It is a tough choice, both companies are gigantic and kind of scumbags. Funny story though, I was also in the market for a new computer recently as my 10 year old Windows 10 tower was really starting to show its age. My frustrations with Windows had also peaked.

I have been doing a more photo and video editing for fun, and I ended up taking a leap. I got an M4 Pro Mac mini. Mac OS is definitively better (IMO) for home use than Windows, and the M series processors are like wizardry. I liked it so much that shortly after I bought a used M2 Max MacBook Pro off of a coworker.

Coincidentally, a few months after I got my Macs LTT also switched over first to Snapdragon-based Windows laptops and later to Macs for a 30-day challenge and they ended up staying on the Macs.

I am an IT manager and I don't think I would ever want to deploy Macs at scale in my workplace, though it is the only computer I look forward to using now.

Read the contracts you sign when you buy your phone

Contracts? Unless I'm buying a subsidized phone where a mobile phone plan is required, I'm not sure what other contract I'd be signing. I never got one from Samsung, OnePlus, Google, any used marketplace, or Amazon.

They get paid, and I get hardware to do what I like with it. If I can't do what I want with it, then I'm renting, and I should be paying a rental fee, not a "full price".

I wish a Linux tablet will be ready by the time the custom ROMs will be killed off.

Where are all the open source phone OSes? Where are the OS agnostic capable hardware phones?

In the "waiting for funding" room.

If people don't care enough to finance projects like Fairphone, etc... while they are still in the growing pains, then those projects will never be able to last during a digital consumer war, let alone provide a product that has enough mass appeal that it makes sense to build and commercialize on auto.

Some places are killing the web interface entirely and going app-only.

My current phone, a Pixel 7a, cost me around 350€ (let's say it's roughly the same in $). There is definitely cheaper options. And most of these options will give you a decent phone.

A $200 computer will bring you to basic office stuff and playing facebook games.

Yep but also 200 buck phones.

Is it possible to use presaved GPS maps on it?

Also i wish I could install grapheneOS on my phone. But there are no options for Samsung S23s... or are there?

Best I've been able to do is a Lenovo Yoga. Ubuntu runs great and touch works well enough. But yeah.. not really the same.

I use Osmand+ for most of my navigation. Google Maps also works.
GrapheneOS is for Pixels only.

I've gotta get a new phone soon (ol Pixel 3 is getting long in the tooth) and this is what I'm looking at too. I highly prefer the "default" Android UI, and the ability to install programs of my own choosing — but fuck Google, imagine getting locked out of your phone just because Google randomly unpersoned you.