I am so looking forward to my daughters to become students. Definitely going to discuss this topic through with every person I have to. I am so not going to use WhatsApp or whatever similar software again. If there’s no other solution, they can call me or write a letter :D
Yeah but if you don't have brightwheel or seesaw or whatever the fuck, you won't be getting important notifications. They only only call when you're late for pickup or your kid shit so bad you have to take them home. Some of these are tied to billing as well. Don't want to use My School Bucks? No aftercare or cafeteria breakfast/lunch. Sack lunch only.
It's a huge pain but in many cases there's no way around it.
I'm aware the original subject matter of this post is different, but the walled garden apps that you have to use no matter what start as soon as they enter preschool
/subscribe
In Europe Whatsapp is the default messaging system. Everything else is cumbersome. Sure Signal is better but only like 3 people have it.
Do what I did and send a message to everyone you care about saying "deleting whatsapp and switching to signal" or something like this.
It's also a good way to weed out people who aren't important in your life, I.e people who care about you will most likely install signal to keep in touch.
Just wait until you enter the workforce and your company gives you a locked down work computer.
The joys of getting special permission from the IT department so that you can install a browser other than the ancient version of Internet Explorer (no, not Edge) that came preloaded.
Much better than having to use my own devices.
Absolutely. I'm convinced that any company that asks employees to use their own devices simply doesn't understand cybersecurity.
Best case would be giving employees a choice of hardware and software from a list of compatible products, but of course that's expensive and more work for the business so it seldom happens.
I am going to physics feild and hopefully I will use linux there(NASA does)
If they want you to use WhatsApp they can provide you with a device to use it on, then at least it's completely isolated from your own data and can't do too much harm.
Ok, but this is reality, and in reality schools don't give a fuck about these subjects, third world country schools at least.
Btw oficially, in my state, schools use their own forked version of ubuntu (KITE Ubuntu), spevifically designed for school use and has foss programs installed and syllabus teaches only that. But still, since the online class started in 2020, google meet, whatsapp and all of them are "required" by students. The problem is that none of the schools or teachers actually knows why "free software only" in schools were introduced
They don't give a fuck in first world schools as well
Such a waste of public resources, to not develop (or fund) free and open tools for everyone, instead of paying for temporary licenses for closed software.
Public money public code
For me it's family and friends wich refuse to switch from whatsapp to signal for example
They don't even have to switch just install it, I have multiple clients for different people and it doesn't really effect me negatively other than remembering what to message people on
Sadly my friends won't even do that. Don't know about family but knowing them they also probably won't. I expect rhem to not even understand why i want to switch
Yeah some of my University classes mandated the use of this "Lockdown Browser" last year. Pretty sure it's just spyware that, conveniently, can render HTML
It's actually a rootkit on Windows which is the worst part.
What's easier from the teacher/teachers representative, use 1 widely distributed app, or download 100 different messaging programs/interfaces and make sure every student knows the proper channels to contact every other student?
There will always be someone unhappy, let's try to keep that from being the person who has to do this dance day in and out for the rest of their underfunded lives?
Fine, use one app but make it the Free Software one, then.
Regardless, it is completely unreasonable to dictate that people consent to onerous third-party corporate terms of service in order to access government services, especially ones enforced by truancy laws!
There will always be someone unhappy, but let's make them unhappy with mild annoyances and not serious privacy violations. I'd rather prefer the Whatsapp users to be unhappy than the Signal users. In a long run it's doing them a favor.
I want to agree Meta's terms of service to get education?
Schools should use a free software messenger instead so that no one is forced to run untrusted apps on their device.
I almost cried when they told me AutoCAD was only available on windows.
In my school we use LibreCAD :)
@starman @Blastasaurus, when i went to school we used paper, ruler and pencil (FOSS)
Back when the architecture font was just how they taught all the architect students to write.
It was a bit creepy to have several friends with the exact same handwriting.
it's ok just make the account, everyone is using it
🥲
My son's school created an MS account for him, for christ's sake! In 1st grade...
What the fuck
Exactly. I was shocked as well. They even wanted us to teach him to memorize the password. In. The. 1st. Grade.
To be frank they probably wanted to have a backup in case we get another corona lockdown so he could use Teams for school. But still!
I had the same problem here. I solved it by using an app (Element) that gave you the ability to use all messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal) in one. Then I stopped using it because you can't make video calls or listen to some audio messages.
Best option, use graphene and keep the propriety stuff on a separate user profile.
There is also a WhatsApp to go on F-droid . So you need an account then you can use the webapp on the phone.
But yea stuff like that sucks.
Decentralised solutions will never be broadly accepted. People care about comfort and ease to use and centralized companies wiill always have the edge in this.
I don't necessarily need decentralised solutions. I just need free software solutions. There is much comfort and ease in apps like signal
At the place I work at, we all are given Azure Virtual Desktops, which we use for everything. I'm working remotely from another country, so there is damned input lag too. Copy/paste, any data transfer is disabled too.
The worst part is we need to use "Remote Desktop" app to connect to our VMs, and it is available for EVERY platform except linux. Like they got browser client, windows, mac os, android, iOS. BUT NOT FOR LINUX. So I use VirtualBox to open windows machine, and use that to connect to VM.
This is sad :(
You could try out the Remmina Linux client's RDP plugin.
To work or study at my Univ, you have to give your phone number to Microsoft for the 2fa. They pay shitload of money for Office 365 and they are almist forcing us to use that stupid suite. This year I will give an special course on FOSS alternative to my students. Fuck that bullshit hail corporate.
"It's preparing you for the real world"
Force quits stupid company app
What is digital sovereignty?
Your school wants you to use Whatsapp?
Mine too, but it wasn't forced on me. All of my classmates use whatsapp but not having too deal with all the needless stuff on there is great in my opinion
WhatsApp has replaced text messaging in a lot of countries. Even banks use WhatsApp