Companies intentionally trying not to hurt their competitors can't really be described as anything else than a cartel (even if it's not explicit) that's almost invariably horrible for consumers (.e.g. telecom companies, banks, etc. in many countries).
Ideally you always want to see companies trying to run their competitors out of business by undercutting them and offering better products at lower prices. The issue when the playing field isn't level e.g. what MS is doing here is basically predatory pricing. But even then it's not exactly clear cut, e.g. did Uber running out many taxi companies out of business (or destroying their profit margins) was a net-negative or a net positive to consumers?
Net negative. Long term it's gonna be net negative due to lower competition, as now there are usually only 2 players in town. Inevitably they are going to raide prices for customers and reduce earnings for drivers
Compared to taxis? Well I guess it depends on where you live, but I wouldn't' generally agree.
It's also a highly commoditized market with little real barriers to entry (at least on the local level) and drivers/users can pretty much instantly switch to a different app so I think it will be reasonable hard for Uber/etc. to do that without someone undercutting them.
> due to lower competition
Still better than no competition and prices being set by a legal cartel (i.e. how taxis worked/work in many places)
This whole thing reads like insanity to me lol, I live & work as a contractor in the UK and I'm taxed directly through PAYE on earnings. Beyond that I just file my tax return through the Gov website.
The US has a long history of tax credits and deductions that people finagle to pay as close to their actual tax obligation as possible. (ie. if you do not do this, then you are quite literally paying more than your actual obligation according to the tax code).
The government isn't aware of your donations or losses, or whatever. So you have to tell them about it. Tax preparation software, historically, was designed to make this process easier by prompting you for all sorts of details you may have forgotten or were un-aware of. In essence, the software was supposed to replace a paid tax professional.
Today, most people use Standard Deduction since it was raised so high by the Trump Administration, and the need for credits and deductions has been greatly diminished. However, the need is still there for many folks, and not all tax filings are simple.
The nirvana for tax filing would be a single page online that disputes any facts the IRS already knows (such as informing them about donations or the like). But, our tax code itself needs to be vastly reformed and simplified before that can become a reality.
You should check out what Lenovo is doing currently; I just picked up a X1 Carbon 6th gen for £340 and loaded Ubuntu on it. The machine runs incredibly well, the trackpad is fantastic and it's a very quiet machine. Literally blew me away with the value for money, coming from my experience with Dell / Huawei laptops they're great.
I have a T14s Gen 3 and whilst it's a fine laptop it has minor quirks which make it a compromised experience vs a Macbook Air.
Screen resolution caps out at 1920x1200 which feels blurry coming from the 2560x1600 a Macbook provides.
Its speakers are awful - they use EQ under Windows (provided by the Lenovo Vantage software) to sound vaguely reasonable. Under Linux no such EQ exists (even though Linux is supported by Lenovo on this laptop) so the speakers sound like a smartphone (not exaggerating).
The trackpad is so-so, to get a trackpad in Lenovo's lineup comparable to a Macbook Air you'd have to buy their Z13 which costs £700 more.
Pluses are the AMD CPU and graphics are good enough to actually play games, like Flight Simulator 2020 at 30 fps on low settings, or older titles like Witcher 3 or Arkham Knight on high settings also at a constant 30fps.
The laptop itself is good value, I picked it up on sale for £1200 with 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM for £1200. A comparable Macbook Air (M1) is £1600.
Probably the same as any unicorn, hit their IPO and make a lot of money for the initial investors. You don't need to aim for long-term growth, just make money for whomever provided your seed funding and they'll happily invest in your next ~ useful ~ product too, repeat ad nauseam.
That sounds about right if you've got the thermostat at 20 degrees constantly; I live in a 700~ sq ft apartment and consume around 300kwh/pm; 10% of that is an inefficient NAS I built from old parts and I hardly use the heaters because god almighty are electric heaters inefficient.
What even are the alternatives for farmers, particularly in the US where I presume Deere reigns supreme. Kubota, Kverneland? Or is it effectively a racket where every agricultural equipment manufacturer behaves the same.
I'm confused about Radarr / Sonarr, is that what's directly sourcing the torrents you're downloading or are they being sourced from separate tracker(s)?
