Why not just use C++ Builder or Delphi?

This is an underhand way of mandating digital id at the point of operating system boot or login

I am curious how this will play out for Linux. I won't accept any code that spies on my owned computer devices. No criminal goverment can force be to surrender my rights here. But it is interesting to see how easy it is to purchase legislation in the USA - well done, Facebook! I predict more people will abandon it though, now that they see that Meta is trying to push out global spying on regular people.

They will require remote attestation of your entire boot chain eventually.

Also no exclusion for RTC and RTOS systems.

You mean a smartphone?

Can't you just create another user with full privileges or at least setup another user with sudo privileges?

Considering the draconian policies in the UK, Germany etc where people are arrested based on their social media posts criticizing the government or its officials or anything the govt doesn't agree with, I am not sure what exactly is the selling point here of using a social media platform built/hosted in Europe.

Sources: German police arrest author over tweets criticising Netanyahu https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/german-police-arrest-aut...

German police raid home of social media user over civil servant 'parasite' post Man's house searched at dawn after criticizing tax system and government workers on social media; lawyer calls actions 'absurd and illegal' https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/german-police-raid-home-of-s...

You did not provide evidence that UK are "arresting people based on social media posts criticizing goverment..."

You sound like you should do some reading first.

https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-kingdom/freedom-net/...

Maybe review your media consumption for if they are reliable

At this point it is very difficult to develop truly open OSs for mobiles because so much of the hardware depends on undocumented binary blobs.

As I see it, the only options is to go for a drastically simpler design of the hardware - which means, we have to tone down our expectations especially when it comes to things like gaming performance, camera performance etc.

Over time even these things can be improved but it is going to take a few years.

In the meantime, I am not sure many people are willing to make those compromises to have a truly open hardware and OS though.

The world has actually become worse over time - especially the Internet, when it comes to free speech, freedom, the ability for individuals to make a difference etc.

I used to love visiting their store when I lived in California. Sad to see that they no longer exist.

Is there a reason you don't just use FreeCAD, SolveSpace, Dune3D etc instead of attempting to develop all of this from scratch given that all of this software is open source in any case?

As I said, all these are optimized for Mechanical engineering, to the best of my knowledge. In civil, there are lots of standardization in 3D part and a lot more focus on 2D side. Major part of building design is using standard steel section. Mechanical side, apart from nut bolts, everything seems to be custom. Software interfaces prioritize these use cases.

Think of I beams, all major countries have national standards of shapes and sizes. There are many "devil in detail" nuances.

So, giving it a go myself. If not for others, at least for my own itch. This is one aspect of open source.

I am the same age as the author and I started programming on the ZX Spectrum around 12 years old. My sentiments are exactly the same as the author's.

Programming just doesn't feel enjoyable anymore. It has become less a craft and more just a way of putting bread on the table.