The biggest difference I've noticed is that while Reddit may have a lot of large active communities, I would rarely get a quality response if I posted a question or a discussion topic.
Here, I can post to a community that hasn't had a new post in a few days, and within an hour I have several people offering help or discussion.
Reddit is far more active, but Lemmy users are far more helpful.
At least for me, the whole "made by devs for devs" isn't really the major downfall. It's the fact that it can't be trusted to remain functional in a dynamic environment. I like using the command line, but sometimes that's just not enough.
If I need a specific software package, I can download the source, compile it, along with the 100 of libraries that they chose not to include in the .tar.gz file, and eventually get it running.
However, when I do an "apt update" and it changes enough, then the binary I compiled earlier is going to stop working. Then I spend hours trying to recompile it along with it's dependencies, only to find that it doesn't support some obscure sub-version of a package that got installed along with the latest security updates.
In a static environment, where I will never change settings or install software (like my NAS), it's perfect. On my desktop PC, I just want it to work well enough so I can tinker with other things. I don't want to have to troubleshoot why Gnome or KDE isn't working with my video drivers when all I want to do is launch remote desktop so I can tinker with stuff on a server that I actually want to tinker with.
I can only speak for myself, but I have always had bad luck with Linux on desktop. Something always breaks, isn't compatible, or requires a lengthy installation process involving compiling multiple libraries because no .deb or .rpm is available.
On servers, it's fantastic. If you count VMs, I have far more Linux installations than Windows. In general, I use Win10 LTSC for anything that requires a GUI and Ubuntu Server for anything that only needs CLI or hosts a web interface.
Win10 LTSC still has quite a few years left.
Meanwhile, "~x" is drooling on itself over in the corner.
Aren't there a few VPN providers that don't even install writable storage in their servers? I can't remember which, but I'm sure there's at least one that boots their machines off of read-only media and only installation hard drives in the servers used for storing login credentials.
Having my status turn yellow when I so much as look away from my screen is bad enough. I really hope this "feature" stays off.
How does Teams give away your location? I've used it extensively, but I've never seen someone's location unless the enter it manually.
Just because the phone is connected to the car doesn't mean that the driver of said car is using the phone, or that the phone even belongs to the person driving.
It is Android's job to provide music and entertainment to my car's head unit. It is my job to drive safely. It is NOT the job of Android to make sure I'm driving safely. Why in the hell should my passenger have to sit through repeated "safety breaks" while they try to scroll down to play a new song?
Isn't it wonderful when your VPN client refuses to connect repeatedly until you realize you need to reboot your PC or restart the VPN service... and then go change your underwear.
When it comes to writing code, there is a huge difference between code that works and code that works *well." Lets say you're tasked with writing a function that takes an array of RGB values and converts them to grayscale. ChatGPT is probably going to give you two nested loops that iterate over the X and Y values, applying a grayscale transformation to each pixel. This will get the job done, but it's slow, inefficient, and generally not well-suited for production code. An experienced programmer is going to take into account possible edge cases (what if a color is out of the 0-255 bounds), apply SIMD functions and parallel algorithms, factor in memory management (do we need a new array or can we write back to the input array), etc.
ChatGPT is great for experienced programmers to get new ideas; I use it as a modern version of "rubber ducky" debugging. The problem is that corporations think that LLMs can replace experienced programmers, and that's just not true. Sure, ChatGPT can produce code that "works," but it will fail at edge cases and will generally be inefficient and slow.
I think at least for me, you really nailed it when you said that politicians are like celebrities to a lot of people. I personally have just never had any interest in celebrities. Music is a big thing for me, but if I had the opportunity to go meet one of my favorite artists, I wouldn't. What am I going to do, say "hey, I really like your music," and that's the end of it? There's no point. I enjoy the art that they make, but meeting them briefly in-person isn't going to change anything for them or for me. It'd be a better use of my time to stay home and do just about anything else, maybe even stay home and listen to one of their albums.
Politicians are the same. I'm not buying their album, I'm voting for them. They don't produce an entertainment product, but they produce a change in my country (be it good or bad) that directly affects me. It still doesn't make the slightest bit of difference to me or to them if I meet them in-person or not. I can respect what they they do professionally without having a desire to shake hands.