What kind of pre-enshittification tech do you all use? Stuff where ppl look at you like you're an alien b/c nobody does it that any more.

Me ->

Oldschool offline mp3 player rather than Spottify or other streaming or phone app, to use when running.

Paper books rather than e-books.

DRM free games I buy on GOG to avoid rootkitting my own comp.

Wired speakers rather than smart speakers.

Old ass pre-connected car.

Prob more but I can't think of it all rn.

IPod classic 5th gen with a 512gb sd card and higher capacity battery

Gameboy advance with a backlit screen, rechargeable battery and a flash cart

Library card for borrowing cds and dvds to rip

2022 thinkpad running arch

Film camera

And I dont connect my tv to wifi

A CRT is mandatory for videogames! Also many old audio stuff is superior in quality, like old portable CD players or wired headphones, it doesn't surprise me that many people today still want vintage tech.

None. I usually just buy new tech and then deshittify it 😅

TUIs and CLIs.

Wired speakers gang.

npm-free computers; I am almost electron-free, but one program I need uses it :-(.

Still using X11. I try Wayland once a year, and it hasn't not sucked yet.

Linux mobile phone, despite much pain and suffering (it's not þere yet)

• Analog art or crafts (get your crayons out, kids, or put on your smocks because we're painting today). My fave media personally right now are crayons, chalk, or oil pastels for drawing or water-based markers and a brush pen filled with water or watercolors or acrylics + watercolor crayons for painting currently. Like, Crayola markers are really fun to paint with when you go to blend them with a wet brush.

• If going digital, using open alternatives to the Adobe suite, I personally use a combination of RawTherapee and GIMP for editing photos because it works for me so far.

• You can still buy used older digicams that are still respectable even by modern standards, there's plenty of old DSLRs which fit that bill, for example, even going back as far as '07 with the Sony a900 boasting a resolution that is still by all means a very respectable resolution by modern standards at 24.6MP, plus it should be able to work with the entire A-mount range even going back to legacy screw-drive lenses, let alone 'modern' Sony servo-drive A-mount glass.

• You could buy a bunch of CDs and rip them to FLAC, and then transcode those lossless rips to lossy copies as desired, eg. transcoding them to 160-510kbit/s* Opus copies for storage-limited devices.

*Per the HydrogenAudio KB, Opus' transparency bitrate for music is 160-192kbit/s and the codec maxes out at 510kbit/s.

And the thorn too surely? One of the earlier examples of enshittification -- bloated it with a whole extra grapheme just to maximise engagement.

They're from before my time, but I collect cassette tapes. Other than that, I try to buy digital stuff DRM-free, and use FLOSS over proprietary slopware. I really hate bluetooth for audio because it sounds so bad.

Oh and I have a pocket-watch.

I love TUIs and CLIs!

I need to work on de-Electron-ing my PC. I've fully gotten rid of Flatpak, though.

Why do you view X11 as better? I've tried both, and I don't get it.

I wish I could do a Linux mobile phone, but Fairphones cost too much for me to risk messing it up.

edit: hey a fellow þorn enjoyer! i need to work on using it more

Old audio stuff is definitely higher quality in a lot of ways. Also I so need to get a CRT :3

Alphasmart keyboard to type notes when I’m out and about then transfer it to a VimWiki journal entry when I get home with a single button

iPod video modded with things like USB C and more storage

Retro “inspired” tv. Essentially, my old CRT didn’t survive a move and I replaced it with a replacement iPad 3 screen, a 3D printed body, and an analogue scaler so I can still plug my ps2 into it. It’s not really the same but it was a fun project.

Original gameboy with LSDJ so I can make chiptunes (though at this point, I’ve replaced it with the Dirtywave M8 entirely)

Tech of the non-electric variety:

Inkle loom, rigid heddle loom, and floor loom for various weaving

Spinning yarn on a spinning wheel and drop spindles (also have a 3D printed DIY e-spinner because the spinning wheel is so temperamental)

Thanks for reminding me to fix my old iPod!

I miss my GBA :/

Termux on Android devices

To give an example yesterday walking down the street I had an idea for a prototype (basically every morning my phone would generate an ePub with calendar, map of the area, notes, articles to read, etc) but I didn't use some fancy voice assistant, no I started Termux on my phone, mkdir, echo idea > file, etc.

I have notes on my wiki on https://fabien.benetou.fr/Content/SwappingPartsOfTheRestrictionStack on doing this kind of stuff on more than phones, VR headset, IoT, etc. Typically the heuristic is to still by modern hardware flash an open source firmware or OS then connect it to your tools that are already not enshittified or de-enshittified

Wired earphones

Cash

The car is a 2014. Not internet connected but still has a black box.

I've been playing local mp3 for decades. Along came streaming but I didn't see a reason to switch.

My laptop is a 2017 T-470 Thinkpad running Fedora44. Old machine, new software.

I use Syncthing and external hard drives instead of cloud storage.

I don't own a TV.

Not a single smart appliance in the house.

Wired headphones.

Component hifi with floorstanding speakers.

Older car with cable-driven throttle and clutch.

Rotary-dial landline phone (not even kidding)

Vinyl records.

Home theatre PC.

Component desktop tower PC.

Basic Casio digital watch.

Wired speakers. But connected to wiim because I like music discovery. Not that shit though.

There's plenty of options for a small emulator handheld if you're will8ng to forgo getting OG hardware or hardware emulator devices that can read from carts.

Check out !sbcgaming@lemmy.ml or the same name sub on that other site if you're willing. Hmm maybe !retrogaming@lemmy.world as well probably.

• lynx
• vim
• pen & paper for my notes/scratch pad
• a book (made of paper)
• wired everything
• old washing and drying machines (40 years old+ and still kicking!)

Reticulum.

Nothing but everything I do run people still think I'm weird. Self hosted music, vacuum running valetudo speakers connected music assistant and home assistant.

Oldschool offline mp3 player rather than Spottify or other streaming or phone app, to use when running.

Btw, does Youtube (webäpp) switch to their audio-only channels, if they detect focus loss?

Because that's how people use it anxyway – playing the full video of a song/podcast they only listen to. And Youtube has always at least one audio-only channel

Cash

A good one!

Only if you pay for premium. Regular users it refuses to play in the background.

So Google prefers to waste their own (and the users mobile) bandwidth on the majority of non-paying users?
What the heck?

I've been meaning to look into those kinds of things; they look really cool. Thanks for the recommendations!

If computers count then a phone with GrapheneOS and a laptop and a PC with a custom NixOS config.

Finally, a correct take on Opus. Thank you.

I use more post-enshittification tech. I've replaced most of the apps on my phone with open source versions.

I've never used proprietary software on my Linux computers so there's no enshittification there. But I have stopped using my enshittified android TV in favor of Kodi on Linux.

Admittedly a lot of my audio stuff is either wireless or built-in now. Either laptop speakers, or bone conduction headphones since I want to hear what's happening around me when I'm walking on the roadside. Not clear on what you mean by pre-enshittification tech, but here's the stuff people either need explained, or look at me weird for:

• Gentoo linux
• FreeBSD
• Thinkpad T430
• GrapheneOS (this one's weird to me because it feels almost exactly like stock android?)
• A lot of my games are from itch.io for the same reason you listed for GOG, though I do use steam a lot too.
• My files are synced through syncthing between 4 locations, depending on what's getting synced
• The fediverse in general
• Having my own website? This one confuses me because you'd think that'd be a bit more normal because of the SquareSpace ads, but nope. The idea of just... having your own website is weird to people
• The Linux terminal. I occasionally go to the library and write books in a TTY, it's a little funny seeing people react.
• Emacs
• Pick any terminal application. Ranger, w3m, cmus, cava, etc etc.
• I occasionally play MUDs/MUSHes
• Browser games that are text/image based. The ones I'm playing now are all 20+ years old, so well pre-enshittification.
• Honestly I've had people think it's weird that I download my music to play locally, even though it's through a phone app with a relatively modern interface.

We'll be moving into an owned home soon, and I have some plans for tech, and non-tech stuff. Can't wait to see how many comments we get about having awnings in 2026.

Old ass pre-connected car.

this is me and i think now that i'm going to keep this thing until i die. lol

• lynx

lol you win, but it's the only weird thing on your list

Side note, there was a gui version of lynx that ran on the early Mac.

Same with my car.
I think it's more important than ever to learn how to fix things. "Buy a new one" is becoming less and less viable for certain types of products if you value longevity, privacy, independence, finances, sustainability, etc.

Great ones, respect.

2000 Corolla. Doesn't connect to anything except the radio. Stopped using the clicker to lock/unlock the doors when the battery in it died ~6 yrs ago. I was giving a ride to my kid and some of her friends, all around 10 y.o., and the friends were deeply confused when the doors stayed locked until I stuck an actual key in one of them. "Why doesn't your car beep?"

Vintage audio equipment. It's purpose built without gimmicky features, high quality, high performance, and built to last with discrete components and service manuals. Really it doesn't have to be vintage, but it's usually the old stuff that prioritizes these traits. I usually play local files (mp3/flac) over a bluetooth DAC but vinyl is fun once in a while. The same living room system gets used for movies and whatever else too.

þorn enjoyer

is this a fancy way to say gooner?

thanks for pointing these out, good to see these communities over lemmy

if you want the best cheap GBA clones you can get right now Anbernic has two models depending on your favorite GBA model:

RG34XX for OG GBA

RGSP for GBASP

pair that CRT with a softmodded Wii and a component cable

you will be able to emulate almost any retro console with great image quality

pair that with an 8bitdo M30 and you have nearly perfect experience until 4th gen gaming

I should participate more but I funnily enough do not have any of those cheap handhelds because I can't decide lol

But also I don't really play much retro games, or any games for that matter

Only lately I've been playing L4D2 and REPO or other friendly chill co-op games.

Wow, a 2000 corolla has a remote. My mk4 golf (2002) with decent equipment doesn't have that (but to be fair, it also doesn't have a CD drive radio - well I could add one for ~100€ but I won't since it costs money and the original radio works).

It's extremely reliable (especially the TDI engine). After 178000km, the only problems are the surface rust, (my grandma who owned it before me) had to replace the fenders - which rusted away and I recently had to replace the rear axle. And some trunk door water leaks I still had to fix (and some weird sounds coming from the wheels when steering to the right). My mom's 2014 golf mk7 is in way worse mechanical condition than my older car.

Also: how do the 10 year olds not know how batteries work (I did basic electronic repairs back then and help my dad wire lights ) and have you thought about reporting their parents for child neglect

No prob! And if you're maxing out any lossy codec, that's the point where your only intention is to make a file smaller than you can do with lossless, while still having no audible degradation between that lossy copy and the uncompressed or lossless original file, although you could also settle for transparency in the case of codecs like Opus or even Vorbis where their max bitrate is higher than their transparency rate for even smaller files.

In the case of older codecs like MP3, supposedly its transparency bitrate of 320kbit/s CBR is also its max bitrate, but there's decades of debate over whether 320kbit/s CBR or V0 VBR is superior for that codec, such as this HA thread from 2008 on the matter. As for MD/ATRAC, its transparency bitrate, and also its max bitrate and the native bitrate for the MD format, is 292kbit/s CBR.

For the curious, the two bitrates for MD/ATRAC that fall below its transparency bitrate are 132kbit/s (MD LP2) and 66kbit/s (MD LP4).

I wish I had time to use Gentoo, but I barely have time to upgrade my Suse TW and Artix systems (to be fair, suse's packaging system is shit compared to arch/artix, but it is more stable if upgraded after a long time).

How do you manage to upgrade it regularly? Do you have an extremely powerful PC or just the T430?

For the love of god. I just started repairing a Huawei P10 for my own use (was my mom's). I had to ADB pm uninstall --user 0 a bunch of Huawei shit and play services. The (last) 2021 upgrade made it so it redownloads some apps I removed occasionally (Facebook, Instagram, Petal, ...) fuck this. Why does it keep doing it?

I think I also uninstalled something too much since it doesn't pair to bluetooth devices anymore.

And why can't I just unlock the bootloader and replace the os (well, I could with PotatoNV, but i could only get a GSI, so I lose most features and the camera quality). And it's also stuck on Android 9 - somehow (the phone is from 2017).

Still more usable than my Redmi 4x (4+64) with some motherboard issues, and cheaper than the decent grapheneos compatible phones on ebay (300 - 400€ in EU).

My grandma has a Phillips CRT tv. It's way better than any of my family's LCDs I hope I could inherit it and not let it go to waste when she dies (but hopefully she lives longer than the TV - since it's indestructible).

Restored a T3 Palm Pilot to work as a my own little portable minigame thang!

damn i regret letting some relatives get rid of theirs. i should have kept it but never had the space for it.

• TI-89 calculator. Got mine for college, wouldn't trade it for any other calculator
• Thinkpad X230, quad core modded
• Librebooted HP Z220 desktop in authentic 2001 beige case and 1600x1200 beige monitor
• 90s-era UI via Chicago95 on XFCE
• Early 90s car with intact tape deck
• Personal website in pure CSS/HTML
• Beige speaker-subwoofer set with added mixer for multi-device connectivity
• Cash. Don't worry, I won't waste your time counting out coins; I save them up and deposit into my bank account at the end of each year
• Palm Pilot. Tbh, taking notes on my phone is just as easy, but I'm afraid it doesn't look nearly as respectable in front of the speaker.
• If I need to deeply comprehend literature, I have to read it on paper. My mind defaults to skimming anything on a screen.

The one piece of old tech I don't miss are bulky charging bricks. I use my GaN USB-C charger whenever possible, sometimes with the help of adapters.

RSS feeds instead of algorithms