It was only a few weeks ago that we discussed Good Old Games’ (GOG) return to its roots with the site’s “GOG Preservation Program”. While GOG never stopped selling, you know, good old games, the site also expanded over the years to be a storefront for new releases and AAA games as well. But with this program, GOG committed to maintaining its preservation efforts. Games sold on the store that are also part of the preservation program now come with a commitment from GOG to keep these games compatible on modern hardware in any way possible, whether that’s updating game code and wrappers where the IP holder allows it, or packaging the games with programs like DOSbox where it can’t.

And now the program is going to get an early test. Blizzard recently announced that it is releasing a remastered version of Warcraft and Warcraft 2 and, as a result, have announced the original versions of those games will be delisted from GOG in a little over a week from now. Currently, GOG has a DRM-free version of those games in a bundle on the site. So what is going to happen to those original versions of these games once GOG has to delist them?

Well, for starters, GOG is incentivizing the purchase of that bundle by putting it on sale. And after that, true to their word, the preservation program will maintain those games, even after they are delisted from GOG for sale.

GOG (aka Good Old Games), which recently included Warcraft I and II in its Preservation Program, with a “Make Games Live Forever” tagline, suddenly finds itself with a new policy to figure out. So GOG is putting the Warcraft I & II Bundle on sale (discount code “MakeWarcraftLiveForever” for $2 off) and is letting folks know that if they buy it before December 13, they will keep access to it after the delisting, complete with offline installers.

That is also how it will work from now on, the team writes on its blog.

“Going forward, even if a game is no longer available for sale on GOG, as part of the GOG Preservation Program, it will continue to be maintained and updated by us, ensuring it remains compatible with modern and future systems,” GOG’s post states.

This is a preservation program in action. Once these titles are bought on GOG, the company stands to make no money from them in the future. Despite the lack of monetary incentive, however, GOG will take any action it can to maintain those games after purchase, updating them as possible to keep them working on modern hardware. I’m not aware of any other storefront that is making this kind of effort to keep older games around after the publishing company no longer wants to maintain them.

It’s quite a novel commitment, keeping non-revenue-generating games playable for buyers, even after a publisher no longer makes them available for sale. The Warcraft titles certainly won’t be the only games for which publisher enthusiasm lags behind GOG and its classic gamers.

As noted at the Preservation Program’s launch, for some titles, GOG does not have the rights to modify a game’s build, and only its original developers can do so. So if GOG can’t make it work in, say, DOSBox, extraordinary efforts may be required.

That’s why all of this comes with the caveat that GOG will maintain the games in any way possible. Where it’s not possible, the publisher and IP rightsholder still maintains a stranglehold as to whether this cultural output will be disappeared.

As I said in my previous post, the real work to be done is to build a program around these efforts with as much buy in from developers and publishers as possible. That would be the way to remove the IP shackles from these preservation efforts.

Since the 1980s, Black Friday has signified the kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Stores offered almost-impossible “doorbuster” deals on TVs and hand blenders, shoppers rose before dawn to wait in line to get them, violence ensued, and the tinsel-covered period when retailers finally operated “in the black” began in earnest. 

It’s probably for the best, then, that Black Friday is not what it was even 20 years ago. A movement to recognize its toll on retail workers eventually convinced several stores to close on Thanksgiving so workers could be with their families, instead of stocking for the busy day ahead. Holiday shopping has continued to move online. And the thrill of a deep, one-day discount has morphed into a numbing, month-long thrum of flash sales, Cyber Monday specials, and member appreciation events.  

Future Perfect deputy editor Izzie Ramirez has reported extensively on the state of American consumerism, from our habit of buying, using, and throwing away literal tons of stuff each year, to how the quality of the things we’re purchasing — from appliances to undergarments — is progressively getting worse. 

I caught up with her to talk about why Americans’ shopping habits have transformed, what the threat of high tariffs might mean for big-ticket goods, and how sales bonanzas like Black Friday are part of a larger effort by retailers to keep us shopping, to our own detriment, and the planet’s. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Lavanya Ramanathan: So, the quality of our stuff is worse now. Tell me a bit about that, as we stare down a period when Americans will be buying a ton. 

Izzie Ramirez: I would like to preface this by saying everyone thinks that I’m anti-shopping, and it’s not that I’m anti-shopping; I actually love shopping. Materials are fun, materialism is fun, except for when it’s not. 

I started writing about it  because I came across a problem, and the problem was that my brand-new bra absolutely sucked. Shouldn’t new things be better? Isn’t this, like, the whole promise of capitalism, in a way? 

I really wanted to get a mass-production understanding of what’s going on, and talk a little bit about the decline of repairability, and what we can do about it. Because I do think that people want to buy things that make them happy, that last and fit into their lives. And it sucks when you invest your money and you don’t get your money’s investment.

It’s less that companies want to be making worse-quality goods. In the case of my bra, it’s more that for the cost of producing something like my bra, you can’t do the same thing for the same amount of money. Something has to give, and it’s going to either be labor or the quality of the material, and it’s usually a little bit of both. 

Knowing all of that, what is a good way to approach something like Black Friday? There are all sorts of deals, like TVs for $50. With some of these, is it just throwing good money after bad? Is there actually a way for the consumer to be a winner?

I’m going to be a hypocrite with this. I usually think Black Friday is bad, but if Trump does enact tariffs, then maybe Black Friday might be good for larger purchases, such as washing machines, dishwashers, and other major appliances, because tariffs would create conditions for those globalized objects, where you need parts from a billion different places, to become way, way, way more expensive. And if they don’t become more expensive, those are going to be the very objects that become way worse, very, very rapidly. 

That’s bad advice for most circumstances. There is a lot of science and psychology behind buying things. On Black Friday, you feel like you don’t have time. It is entirely a lie, because they run the same sales regularly. If you know anything about Black Friday, they do the same sales every year. It’s not like that sale is never going to happen again. Or the Sephora sale. It really grinds my gears when I see people posting Sephora hauls, like they’re never gonna do the members sale again. They do, two or three times a year. It’s the scarcity mindset. 

You have also written about hauls. We are shopping differently now. We shop online. It’s become that much easier to get things from all over the world. If I had to guess, I’d say there are a lot more brands, too — direct-to-consumer sellers of things like jewelry. What is happening to shopping itself?

Hauls are when people buy 10 or 15 or 20 different items in one go, and usually parade them around on social media. They’re buying things from places like Amazon, Temu, Shein, Abercrombie & Fitch. The thing about haul culture is that it also creates that mindset around scarcity, like, “Oh, you need this.” It normalizes mass consumption, and buying a lot all at once and regularly, and that it is a regular practice to spend that much money.

 And if you’re not spending that much money, then you’re going to be spending at places like Shein that have $1 T-shirts, and that normalizes a dangerously low price for workers and the planet.

A lot of the things that you’re describing feel like new behaviors. There’s also a thing happening in our shopping ecosystem, and in our consumer culture, around demand for the new — for newness at all times.

Yeah, and I think so much of that is driven by that normalization of excitement around buying — dopamine shopping, wanting to feel something. So much of it is social media, and so much of it is the scale of globalization and all of these new players that are in the market. It’s just a whole other level of consumer deception, too — this false sense of urgency from companies.

Yes, there is the demand, but it is also companies knowing that they could take advantage of us like this. It’s like ouroboros, the snake that’s eating itself. It’s never going to end if we don’t make a conscious choice of saying no.  

Today, we’re proud to announce that elementary OS 8 is available to download now and shipping on several high-quality computers!

With OS 8, we’ve focused in on:

• Creating a new Secure Session that ensures applications respect your privacy and require your consent
• A brand new Dock with productive multitasking and window management features
• Empowering our diverse community through Inclusive Design

To get elementary OS 8 now, head to elementary.io for the download—or read on for an overview of what’s new.

Privacy, Security & Consent

Over the past several years we’ve been building features to improve the trust relationship with your computer by requiring your explicit informed consent and disallowing untrustworthy behavior on a technical level. We’ve done that by embracing Flatpak as the way to install apps on elementary OS and Portals for confining them to a safer sandbox. Now we’re extending that story with both new settings to put you in control of the system features apps can access and a new Secure Session powered by Wayland.

On the lock screen, you’ll now see a gear menu next to the password field that gives you the option of Classic or Secure sessions. If you select the Secure Session, elementary OS will use Wayland, a modern and secure method for apps to draw themselves and accept your input. In the Secure Session, apps will be more restricted and will require your consent for access to system features. When an app wants to listen in the background for your keystrokes, take a screenshot, record the screen, or even pick up the color from a single pixel, you will be asked first to make sure that it’s okay. The Secure Session also comes with other modern features like support for Mixed DPI modes—A hotly requested feature for folks using a HiDPI notebook or tablet with a LoDPI external display—and improved support for multi-touch gestures on touch screens and tablets. You might also experience improved performance and smoothness, especially on low-powered hardware.

Portals are the standardized system interfaces that apps use to access features in a way that respects your privacy and requires your explicit consent. Four new Portals are now supported in OS 8: Color Picker, Screenshot, Screencast, and Wallpaper. These Portals are essential for enabling modern apps to work in the Secure Session when they don’t have direct access to the pixels on your display. Since some apps haven’t yet made use of the Portals required to operate under the Secure Session, OS 8 will continue to use the Classic Session by default. Apps will work and behave as they always have there, with the same level of system access you’re used to from OS 7 and before. If you rely on certain accessibility features, you may find that those are not yet available under the new Secure Session as well. However, we highly encourage you to give the Secure Session a try and you might be surprised to find that the apps and features you use are already compatible.

Application settings has an all-new design that expands your control over permissions. We now support adjusting the run-time permissions in Flatpak’s Permissions Store—these are set when an app explicitly asks for your permission to access a feature while it’s running. So if you’ve previously denied an app access to run in the background or granted an app permission to set the wallpaper, you can change your mind at any time and adjust permissions here. We’ve also adjusted the language of install-time permissions—aka sandbox holes—to be more clear that these represent advanced system access and the implications of adjusting them. Plus the descriptions of several individual items were changed based on your feedback to use less technical language. And app permission pages now show the app’s icon and description.

Getting Apps You Need & Staying Up to Date

In 2017 we shipped AppCenter, the Open Source pay-what-you-can app store and in 2021 we revamped that store to use Flatpak, an app distribution technology that is decentralized by design and makes cross-platform app distribution on Linux-based operating systems a breeze. Since the move to Flatpak, you’ve always had the option to easily sideload apps directly from developers or use entire alternative app stores. In OS 8 we’re expanding your access to apps even further by including the most popular app store for Linux out of the box: Flathub.

This means you’ll be able to access apps made specifically for elementary OS, apps made for Linux, and popular cross-platform apps like Discord and Spotify all directly from AppCenter without having to manually sideload or configure an alt store.

To support this change, we’ve made a few changes to App info pages in AppCenter. We’ve removed the “non-curated” badge based on your feedback and instead show a “Made for elementary OS” badge when appropriate. The links section has also been redesigned, featuring colorful iconography. We now show a Sponsor link for app developers that fund the development of their app using third-party platforms like GitHub or Patreon and we show a link directly to the app’s source code for apps that provide it.

With the introduction of the Secure Session and new Portals to support it, expanded permissions settings, and sandbox warnings in AppCenter we feel much more confident in providing this expanded app access out of the box while upholding the expectation that the apps you get from AppCenter are reasonably safe, will ask for your consent, and respect your privacy.

In elementary OS there are two different kinds of updates. Updates to the operating system itself are installed offline, when your computer restarts, to make sure services are restarted correctly and to prevent issues. Updates to apps, on the other hand, are quickly installed while your computer is running. In OS 7, both of these types of updates appear side-by-side in AppCenter, but in OS 8 operating system updates will now appear in System Settings.

Splitting apart these two update systems makes it faster to check for updates, more reliable to install them, and clearer which updates will require a restart: updates in AppCenter will never require a restart, while updates in System Settings will always require a restart.

The new system updates mechanism is super fast and includes the option to download updates automatically—which you can now opt-in to during Onboarding. It will also let you know if the updates package contains security updates and has improved error handling if things go wrong. Plus there are new options in the system shutdown dialog so you can install updates before shutting down or choose to skip a pending update, even when automatic updates are enabled.

Multitasking & Window Management

When planning for the Secure Session we realized that our Dock would need to be completely rewritten. So we took the opportunity a few years ago to run a survey and get better insights into the way you multitask on elementary OS and other operating systems. We then combined those new insights with the feedback we’ve received in GitHub over the years and carefully reconsidered the role of the Dock in our desktop alongside other desktop features which have appeared over the years. This has resulted in a Dock that retains the features you love from OS 7 and before and introduces whole new features to improve your multitasking workflow.

2021 UI Study Results

Digging into the dock, multitasking, and more

Cassidy James Blaede Former Co-founder & CXO

Thu, Jan 27, 2022 15 min read

In particular, we’ve revisited the way we handle multi-window apps and made the behavior of clicking app icons more predictable. When an app isn’t open yet, a single-click of its icon will still launch it. When an app has a single window open, a single-click will always focus that window, even switching workspaces if necessary. And, when an app has multiple windows open, a single-click will show a window spread so you can quickly select the right window, even outside of the Multitasking View. In this way, a single-click always takes you to an app window instead of sometimes opening a new window or even hiding windows.

For apps that support multiple windows, we’ve implemented a new system that is aware of the FreeDesktop.org standard for hinting this feature, so we can now reliably open new windows when middle-clicking an app’s icon. Plus you can still scroll over an app icon to cycle through open windows. And, you can now launch pinned apps with ⌘ + 1­—9, a hotly requested feature.

We’ve also added several new optional multitasking features including the ability to switch between windows with a horizontal swipe gesture, the ability to disable hotcorners when on a workspace that contains a fullscreen app, and the ability to switch between workspaces by scrolling over the panel

Designing for Inclusivity

We sat down this summer with self-described fully-blind cybersecurity enthusiast Florian Beijers to evaluate our experience for blind folks and identify areas of improvement. A particular showstopper we noticed was keyboard navigation and screen reader support during Onboarding, which has now been completely rewritten. We also took a second look at keyboard navigation and screen reader support during Installation and Initial Setup and the entire first run experience has been much improved for blind folks in OS 8. We also now have screen reader support in the Alt + Tab window switcher and we’ve made sure that there’s audio—or visual depending on your settings—feedback when we’re unable to complete window management tasks like cycling workspaces in response to the keyboard shortcut.

System Settings has been refreshed with a modern space-saving dual-pane design that is more responsive for small and large displays. We’ve also vastly improved support for text scaling, screen readers, keyboard navigation, right-to-left language layouts, and improved contrast in illustrations. Plus search now returns more relevant results and the titles of those results now reflect both the exact setting name they’re matching and the path to that setting.

Instead of removing features during this redesign, we’ve added new ones. For example, if you’re not a fan of overlaid scrollbars or have a motor disability that makes them difficult to use, there’s a new setting to always show scrollbars in Desktop → Appearance. Language & Region settings has a new option to automatically select the temperature unit based on locale. And there are new keyboard shortcut options for switching between keyboard layouts or using features like emoji or unicode typing.

Settings that use dropdowns are now frequently searchable. We’ve also improved setting descriptions, added new ones based on your feedback, and made sure help text is less frequently hidden behind a mouse hover. Plus, System got a redesign of external links similar to the one in AppCenter, with clearer help and documentation links as well as a better call for contributions.

OS 8 also brings a new Quick Settings menu that improves access to features while reducing clutter in the panel. We’ve started by combining the accessibility and session menus which contain useful controls, but don’t indicate a change in status. We’ve also added hotly requested controls like Dark Mode and Rotation Lock. Features like the Screen Reader and Onscreen Keyboard are now available from the Quick Settings menu by default, but you can still choose to hide them in System Settings → Desktop → Dock & Panel.

By popular demand, we’re making a major change to our default keyboard shortcuts: pressing ⌘ will now open the Applications menu instead of the Shortcuts overlay and ⌘ + Space will now switch keyboard layouts by default. This brings us more in line with the defaults from other desktops and operating systems and will hopefully be more comfortable for folks who rely on these shortcuts to get around. Of course you can always change the ⌘ key behavior and keyboard shortcuts in general in System Settings → Keyboard.

Visual design plays a huge role in the appeal of our operating system and elementary has always had a strong identity in using colorful and playful design to convey a sense of friendliness and fun. In OS 8 we’ve maintained our careful balance of learning and evolving while avoiding chasing design trends to retain our unique personality.

A perfect example of this is our new pointers. Pointers were completely redrawn to be more consistent, make better use of color, and be more precise. The new design is more fun and playful with softer edges and rounder corners while maintaining high contrast and legibility. The new design feels extremely familiar but also more modern.

We have two new wallpapers to share, “A Large Body of Water Surrounded By Mountains” by Peter Thomas and “A Trail of Footprints In The Sand” by David Emrich. Both of these images have been slightly edited for use as wallpapers in elementary OS and are distributed under the permissive Unsplash license.

Instead of a plain dark gray background, Multitasking View now features a blurred version of your wallpaper that is adjusted for light and dark modes. Workspace cards now have rounded corners and the switcher at the bottom of the screen has been updated for light and dark modes as well.

Several applications have a noticeably more modern design as well. Notably, Videos has a completely redesigned player page and now follows the system light and dark style preference. The new Fonts looks fantastic and has much better performance. And Web 46 brings its own set of performance improvements along with a more minimal appearance.

Hardware Support

OS 8 includes the latest long-term support Hardware Enablement stack from Ubuntu, including Linux 6.8. We’re also shipping with Pipewire which improves latency and bluetooth audio quality while being architected for the world of sandboxed Flatpak apps running in the Secure Session. This is an especially big deal for folks doing audio production tasks on elementary OS.

Driver management has moved from AppCenter to System Settings → System. The new design for drivers is more in line with how drivers are managed on other operating systems and is easier to work with, especially for hardware that has multiple driver options like NVIDIA® graphics.

Power settings now shows the charging level and status for both internal batteries and connected battery devices like mice and keyboards. You can also choose to automatically set different power profiles based on whether your device is plugged in or on battery power, and power modes can be quickly changed from the power menu in the panel. Plus the battery icon in the panel will now show much more accurate battery levels for mobile computers.

Get elementary OS 8

elementary OS 8 is available as a pay-what-you-can purchase at elementary.io today. Localized direct downloads and a torrent magnet link are provided.

OS 8 will receive additional feature and bug fix updates on a monthly schedule that will be reported on here on our blog, so stay tuned for even more updates in the future!

Get A New Computer

Our hardware retailers Laptop with Linux, Star Labs, and Slimbook are offering elementary OS 8 out of the box starting today! Visit retailers’ individual sites for more information.

Special Thanks

I want to give special thanks to all of our volunteer contributors for working hard over the last 13 months to make this an incredible release. We set some really ambitious goals and have made major architectural changes to accomplish them that required a lot of planning and coordination. Some of the features landed in this cycle have been years in the making. Our monthly blog posts highlight more of our individual contributors and it’s worth reading through them to admire their passion and dedication.

I’m also eternally grateful to our individual Early Access sponsors for providing consistent funding to keep producing our operating system and distributing it under our pay-what-you-can model. We’re funded almost entirely by the good will of individuals without any VC funding or major corporate backing. The only partnerships we have is with our indie hardware vendors. Choosing to support an operating system made by a community like ours is an act of protest in the world we currently find ourselves in and your solidarity means everything.

The Department of Justice asked a judge this week to break up Google. Chrome? Sell it off. Android? Same. Paying other companies to make Google Search the default? Cut that out. 

If the DOJ gets everything it wants, the entire technology industry would tilt on its axis. The internet, as we know it, would change.

Which got me thinking: There are a lot of Google services that are hard to quit, especially Google’s ubiquitous search and, if you’re not an iPhone person, Android phones as your default option. But Chrome? It’s historically bad at privacy, and it’s hardly the best browser. 

So why wait for a judge to decide, when you can quit Chrome now and lessen Google’s stranglehold on your digital life? 

Plenty of other browsers, including Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox, work just as well as Chrome and do not collect massive amounts of your data in the process. At the very least, you should wonder why you’re using Chrome, and whether that has anything to do with Google’s illegal monopoly over the search industry. 

It will take years before we know the outcome of Google’s big antitrust cases. (Yes, there are two: This one about Google’s illegal search monopoly, and there’s another about Google’s alleged monopoly in the online advertising industry). Google might not have to sell off Chrome and Android. Indeed, Google said on Thursday it does not want to do this. But there’s a very good chance Google will be forced to stop paying for the exclusive right to be the default search engine in browsers like Firefox and Safari, two legal experts told me.

Regardless of the outcome, you do have a choice about how you access the web. Try quitting Chrome. If it doesn’t work out, you can always come back — Chrome, in some form, isn’t going away. It might even get better if Google ends up being forced to sell it off.

The case against Google, briefly explained

If you’re a Chrome user, the first thing you probably do when you open a tab is type a query into the box at the top of the browser. This initiates a Google search that returns a bunch of blue links, and before you know it, you’re learning everything you ever wanted to know about fennec foxes or whatever. 

Frankly, if you’re a Safari or Firefox user, the experience is probably the same. Google currently owns around 90 percent of the US search engine market. There are a lot of reasons why that’s true, and according to the DOJ and a long list of state attorneys general, the ways Google has maintained that dominance is also illegal. They sued Google in 2020, during the first Trump administration, and argued that the company violated federal antitrust laws by maintaining a monopoly over search and search advertising markets. (This followed a separate 2023 lawsuit that alleged Google of using anticompetitive conduct to maintain a monopoly over online advertising technology. That case is ongoing.)

In August, Judge Amit P. Mehta did not mince his words in his ruling on the search engine case: “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” 

He ruled that by paying companies to make Google the default browser in their browsers, Google illegally asserted its dominance over its competitors. The ruling also said that, thanks to its massive market share, Google has driven up rates for search ads. The fact that Google also owns both the most popular web browser, Chrome, and mobile operating system, Android, has further cemented its ability to steer more and more users towards its search monopoly.

Think about it: For many people, Chrome is their main gateway into Google’s empire. And Google is their gateway to the internet as a whole. This is good for Google, because as you’re searching for stuff and browsing the web, it’s collecting data about you, which it then uses to sell targeted advertising, a business that generated $237.9 billion for Google in 2023. 

“It’s not illegal to have a monopoly,” said Mitch Stoltz, IP litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “But it is illegal to leverage one’s monopoly power to maintain that monopoly, basically to stay a monopolist by means other than simply having the best product.”

There’s little reason to believe Google will stop being synonymous with search any time soon, regardless of how good its search engine is and despite recent attempts from companies like Microsoft and OpenAI to make AI-powered search an innovative option. Google’s mobile operating system is on about half the phones in the US, and 2 out of 3 people use Chrome to access the web. 

So it’s not terribly surprising that the Justice Department wants Mehta to break up Google. While we don’t know what Mehta will do, we do know that this won’t be resolved any time soon. While Google will probably have to kill its sweetheart deal with Apple, which is worth as much as $20 billion, it seems unlikely that Google will have to sell Chrome and Android. If the issue is that Google could exploit those products to suppress rival search engines, the judge could simply order Google not to do that, according to Erik Hovenkamp, a professor at Cornell Law School.

“If Google abides by that, then it gets to keep Chrome and Android,” Hovenkamp said. “A judge is not going to want to break up a big company that generates a lot of popular products, if it thinks that there’s a less intrusive remedy that would eliminate the bad conduct.” 

And again, Google really does not want to sell off Chrome and Android. Google said in a blog post in October, “Splitting off Chrome or Android would break them — and many other things” and would “raise the cost of devices.”

Then again, if a judge forced Google to sell off Chrome and Android, the company could be forced to make its search engine better in order to fend off competition in the search engine business. But speculating can be a fool’s errand. What we do know is Chrome, at least for another year, is a gateway into the Google ecosystem, so much so you may have even forgotten that Google is watching everything you do when you’re using its browser.

The case for ditching Chrome

If you’ve been using Chrome because it came as the default browser on your phone, you might want to try something new. If you’ve been using Chrome for 15 years because it was so innovative when it was introduced, that’s no longer the case, and you should definitely try something new.

There’s one big reason for this: Google Chrome is not the most privacy-friendly browser because that’s how the company wants it. This might seem obvious, based on the established fact that Google stands to benefit by knowing more about its users’ online activity. Critics have long argued Chrome doesn’t give its users as many tools to protect their privacy as competing browsers like Safari and Firefox. Google is also dealing with an ongoing class-action lawsuit from Chrome users who said the company collected their data without permission. That’s in addition to a lawsuit Google settled in April, when it agreed to delete the privacy browsing history of millions of people. 

Then there are cookies. In August, Google broke its promise to stop using third-party cookies in Chrome. That promise dates back to around 2020 when Safari and Firefox started blocking third-party cookies due to the potential harm they cause by tracking users across the web, but Google kept delaying its plans to phase out third-party cookies as it worked to develop an alternative that wouldn’t harm the advertising industry. Third-party cookies help deliver personalized ads, which is good for business. Google ultimately built something called the Privacy Sandbox that can also help deliver personalized ads in Chrome without using third-party cookies. But just for good measure, Google still allows third-party cookies in Chrome, too.

By the way, you could argue that there’s no escaping online tracking anymore, especially when it comes to Google. 

“That’s the problem: It’s insidious,” said Sacha Haworth, executive director of the Tech Oversight Project. “We don’t ask to have our data scraped and compiled and sold to the highest bidder.”

Google itself tracks users across the web using its suite of analytics tools. As many as 86 percent of the top 75,000 websites online run Google trackers. Google knows what you watch on YouTube, and although it no longer reads the contents of your messages to deliver personalized ads to you, Google does track your behavior on Gmail. Google also tracks your location and stores it in the cloud — it’s historically been so prolific at tracking phones that it became “a dragnet for the police” — although the company says it will stop doing this.

If you are concerned about your privacy, there are better browsers than Chrome. Actually, based on several collections of browser reviews, just about every other browser is better than Chrome when it comes to privacy. And they’re all free.

You’ve heard of Safari, which is the browser that comes with all Apple operating systems. Safari comes with a long list of privacy features that are enabled by default and even more you can turn on in settings. There’s also Firefox, which is an open source browser made by Mozilla that comes with its own suite of enhanced privacy settings. 

But a few browsers you may not have heard of that are worth checking out include DuckDuckGo, which also makes a privacy-centric search engine. There’s Brave, which promises to block ads and load webpages faster. And there’s Edge, Microsoft’s successor to Internet Explorer, which uses Bing as a search engine and Copilot as an AI assistant.

There are actually a bunch of new, innovative web browsers that have cropped up in the last couple years. A company called, appropriately, the Browser Company has now released Arc for both Windows and Mac. It will reportedly change the way you think about browsing the web by working more like an operating system that lets you tweak and remix content. Vivaldi, which is available on all major operating systems including Android Auto, comes with a built-in email client. SigmaOS, another Mac-only option, calls itself “the new home for your internet.”

In the ‘90s, Microsoft got in trouble because it bundled Internet Explorer with every copy of Windows. So if Windows was your operating system — and it was for more than 90 percent of Americans at the time — you probably used Internet Explorer. The big difference between then and now, when Google Chrome has over 60 percent of the market, is that the alternatives to Chrome are free and easy to find. You can literally click your mouse twice on this very webpage and download a Chrome replacement. 

“You know, I think it’s popular,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Stoltz said of Chrome. “But people are also very just ingrained in their habits, so we also see a lot of just like, ‘Hey, just leave me alone to use Google.’”

A federal judge has already decided Google’s monopoly over the search industry is illegal. It might be worth admitting that the company a little bit forced you to use Google. And at least as far as browsers are concerned, it’s not that hard to stop.

As for what that judge will decide to do next. We’ll have to wait and see. Again, after the upcoming decisions are  inevitably appealed, it will be years before we know the final outcome of Google’s antitrust cases. Some say it would be a shame for the government to waste the opportunity to crack down now.

“If we want to be serious about addressing the predatory monopoly power and abuses of Google,” said Haworth, from the Tech Oversight Project. “We have to take more extreme measures.”

Correction, November 22, 3:40 pm ET: A previous version of this story misstated which operating systems support Vivaldi. It is available on all major operating systems, including Android Auto.

In the years since Dark Souls first hit the scene, the action RPG genre has been overrun with "Souls-like" games that emulate FromSoft's general vibe. That often applies not just to dark settings and punishing difficulty but also to the slow, deliberate management of every movement and attack to survive even simple encounters with your life and stamina intact.

While that approach definitely has its place, sometimes you want an action-RPG with a little more color, a little faster pacing, and a little more, well, action. After spending a few hours with Obsidian's Avowed, it already feels like just the thing for action-RPG fans who want something a little less Souls-like.

All politics is local

From the start, Avowed is layered with all of the vaguely medieval high fantasy tropes you'd expect from a game spun off from the Pillars of Eternity universe. Your protagonist is a "god-like," touched in the womb by mysterious immortal beings that gave you mysterious powers but also a disfigured face that led you to be bullied as a child. Eventually, you grow up to be an envoy to the King of Aedrys and are sent over the sea to the lightly civilized Living Lands to investigate a mysterious fungal plague that is turning animals and soldiers alike into unruly, rage-filled beasts.

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