Post #2749716

2026-01-30 19:18 UTC

Some services, like social media, require backend resources and there's no way around it. Others, dare I say most, are backend by the company's choice and usually to the detriment of the user. Some require backend resources *purely* for DRM and so that they can pull the plug on it whenever they please and screw over everyone who paid for it. Like most single player games these days. Or as a means of holding your in game items hostage to get more money out of you (Pokemon Home comes to mind).

Replies (1)

@some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world 2026-01-30 19:36

Updates alone have no way to happen solely on the local machine. There are many reasons why using someone else's computer would be required, which have nothing to do with social media. Just off the top of my head: * Image/video/audio processing that requires more compute than you can reasonably except from average consumer hardware. * Antivirus and other forms of security which require near real-time fingerprinting and/or new definitions. * Licensing/certificate servers * Servers which receive and process telemetry data * Resources for submitting/processing/securing legal/government forms/documents And a lot more I can't think of right now. Most of this shit makes me want to vomit in my mouth. I'd much rather spend my time and money sourcing, building, and configuring my own hardware and running everything locally. But that's just because I'm an idealistic nerd with an uncompromising bent towards digital liberty - most users and softwares are not built for that.

Open ##2749718