On Fri, 24 Jul 2026 15:33:20 +0000 (UTC) Robert Soulliere via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I think the ends are digital freedom, freedom from vendor lock-in, ling-term cost savings, control over hardware and software, etc.... However, the heaviest costs include inconvenience and time. I think these are the two things high on the priority list for many users. It is also important to remember that people are pretty locked into their OS eco-systems and might not know how to get out. E.g. a user using Windows has a lot of stuff in the Windows cloud. An apple user has even more locked into the Apple cloud. Not to mention the dependency on proprietary apps like Adobe. I know a few people and organizations who have chosen to pay Microsoft a fee for extended support to run Windows 10 because they cannot or do not want to upgrade to Windows 11 and refuse to just install Linux to get out of that loop.
Robert, This is less a training issue and more of an advocacy issue. Your data is yours, and it should be on your hard drive, which you have backed up somehow. The cloud is functional up until the cloud service goes out of business, or it changes its business model. -- Howard Gibson hgibson@eol.ca http://home.eol.ca/~hgibson