nfbyte

This is exactly why the hardware + software vertical integration philosophy is fundamentally retarded. What it essentially means for N hardware vendors to each have their own software platform is that as an application developer, instead of having to develop ONE application, you have to develop N applications. Imagine if Apple hardware just used Linux and macOS / iOS / whateverthefuckOS was just a desktop environment project like Plasma / GNOME / COSMIC. You could still keep the exact same particularities / UX flows / ease of use that people expect from Apple products, AND get free access to the wealth of software and content which exists for Linux and ALSO Windows (because of wine).

Twitter

Mindustry. It's like Factorio + tower defense. There is a basic campaign and sandbox mode with multiplayer as well. It has in-game visual programming (logic) with which you can do crazy things like play Chess: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoeS3S9S9Dk, and it also has a JavaScript API for mods.

I specifically mentioned torrenting, please re-read. There is no reason to have all the network I/O of your computer go through an extra hop just for one application (e.g. a torrent client) when that application can be configured to use a proxy instead. It increases the network latency, complexity and attack surface of your system.

It's not just that they're suspect or unreliable. They're complete bullshit.

The actual use of VPN technology is to create virtual networks that are private (hence the name). It's a system level technology. There are several types of network topologies you can set up, when I was learning about this I found this article which is quite nice: https://www.procustodibus.com/blog/2020/10/wireguard-topolog.... You can proxy traffic through a VPN, but the only scenario I can think of in which it makes sense is if you are an OSINT researcher and you need a safe system on which to conduct your research.

If you need to proxy traffic and "hide" your IP, just use a flipping proxy. It's an application level technology (e.g. for torrenting, every torrent client under the sun supports a SOCKS5 proxy). If you don't have the patience to set up a VPS yourself, you can even use something like Outline (https://getoutline.org) which automates that (and it has a mobile client app as well).

If you need privacy (and to actually hide your IP), then use Tor.

You can also set a proxy per container (and assign specific websites to always use it), and when you combine that with an ultra-cheap VPS running e.g. a Shadowsocks server you have what I think is the real way to circumvent censorship and bypass regional restrictions (as opposed to using snake oil "VPN" providers or even the Tor Browser).

> I'd be hard-pressed to find such an accurate and comprehensive reference on that topic anywhere on the internet

You can find The Art of Electronics on the internet... And you can put it on an old tablet with dozens of other reference books.

I would rather just have one code base per problem rather than one abomination per spectrum of problems.

This is such crap. Modern programming languages (or any other tools) need to be well suited for a specific problem domain, not meet some generalized arbitrary criterion. And modern systems (as in actual low-level software, not web browsers or databases or games) suffer from a severe lack of security and reliability, not performance.