I (American) just attended a strategy meeting and one of the ice breakers was “are you a green or blue bubble?”.
I had no idea what it meant, similar to others that are android users. While it was a fun and engaging session, I was kind of shocked that was a thing. I’m obviously not oblivious to Apple vs Android convos and opinions, but I had never been asked that question.
Our group, BTW, was pretty evenly split. 😅
As an European, I always find it funny how iMessage seems to be so prevalent in the US that the “bubble colors” issue is even a thing. Here, almost everyone uses WhatsApp. Better for communication across different device types, probably worse for privacy. But at least no artificial discrimination because apple hates open standards ¯\(ツ)/¯
I think they are maybe referring to Apple’s reluctance to integrate with RCS.
Yeah it’s weird. I mean I use Google Message (RCS) and it has visual differences for conversations that are using RCS vs ones using SMS but I honestly don’t care about the color. I care more about using a modern cross platform standard than falling back to ancient SMS because Apple wants to use a proprietary locked down system at the expense of their user’s experience. WhatsApp might not be bad but no one I know really uses it so I would have to start convincing people to switch. That’s more than a uphill battle. It’s completely futile. The only thing that will change the tide is Apple either opening up iMessage or Apple incorporating RCS into iMessage. I don’t see either happening anytime soon because they simply don’t care about interoperability.
In the US,I phone is a social status. They’re judging you because it’s like you don’t own a car and just have a unicycle in their minds. What amazing marketing. I’m an Android pixel owner since the beginning and still am. There’s some articles written about it too
Is spending money for social status, just something I’m to mid western to understand?
Like your expected to say all you did to get a good deal when talking about any major purchase here.
Not to mention the slavery going into making them that apple lobbies so hard to maintain.
Went back to android with the first pixel. After five different phones (microphones and speakers kept breaking) I went back to iPhone.
This is why I don’t buy Android.
The software isn’t optimized enough from smoothness and battery consumption perspective.
Also, the ROM that’s usually comes from the manufacturer is either spyware, bloated, or just crap. You need technical knowledge and risking bricking your device to install custom ROM.
The hardware, which is my least concern, depends on the company you buy from.
My SONY smart tv (with apps disabled) would phone home like ~200 times a minute.
Fellow Sony Smart tv owner here. Whatever that google tv os thing is, it phones home like crazy. And with my Pihole enabled on the network some of the tv functionality doesn’t work. I just banned it’s MAC address from my network at the router and don’t use it’s “smart” features.
Sounds like you had issues exclusively with hardware, perhaps you should’ce gone for a different manufacturer. My personal anecdote has never seen anything break (that I didn’t cause myself).
I think you just got unlucky most people don’t have anything close to that experience
Yeah, conversely my kids use iPhones and they, and their iPods back in the day, are more troublesome than my and my wife’s Androids (Galaxies, Pixels, One+)
The kids are only on iPhones because they were the smallest form factors for sale at the time. Little kids have little pockets
This is the same thing that happens with Windows and Mac. Your issue was hardware; you could have tried any of the other manufacturers who make Android phones. It’s like saying you stick with Mac because you don’t like Dell - there are other hardware brands who use the same operating system.
As I mentioned elsewhere - this was google’s FLAGSHIP phone. The other big hardware manufacturer for android is Samsung - I’ve had plenty of their products (including a phone) and have not had good experiences.
As for your other comparison, I actually use Mac because after 7 years my MacBook runs like the day I bought it whereas the 4-year-old Lenovo l have takes about 15 minutes to boot and struggles to open Word.
I can see reasons why people would prefer android, e.g. ability to install apps outside of the manufacturer’s App Store, and there are some android models that are cheaper than iPhone (less so since iPhone SE, but still true).
But the post asks about alternatives for companies that people don’t like. I.e., where it’s the company that has a problem morally. Do people generally think that Google is morally better than Apple? Sure, Apple is anticompetitive about hardware and software access because that’s how they make money, but Google is anticompetitive about data and advertising because that’s how they make their money. I kinda think they’re both bad.
Hoping I don’t come off as antagonistic here. I’m genuinely curious what people think.
I didn’t see anything in the original post about morals. I answered based on the fact that Apple is a company that some people don’t like and Google offers an alternative for some services and products.
If we’re talking strictly about morals I would have to think of a different answer.
I feel like google used to be the good guys relative to apple. They were more open and truly supported open source & standards. But I don’t feel like there’s much difference anymore.
I’m not sure but the iPhone bubble colour debate seems so US centric. In the UK, I’ve never heard of anyone bringing it up
Broader than a brand, but I think it fits here…
Everyone hates banks. Credit Unions are better in every possible way.
Might depend on the country though. I grew up where credit unions were really common and just assumed they were the best. I had to switch to something else cause I moved across the country and my credit union was only on western Canada. While shopping around, I realized that the big Canadian banks were offering way more than my credit union ever was. Plus their website actually felt modern.
Well one disadvantage of credit unions is that you might not be able to get a debit card. Loan interest is usually way better though.
Google. Use Searxng for search, Firefox/Librewolf for browser, Newpipe for Youtube, Graphene instead of default Android, literally anything for calendar and notes, and FDroid for apps. Don’t let Google’s services destroy your privacy.
❤️ Google -> Brave search. Stock Android -> LineageOS (CalyxOS, DivestOS, GrapheneOS). Chrome😬 -> Mull (LibreWolf). Google notes -> Joplin.
I also have been trying to convince people to try Kagi. It is so much better than google results, has no ads, and is very pro-privacy.
Only downside is that you have to pay for it, but honestly it’s worth it to me for how much better it is, and no ads or psychology against me is a big bonus
Amazon, sort of. It absolutely cannot be beat for convenience. Ordering something in 15 seconds, then having it shipped within 48 hours is unmatchable.
But if you plan ahead, and aren’t an impulse buyer, you can find alternatives with better products and similar prices. Most stuff on Amazon is absolute junk with clickfarm reviews.
Ironically Reddit was really good for finding niche websites for whichever product you were looking for. Hopefully Lemmy will reach that point eventually.
Would be interested in a community for general purchase recommendations (any product, no specific category). Having a thread site like this where actual humans who bought the product and don’t work for the company can write honest reviews/recommendations is extremely valuable
Not the same but which (which.co.uk) is a non-profit consumer group. You can pay them subscription and they do non biased and quite detailed reviews of all the normal electrial stuff. I’ve used them for a washing machine, freezer, earbuds, TV, handheld vacuum cleaner.
AliExpress is the alternate for Amazon if you can wait a month to get your crap. All the products are exactly the same except £2 instead of £20.
I wouldn’t buy any electronics from AliExpress though.
Every order I’ve ever made on Ali:
- Me: Place order
- Ali: it will be there in a month
- A few weeks later, Ali: Your order was cancelled.
- Back to Amazon
But if someone makes a version of Ali that works in the states, Amazon’s online store is already a dinosaur and can easily be dominated.
really?
Ive ordered probobly 100 things from Ali. Takes a while to arrive, but only had a couple items disappear in shipping, and never had them not at least ship.
For those in DE/AT/PL/UK: https://geizhals.eu/
It shows many local online shops, including Amazon. Amazon usually isn’t the cheapest IME in Germany.
Ordering something in 15 seconds, then having it shipped within 48 hours is unmatchable
you mean like online shopping in general?
I assume they mean having it arrive within 48 hours, which is not typical of most online shopping.
