Google's software mistreats or harms the user

All of this is trivially and obviously true to power users of GNU/Linux systems.

My machine does precisely what I want, when I want it, in the way that I want it. If it doesn't, within reasonable constraints like physical possibility, I can open a text editor, and make it do so. Sure, that might take me a long time.

I can add almost all of this configuration to stuff like git repos; back it up; transfer it between completely different machines; I can have a very high degree of certainty that any laptop or desktop I pick up off the shelf will just work and that within 30mins - 1hour I can have it working _identically_ to the old one.

By contrast, right now I am using my phone for USB tethering. There is literally no way for me to make this automatic because it's a black box. I have to enable it every time; if the cable moves a bit and disconnects; etc.

Trivial, basic example? Sure. The fact that even this most basic behaviour is completely unfixable proves the point.

I'm really looking forward to stuff like the Librem, pinephone, etc.

The IBM-compatible PC might well be the greatest contributor to the progress of technology in the last few decades. It's heart-breaking that smartphones are this custom random locked down mess of nonsense.

Hell, this article has reminded me I was meaning to set up a donation to the FSF. Off it goes. A small impact but an impact nonetheless. I really appreciate the work you guys are doing for those who can't.

If you have an android phone then you probably can automate that: https://llamalab.com/automate/

USB tethering is specifically listed under features, presumably there's some API that developers have access to.

Apparently by use of the class WifiManager in android.net.wifi you can programmatically change the state of USB tethering without any kind of special privileges.

What is interesting about this and the Apple post[1] is that no one is actually taking responsibility or signing their name. It's just a generic blog post with a list of issues. Where is the GNU's "open" log of who is publishing this info? Without a source, I can't really verify if the author has some ulterior motive.

[1] https://www.gnu.org/proprietary/malware-apple.html

I mean, anyone who bothers to take the time to do a Google Takeout and actually looks at the data in the JSON files can see just how much information they are storing, and it is quite alarming.

Thing is, companies keep data about you even if you don't have an account, which is impossible to GDPR.

Some of the sources here are questionable; there's a sun.co.uk URL which is obviously tabloid trash, so please apply critical thought, the article presents what appears to be a convincing piece but some of the "sources" are not to be trusted.

But even on Linux you can't escape Google's web, even if you really really tried, some developers use Google's APIs for fonts, jQuery/scripts etc, so it's really hard to use the web without Google knowing about it and building up their knowledge graph.

> but I feel very much more in control of my Microsoft box that I am of my Apple or Google one.

Hahaha, you haven't seen the data MS collects on Windows 10 users? Try enable full telemetry and download their tool, every damn URL gets logged and even some of the "basic" data might reveal trends when combined with other data sets.

NO "big tech" company is to be trusted. Cambridge Analytica and co taught us that.

Data and information is being weaponized, the 2016 election proved that, go read the Mueller report for more information on this.