I can confirm that Volkswagen is borderline incompetent when it comes to software - a few months back, my 2020 Audi A4 (and those of tens to hundreds of others) all started having the same issue, where the infotainment will randomly reboot every 5-30 minutes (taking out nav, the backup camera, and the parking sensors with it, and requiring a PIN to get back into the system).
Despite the problem having the hallmarks of a backend issue (many cars with the same software running into the same issue on the same week), corporate is still insisting that it's a hardware issue and trying to sell us on $5k hardware replacements. I love the car for its build quality, but almost kind of wish I'd gotten a Tesla given how bad VW is at software.
The biggest shock for me moving from Android Auto to Carplay was the complete lack of multi touch support in Apple's offering. Worked perfectly on Android.
The only way I was able to get Nextdoor out of my inbox was by blocking their domain in gmail - it's absurd how much spam they're capable of sending without getting blacklisted.
"Blacklists" are only permanent for small-time companies. Large companies can always use their networks and back channels to the major email providers to reverse blacklisting or sender score declines.
I've managed to avoid the Windows 11 "upgrade" so far by disabling my motherboard's TPM in its BIOS menu. Not sure what I'll do in 2025 when Windows 10 hits EOL.
"pirated" yes but you can often source the install images direct from Microsoft and then use open source tools to crack the activation systems. Microsoft has kind of stopped policing piracy at the individual user level, you can even download Windows cracking tools off GitHub, a platform that Microsoft owns. As long as you're using their software it makes them happy. And LTSC is worth it to have a barebones no-bullshit Windows installation.
Didn't know you could get the base images directly from Microsoft, safe third party tools to validate the installation would still concern me, unfortunately.
I'm not all that concerned with the legality of it and more about the chain of trust, if there is need to download images/tools from shady websites for the thing just to work.
I was able to get Windows 11 to a decent state by using 3rd party programs, so there is that option. Not holding much hope that the next version of Windows will permit users to even have that option.
100%. I think there's some viewport configuration I can include to make it look better on mobile, I should really play around with it and get it working..
